{"id":87029,"date":"2012-09-08T12:30:41","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T19:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=87029"},"modified":"2022-09-08T13:25:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T20:25:38","slug":"behind-the-green-door-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=87029","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Green Door (1972)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You warm up my coffee, and I&#8217;ll tell you the story.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Poster-229x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"229\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-87030\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Poster-229x300.png 229w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Poster-98x128.png 98w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Poster-206x270.png 206w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Poster.png 563w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 229px) 100vw, 229px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile stopping for coffee, two truck drivers are told a story about a socialite (Marilyn Chambers) who is kidnapped and forced to perform in a sex show-turned-orgy.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adult Films<\/li>\n<li>Kidnapping<\/li>\n<li>Nightclubs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nAs Peary writes, this &#8220;p**** chic about a beautiful young woman (Marilyn Chambers) who is kidnapped, then forced to perform a series of sexual acts before members of an exclusive club &#8212; and eventually ends up enjoying the &#8216;sexually liberating&#8217; experience&#8221; &#8212; is a &#8220;landmark adult film [that] appealed to those who preferred screen sex to be erotic rather than raunchy, as it is in <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=51407\"><em>Deep Throat<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=51415\"><em>The Devil in Miss Jones<\/em><\/a>, the other two triple-X-rated blockbusters of the early seventies.&#8221; He adds that while &#8220;it has a male-fantasy storyline &#8212; borrowed from a male-written pamphlet that soldiers passed around during WWII &#8212; it has proven popular with women, especially as a video,&#8221; which is likely &#8220;due to directors Jim and Art Mitchell&#8217;s choice to photograph it in a hypnotic, dreamlike fashion so that women might be drawn in and recognize their own&#8230; fantasies.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Still.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Still.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-87032\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Still.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Still-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Still-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-the-Green-Door-Still-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Mitchells may also have &#8220;hoped women would want to identify with Chambers, who, unlike earlier sex-film actresses, was good-looking, shapely, [and] healthy &#8212; a blonde All-American girl who once adorned boxes of Ivory Snow with a baby on her knee.&#8221; Indeed, Peary writes that &#8220;much of the film&#8217;s initial success was a result of people wanting to see the 99-44\/100-percent pure &#8216;Ivory Snow girl,&#8217; a minor celebrity whose face they knew well, participate in sex acts.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Chambers3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Chambers3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-87040\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Chambers3.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Chambers3-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Chambers3-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Chambers3-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He asserts that while the &#8220;picture is well made and [the] Mitchell Bros. strive for art,&#8221; he doesn&#8217;t &#8220;find it much livelier than an elaborate stag film,&#8221; with &#8220;even the most unusual sex acts shift[ing] from being erotic to embarrassing and boring.&#8221; In his first <em>Cult Movies<\/em> book, Peary contextualizes this film within the broader history of adult films, noting that &#8220;all across the country [in the late sixties], raincoated men were sneaking in and out of theaters showing skin flicks&#8221; &#8212; but &#8220;this would change in a hurry due to public acceptance of a number of soft-core sex films as &#8216;legitimate&#8217; motion pictures.&#8221; For instance, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=70232\"><em>Russ Meyer&#8217;s Vixen<\/em> (1968)<\/a>, Radley Metzger&#8217;s <em>Therese and Isabelle<\/em> (1968) and his subsequent <em>Camille 2000<\/em> (1969) and <em>The Lickerish Quartet<\/em> (1970), the earlier Swedish-made, Metzger-imported <em>I, a Woman<\/em> (1966)&#8221; and others &#8220;were major breakthrough films.&#8221; He notes that &#8220;these made filmmakers aware that for a sex film to be commercially successful it must attract women as well as men, and that the best way to arouse female interest was to make films about <em>women<\/em> striving for sexual fulfillment.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>To that end, he adds that &#8220;the commercial success in America of the Swedish <em>I Am Curious (Yellow)<\/em> (released in the United States in 1969), a political film that contains a couple of moments of explicit sex, proved that women would come to hard-core sex films provided they played in first-run theaters.&#8221; He notes that &#8220;the first hard-core films to get bookings in suburban and neighborhood theaters were quasi-documentaries and &#8216;educational&#8217; marriage-manual films&#8221; like &#8220;Bill Osco&#8217;s <em>Mona<\/em> (1970), about a girl who can&#8217;t get enough of [a certain type of sex],&#8221; and then &#8220;Paul Gerber&#8217;s <em>School Girl<\/em> (1970), a fairly good sex comedy about a girl who enters the sexual underground so she can gather information for a college term paper&#8221; &#8212; both of which &#8220;made inroads in attracting a mixed audience.&#8221; Finally, Peary notes his appreciation for the fact that Chambers (unlike Linda Lovelace in <em>Deep Throat<\/em>) &#8220;was given a salary plus residuals for participating in <em>Green Door<\/em>,&#8221; and thus &#8220;when the picture took off at the box office she justifiably made a great deal of money.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Final note: The presence of ~38 adult films in Peary&#8217;s <em>GFTFF<\/em> (not including many more soft-core titles) is a contentious one among his fans, and I&#8217;ve gone back and forth myself in terms of whether or not to include them. With that said, I do think all cinema buffs will be curious to at least fast-forward through the three most formative titles, and this is one of them. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reasonable production values and artistic sensibility<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Clown.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Clown.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-87037\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Clown.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Clown-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Clown-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Behind-Green-Door-Clown-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, once, simply for its pivotal role in adult film history. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0068260\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2000\/jun\/29\/artsfeatures3\">Guardian Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You warm up my coffee, and I&#8217;ll tell you the story.&#8221; Synopsis: While stopping for coffee, two truck drivers are told a story about a socialite (Marilyn Chambers) who is kidnapped and forced to perform in a sex show-turned-orgy. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Adult Films Kidnapping Nightclubs Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: As Peary writes, this &#8220;p**** chic about a beautiful young woman (Marilyn Chambers) who is kidnapped, then forced to perform a series of sexual acts before members of&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=87029\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87029"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87056,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87029\/revisions\/87056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}