Behind the Green Door
| Behind the Green Door | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Artie Mitchell & Jim Mitchell |
| Produced by | Artie Mitchell |
| Written by | Anonymous (original story), Artie Mitchell (screen adaptation) |
| Starring | Marilyn Chambers |
| Music by | Daniel Le Blanc |
| Cinematography | Jon Fontana |
| Editing by | Jon Fontana |
| Distributed by | Mitchell Brothers Film Group |
| Release date(s) | December 17, 1972 |
| Running time | 72 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60,000 |
| Box office | $50,000,000[1] |
Behind the Green Door is a 1972 feature-length pornographic film, widely considered one of the genre's "classic" pictures.[2][3][4][5] It was the first hardcore film widely released in the United States. It was the first feature-length film directed by the Mitchell brothers and starred Marilyn Chambers.[6] It was adapted from an anonymous short story of the same title, which was circulated by means of numerous carbon copies. The story's title makes reference to the 1956 hit song "The Green Door." The film was given an X-rating by the MPAA.[7]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Chambers plays the role of Gloria.[8] The story begins in a cafe, where a cook asks two truck drivers to tell the story of the green door.[8] Gloria is then shown being kidnapped and taken to a sex theater, where she is placed on a stage and forced to perform various sexual acts with multiple partners in front of a masked audience.[3] The Mitchell brothers appear in the film as her kidnappers. First she is fondled by several women wearing robes.[3] Her first heterosexual scene in the film is with the boxer Johnny Keyes, accompanied by a jazz soundtrack.[8][9] This possibly makes Behind the Green Door the first U.S. feature-length hardcore film to include an interracial sex scene.[3] Following this Gloria has sex with several other men.[10] The watching audience become aroused and begin having sex with each other.[11] In a psychedelic key sequence, an ejaculation on Gloria's face is shown with semen flying through the air for seven minutes. The film features several multicolored, optically printed, slow-motion close-ups of money shots.[8] Next the truck driver-narrator runs onto the stage and carries Gloria off through the green door.[8] The film ends with him and Gloria making love alone.[8]
[edit] Impact
Along with Deep Throat, released the same year, the movie launched the "porno chic" boom[7] and started what is now referred to as the "Golden Age of Porn."[2] Along with Deep Throat it was the first hardcore porn film to reach a mass mixed-sex audience.[8] Prior to Behind the Green Door, most of the Mitchell Brothers' 200 or so films had only been shown in their O'Farrell Theater.[12] Made with a budget of $60,000, it achieved a nationwide theatrical release which earned over $1 million.[2][7] The movie ultimately grossed over $25 million[13] including its video release, which was controlled exclusively by the Mitchells out of their headquarters in the O'Farrell Theatre, San Francisco. It was one of the biggest box office successes of the 1970s, alongside Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones,[7] and was even screened at the Cannes Film Festival.[6] After its release criminals used extortion in an attempt to obtain the rights to the film.[14]
[edit] Marilyn Chambers
Chambers was relatively unknown at the time; however, the film made her a star.[14][15] Immediately prior to the movie's release she was the "ivory soap girl",[15] having modeled for the Ivory Snow soap and detergent packaging holding a baby.[6][14][15][16] The brand was sold under the slogan "99 and 44/100's % pure."[6][8] The Mitchell brothers saw a publicity opportunity, and distributed press releases describing Chambers with the same slogan.[6] After the release of the movie, the advertising industry was scandalized,[8] and Procter & Gamble recalled all Ivory Snow products and advertising materials featuring her, unintentionally adding to the movie's hype. The ultra staid Procter & Gamble subsequently required of all of their advertising agencies that they thoroughly screen the background of any female model employed for print advertisements or commercials. The fact that Chambers's image was so well known from Ivory Snow boosted the film's ticket sales, and led to several jokes on television talk shows.[16] Critics have since debated whether she was really having orgasms in her scenes or just acting.[15]
[edit] Critical reception
Upon its release the film received positive reviews in mainstream media.[14] According to Peter Michelson[who?] there is, "a relatively small corpus of pornographic films – e.g., Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones, and Behind the Green Door – that have a minimal but still sufficient artistic interest to distinguish themselves from the rest of the genre",[17] and the film is "more artful than most smut films".[18] It was the second film to be inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame, following Deep Throat.[19]
[edit] Sequel
In 1986, the Mitchells made a sequel to this film, Behind the Green Door: the Sequel, directed by cabaret singer Sharon McNight. The movie featured no famous performers, and starred a plump young woman who billed herself as Missy (she was Artie Mitchell's girlfriend at the time and reportedly demanded the role). It was the first safe-sex themed porn film (produced as a response to the 1980s AIDS outbreak in San Francisco.[6]) in which all the performers used condoms, birth control, and other protection.[20] It was a critical and commercial disaster and cost the Mitchells hundreds of thousands of dollars.[21][22] The O'Farrell Theatre contains a "Green Door Room" which is named for the two movies and was the principal set of the sequel.
[edit] In popular culture
- Footage from the film (none of which includes any nudity) is seen in the movie The Cannonball Run, when Jackie Chan's character watches it in his high-tech car, almost leading to an accident.
- The production of the movie is dramatized in the movie Rated X starring the brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez as Artie and Jim Mitchell.[6]
- Appears in Californication episode 3.07
- In the song "Hooks in You" by Iron Maiden, there is a reference to the movie in the first few lines.
- Shakin' Stevens got his first number one hit with the song "Green Door", also performed by Frankie Vaughan.
- In the Naughty Dog video game "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception", a main character states: "They are behind that door, the green one." A likely reference to the film.
- On the TV sitcom Maude, the film is mentioned in the season 3 episode "Nostalgia Party" as being notorious for its time; though incorrectly mentioned the year of its release as being 1974.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Behind the Green Door, Worldwide Box Office". Worldwide Box Office. http://www.worldwideboxoffice.com/movie.cgi?title=Behind%20the%20Green%20Door&year=1972. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ^ a b c Williams, p. 320
- ^ a b c d Williams, p. 299
- ^ Shteir, Rachel (2004). Striptease: the untold history of the girlie show. Oxford University Press. p. 332. ISBN 0195127501. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vPwVfOUWAe0C.
- ^ Langford, Barry (2005). Film genre: Hollywood and beyond. Edinburgh University Press. p. 269. ISBN 0748619038. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tFyANhgDs2sC.
- ^ a b c d e f g Helene Goupil, Josh Krist (2005). San Francisco: The Unknown City. Arsenal Pulp Press. pp. 238–241. ISBN 1551521881. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pXAsU1sQG1AC.
- ^ a b c d Pennington, Jody W. (2007). The history of sex in American film. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 56. ISBN 0275992268. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OfAKgZ68a9AC.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Williams, Linda (1999). Hard core: power, pleasure, and the "frenzy of the visible". University of California Press. pp. 156–158. ISBN 0520219430. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3wAe48_yfNUC.
- ^ Williams, p. 300
- ^ Williams, p. 173
- ^ Creed, Barbara (2003). Media matrix: sexing the new reality. Allen & Unwin. p. 63. ISBN 1865089265. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HhMBgOzMUpQC.
- ^ Williams, p. 380
- ^ Porn King Jim Mitchell Walks Out of Prison Today. San Francisco Chronicle, 3 October 1997
- ^ a b c d Robert J. Kelly, Ko-lin Chin, Rufus Schatzberg (1994). Handbook of organized crime in the United States. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 301–302. ISBN 0313283664. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CWg1Efv5C5UC.
- ^ a b c d Falk, Pasi (1994). The consuming body. SAGE. p. 201. ISBN 0803989741. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Yo2Sz_9rjkQC.
- ^ a b David Smith Allyn (2001). Make love, not war: the sexual revolution, an unfettered history. Taylor & Francis. p. 235. ISBN 0415929423. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NE9lfn0FBHUC.
- ^ Michelson, p. 235
- ^ Michelson, p. 239
- ^ Hall of Fame, X-Rated Critics Organization
- ^ History, Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre
- ^ Mitchell Brothers – Rotten.com
- ^ Missy Manners – IMDb.com
[edit] References
- Michelson, Peter (1993). Speaking the unspeakable: a poetics of obscenity. SUNY Press. ISBN 0791412237. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X-jT4oEJ01QC&dq=%22Behind+the+Green+Door%22.
- Williams, Linda (2004). Porn studies. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822333120. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rdWZ8JD5dkkC.
