Linda Lovelace Deep Throat finally released in the UK
Deep Throat, the epoch-making 1972 sexually explicit movie starring Linda Lovelace and directed by Gerard Damiano, was given its first UK cinema screening last night at the Everyman Cinema in North London, reports The Guardian. (Image: Linda Lovelace.)
In his article, Simon Hattenstone refers to Deep Throat as “probably the most controversial film of all time.” But that’s quite an overstatement, no? I mean, what about D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation or Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris or Veit Harlan’s Jud Süß or Vilgot Sjöman’s I Am Curious (Yellow) or Just Jaeckin’s Emmanuelle? And really, what about Damiano’s own The Devil in Miss Jones, not to mention everyone’s family favorite, Debbie Does Dallas?
$600 million gross?
Also worth noting is that Hattenstone repeats the claim that Deep Throat grossed $600m, thus becoming the most profitable movie ever made. That is absurd. The Godfather, for instance, which also came out in 1972 and played in many more theaters than Deep Throat, earned $135 million.
That $600 million figure is like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ oft-repeated claim that the Oscarcast is watched by 1 billion people around the globe. However baseless your assertion, if you repeat it often enough and it gets printed in enough publications, it becomes “fact.”
Deep Throat, by the way, did not win any Academy Awards. Had it won Best Picture or Linda Lovelace Best Actress, then the Oscar ceremony might have lured 1 billion viewers.
Anyhow, despite is Oscar-less status, Deep Throat did become the subject of a 2005 documentary, Inside Deep Throat, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.