Deep Throat (VCA) Review

Distributor: VCA Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film, Comedy Also known as: The Sword Swallower Run Time: 60 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1972 Director: Gerard Damiano (as Jerry Gerard) Written by: Gerard Damiano (as Jerry Gerard) Cast: Harry Reems, Helen Wood (as Dolly Sharp), Bill Harrison, William Love, Carol Connors, Bob Phillips, Linda Lovelace, Ted Street, John Byron, John Birch (as Michael Powers), Gerard Damiano (as Al Gork), Ron Wortheim Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1 Disc: DVD 5 (SS, SL) Special Features: The Cast, Filmographies, Other VCA Titles DVD-ROM Special Features: none

Synopsis:
Linda Lovelace (Linda Lovelace) gets off while having sex but is never able to achieve the big “O.” Her roommate Helen (Helen Wood) recommends that she goes to Dr. Young (Harry Reems) to see if he can find out what is wrong with her. Dr. Young discovers that Linda's clitoris is deep in her throat instead of where it should be.

Audio/Video:
Deep Throat is presented with an English 2.0 Mono track, which considering the age of the film, gives an excellent presentation. There are places where the audio level varies but not horribly. There is also some places where there is noise present in the audio, which is probably due to deterioration over the years. It doesn't ruin the audio experience and removing it is probably more costly than it is worth. Overall, given the age of the film and the original budget, this DVD sounds as good as one could ask for. VCA hasn't included any foreign language tracks or any subtitle options for the feature film.

Deep Throat is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which appears to be the original aspect ratio for the film. If the film has been cropped there is no evidence of it contained within this print. As can be expected due to the age of the film, there are artifacts throughout the film. They aren't overly heavy at any point and the print looks cleaner than some of the classics being released from the late 70s. The colors are also a little washed out in this print. Overall, for the age of the film, the print looks great and shouldn't disappoint viewers.

Cut Warning:
There is almost two minutes of footage missing from this VCA release of Deep Throat, although to be honest, the majority of the footage I had no idea existed until I saw the Arrow DVD release of the film as it has been excised from prints for most of, if not all of, my life and was not in the old Arrow VHS release of the film either. None of the missing footage is sexual in nature and looks like it has been cut to remove product names and the company that originally created the film. The majority of the missing footage is from the very beginning of the film. The original film opened with some text about Freud and sexual phases and then shows Linda Lovelace walking along the water to her car and starting to drive. This is the footage that I had no idea existed and it runs for one minute and twenty eight seconds. The next set of cuts is in the sex scene with Linda Lovelace and Bob Phillips. All the shots that show that the soda being poured into the shot glass is Coke have been cut. This footage was in the old Arrow VHS release and amounts to a few seconds here and there. The last cut that I noticed was in the opening to the last sex scene with Linda Lovelace and William Love. When Linda is shaving there is a close-up shot of Linda putting the brush in the cup of shaving cream with the Old Spice logo on it that has been cut. This footage was also in the old Arrow VHS release and amounts to a few seconds as well. This is all the missing footage that I noticed but there could have been a few more cuts that I missed.

Special Features:
As this is a very early VCA release and the film is very old there are essentially no extras on the disc. There is The Cast, which is a cast list for the film but it is not a by scene cast list. There are filmographies for Linda Lovelace, Harry Reems, Dolly Sharp and Carol Connors which doesn't just include VCA titles. There are also other VCA titles which shows some other VCA releases but doesn't include any trailers. This is an early adult DVD release back when most of them contained virtually no extras and considering that this is a 1972 film there probably isn't much available in the way of extras anymore. Since this is a release that will most likely only be picked up by collectors of golden age films, it's too bad VCA didn't try to obtain the original 1974 R-rated sequel Deep Throat — Part 2 and put it on a second disc but that film may have been completely lost over time.

Disc Design/Navigation:
As this is an early DVD release there isn't much to the disc design. When you put the disc in it auto plays the film. The menu system can be brought up by using the menu function on your player. The menus are simple without any music or animation to them. There may be nothing special about them but they are easy to navigate through. There are ten chapters available from the chapter menu for the film and each one is identified by a still frame. There is also a chapter available for the end credits, which is a definite bonus as far as I'm concerned and I wish more discs had one. There are twelve chapter stops within the feature film itself. There is a time code encoded on the disc for the feature film.

General Review:
Is there really anyone left that hasn't at some point in their life seen Deep Throat, which is the most recognized adult film of all time and, along with Behind the Green Door, is responsible for making adult entertainment a household name. Made back in 1972 for $23,000 and filmed in Miami, Deep Throat is the highest grossing film of all time even beating out such titans of the mainstream film industry as Star Wars.

Viewers raised on the adult films of today will view Deep Throat and wonder what the big deal was back in the day. The sex is relatively tame although the have managed to work in a nice montage of sexual acts. The female cast members are average to not the best looking. The two main female stars Linda Lovelace and Carol Connors aren't bad looking but they look like average people, not the porn stars that younger audiences have grown up with. The male cast is nothing great, they look like average guys and the only one who really went on to anything is Harry Reems. The sex scenes are edited very differently than they are today. Many of the scenes are interlaced and many continue with more acts after the cum shot occurs. The sexual themes in the film are vaginal and anal sex with shaving, pussy eating, blow jobs, anal fingering, female masturbation and hand jobs.

Deep Throat doesn't stand up that well as erotic material these days. However it is great to watch as a fun adult film that has some great humor thrown in. No this isn't a film for the raincoater crowd but viewers who like to sit back and just watch an adult film will be rewarded by viewing this film. Unfortunately, one of the jokes doesn't play as well in this version as there is a spoof of the Coke song of the time, but since the Coke cans have been cut and the joke is dated, it doesn't play as well here. However, there is still enough here to entertain most viewers.

Readers may be interested to know that the true sequel to Deep Throat is not the 1987 film Deep Throat 2 starring Jamie Gillis, Sheena Horne, Ron Jeremy and Krista Lane directed by Larry Revene from Arrow but is really the 1974 film Deep Throat&mash; Part 2 starring Linda Lovelace, Harry Reems and Andrea True directed by Joseph Sarno. Deep Throat — Part 2 was only released in an R-rated version despite the fact that an X-rated version had been filmed. At the time it was claimed that only the R-rated version was released to avoid the legal troubles of Deep Throat but it turned out that the X-rated footage had been stolen and was never recovered. Unfortunately other than it's theatrical release I don't think that Deep Throat — Part 2 has ever been released for the public. It would be nice if the studio that owns the film released it on DVD if for nothing else for collectors of golden age classics.

Scene Synopsis:
The first scene brings us Dolly Sharp and an unknown male and the scene consists only of the unknown male eating out Dolly Sharp. The second and third scenes are interlaced. The second scene gives us Linda Lovelace and Ted Street. The scene begins in progress with a shot of Ted having vaginal sex with Linda then the action switches over and Ted and Linda are having anal sex. He cums on the small of her back. Then Linda gives Ted a blow job. The scene finishes up with Ted having vaginal sex with Linda. The third scene features Dolly Sharp, John Byron and Michael Powers and like the second scene, this scene starts out in progress with John having vaginal sex with Dolly while she gives Michael a blow job. John cums on the small of Dolly's back. Then John eats Dolly's pussy and then John has anal sex with Dolly while Michael eats her pussy.

The fourth scene brings us Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems. Linda gives Harry a deep throat blow job until Harry cums on Linda's face. The fifth and sixth scenes are interlaced and the sixth scene is also interlaced afterwards with the seventh scene and then the eighth scene with plotted portions mixed in as well. The fifth scene gives us Linda Lovelace and Bob Phillips. Linda gives Bob a quick blow job. Then Bob has vaginal sex with her. He inserts a shot glass inside her. He pours wine into it and drinks it out with a straw then pours soda into it and he and Lovelace share it. There is no cumshot to end the scene. The sixth scene features Harry Reems and Carol Connors. The scene stars out with Carol giving Harry a blow job. Then they have some vaginal sex. The two go back to the blow job. Harry and Carol go back to having some vaginal sex. The two reprise the blow job and the scene concludes with Harry eating Carol's pussy. There is no cum shot to end the scene.

The seventh scene brings us Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems. The scene starts out with Linda giving Harry a blow job. Then the two go into some vaginal sex. Then Harry eats Linda's pussy while she continues to blow him. They return to the vaginal sex and then reprise the blow job. Harry eats out Linda's pussy and fingers her ass a little while Linda blows him and gives him a hand job. They return to the vaginal sex and the scene concludes with a blow job. There is no cumshot to end the scene. The eighth and final scene gives us Linda Lovelace and William Love and the scene starts out with Linda shaving her pussy and then masturbating. Then Linda gives William a blow job. William fingers her pussy while she continues to blow him. To end the scene William cums in Linda's mouth.

Parting Thoughts:
Fans of Golden Age erotica will definitely want to pick up a copy of Deep Throat as no classic collection will be complete without it. For when this DVD was released, this was a good edition, the extras are lacking but the transfer looks nice. Arrow has now released a more complete version without the cuts and with some extras which is a much better buy but is harder to find. Viewers who are just interested in seeing what all the talk was about are better off renting the title first as if they are used to the films of today, they are bound to be disappointed.

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