Deep Throat (1972)

March 30, 2013 by adamsunderground

“Geez, my roommate’s skeezy boobs sure do kill the mood.”

This hour long feature begins with Linda, an uninhibited single brunette, who is frustrated to the point of tears about her sexual dysfunction. She easily experiences arousal but cannot achieve an orgasm during intercourse. This problem persists even after Linda’s roommate, a hedonistic divorcee, arranges and participates in an orgy to help her.

Seeking the answer that leads to her sensual fulfillment, Linda then visits the wacky Dr. Young who reveals and proves her physiological abnormality, which this otherwise normal-appearing young woman can overcome. Eternally grateful for discovering how to achieve orgasms, she dedicates herself, as Dr. Young’s new assistant, to healing his other patients’ unusual desires.

There are approximately a dozen sex scenes; ten of which are squeezed and sometimes tangled in the final half hour of the hour long feature. The exact total and the time line gets muddled in the edits and montage during and between the trysts of Linda and Dr. Young. It appears to be a film in two acts. Her search for the answer takes up the first half, after which there is no more plot other than to pose her in kinky situations until the happy ending is crammed in, like an afterthought.

Stock photo of Carol Connors putting Blondie to shame. Image by trishautographs, via Photobucket

Dr. Young’s blonde nurse, played by Carol Connors, has almost no dialogue and little screen time to register an impression on the audience, but what she offers clearly threatens to outshine the star, Linda. The estimation of this flawlessly pretty nurse benefits from being the subject of a variety in sexual positions, camera angles, and frame compositions that compliment her entire body. And this view comes from someone who prefers anything but blondes.

Linda’s roommate, Helen, oddly has more exposure during the orgy, in both skin shown and screen time. Although, out of shock, the mind may purge any other memory after seeing those horribly immobile breast implants as she lies on her back.

There are almost no nude full-body camera shots of Linda, even while she gives head. Some scant sights of her nude pelvis are offered during the scenes in which she receives the enema, shaves her groin, and wets Wilbur’s wick. But, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, this is not a major problem to mar the work.

The importance of subtlety can be seen in the near absence of Linda’s complete nudity and the brevity of the blonde nurse’s role. Set aside the hackneyed idiosyncrasies of this ’70s film with its clumsy use of music, dialogue and acting to recall its theme:

This girl is not in the movie, but she should be.
Image by zombie phillip, via Flickr

The plot is about a woman who always wants to perform fellatio.

If Linda’s other sexual positions outnumber or outweigh this self discovery, the plot falls apart, relegating the movie to the stag film dustbin. The same happens if the prettier nurse provides too much of a distraction, so her screen time is reduced to keep her from outshining the starlet. This omission has the added benefit of teasing the viewers, keeping them attentive and desiring more.

Image by movie_memorabilia, via Flickr

There are two brief moments, first with Dr. Young and later with Wilbur, when Linda flourishes her blow jobs with bursts of inspired energy, far exceeding her other acts by adding unexpected substance to the movie’s wild premise. It’s a minor, easily missed detail but essential for the story, which makes her inexplicable groin stroking after her big discovery an unfortunate slip up which should have been wiped from the film in editing.

Aside from Linda’s appointment with Dr. Young, the silly and easily forgettable comedic attempts are neither so frequent nor so belabored as to completely derail the action. In truth, a chuckle and a groan or two escaped while screening.

If you like a kitschy movie, of any sort, this classic whose peccadilloes bred countless parodies will provide some silly entertainment around the edges of some rare, but stunningly energetic, sexual encounters worth seeing.

Total Grade: B	Specialty	Grade
	Screenplay	C
	Acting	B
	Cinematography	C
	Film Editing	D
	Visual Effects	C
	Audio	C
	Sound Editing	D
	Audio Effects	D
	Musical Score	B
	Production Design	C