Behind the Green Door

No history of film can evade porn. Some of it contains some clever ideas and every once in a while it actually influenced something. That's the case with this.

Schrader has explicitly said that this influenced his "Taxi Driver" in the notion of someone driving around and creating a whole imagined sexual narrative. Kubrick has admitted no such thing with his "Eyes Wide Shut," but one is tempted to make a dual connection: the private sex club with masked men and the imaginary narrative. ("Eyes" is about a dialog between two dreams.)

Here's the story: A guy drives a long time, giving us the impression that this defines his character. He enters a diner and meets a friend. The two spin a tale which constitutes the remainder of the movie.

But that isn't a simple tale. It has another nesting: the same two guys engaged in inane conversation on a restaurant terrace, while a plain girl (the only other being present) occupies a nearby table. Then we have an improbable story which could be the fabrication of the two in the diner, or the one (the driver) imagines in looking at the girl on the terrace. (Or all could be something imagined by the driver while driving. We get a hint at the end that the latter is more probable.)

That tale is that she is abducted and placed on a stage in a private sex club so they/we can watch an innocent be ravished. Now begins the porn section which I suppose is tame by today's standard. It includes a racial stereotype that Spike Lee should have put in "Bamboozled" (except he exploits that one himself).

Within that stage scene is a bizarrely psychedelic cinematic celebration of the ejaculation. Like everything in this project, the quality is laughable. But the idea is that we have four nestings.

Then the first framing is closed and we are back at the diner. The cook asks what happened next. The driver leaves and drives a very long time, during which he imagines the girl again (and we have another porn sequence).

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

As a horror buff I came across Marilyn Chambers in the flick Rabid (1977) knowing she normally was an actress coming out of the porn genre. I know the classics from back then but she appeared in Behind The Green Door which created controversy and also became a cult classic.

The controversy laid in the fact that Marilyn had a pretty face and was used in commercials like Ivory Snow. A very popular washing product in the days made by Procter and Gamble. Her face vanished shortly from all commercials once this flick became successful.

It isn't a common porn because Marilyn doesn't say a word in it doesn't really has a story. In the heydays of porn those flicks really had a story to tell but here it's rather simple, two guys telling at a diner what happened behind a certain green door. From there on, the movie slowly turns into a gangbang. Normal for the days back then but in editing they made the ejaculation clocking in at 7 minutes mixed with psychedelic effects. And it is that part that made it a cult classic. Shot for only 60k it made 25 million dollar profit. When it came out it was shown in normal theatres, another thing that gave it some controversy. But it was also the moment that porn started to conquer the world and became the next big thing

Gore 0/5 Nudity 5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5

Before the Mitchell Brothers made what is probably their masterpiece with 1973's 'The Resurrection of Eve', they made this film. Behind the Green Door is a strange and surreal porn flick that features everything you'd expect (and more!) in a weird dream-like setting. The film is cited by some to be an influence on Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut - and it's certainly very obvious why. The plot focuses on the idea of a young girl being kidnapped. She is taken to a strange underground club, where the clients wear elaborate masks and costumes, and forced to perform various sex acts on stage. As a porn film; Behind the Green Door is likely to be a bit too strange for some, and as a film - there's far too little going on in the plot departments and despite the setting, it soon degenerates into a simple collection of porn sequences. It is very well filmed, however, and while we're seeing things like blow jobs and lesbian sex that we've all seen in many other films; the Mitchell Brothers somehow manage to make it seem different to what we've seen before due to the execution. I can't say that the film works as a complete whole - I didn't find it very erotic and there's really not a great deal going on outside of the many sex scenes. Still, this is undoubtedly an interesting film and followers of XXX stuff will likely want to track it down.

I say outstanding film, not outstanding porn film, to describe this film that is not only good for its genre, but great as a film, period. Marilyn Chambers plays Gloria, a young woman who refrains from speaking for the entire duration of the film, but is a complex character through Chambers' brilliant use of facial expressions and body language to express character. The plot deals with Gloria being "kidnapped" from the hotel she's staying at and taken to a seedy sex club, where she is "relished" and is then forced to perform sex acts, where she is "loved as never before". This is by far the most artistic porn film I've ever seen, with an almost ten-minute slow motion "cum" shot that uses different angles and backgrounds to make a quite "trippy" viewing experience. Pro football player Ben Davidson has an amusing non-sex cameo as an intimidating bouncer. Best musical score, cinematography, writing, and acting ever seen in a porn film.

Behind the Green Door (1972)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

One of the "classics" from the era known as the Golden Age of Porn. The film has a couple truck drivers stopping at a diner where the owner asks them to tell him the story about the green door. When then flashback to a rich socialite (Marilyn Chambers) who is kidnapped and taken to a strange location where she's forced to perform wild sexual acts. This "golden age", as it was called, seemed to feature people wanting to make mainstream movies not unlike what you'd normally see at a theater yet we'd also have hardcore sex in them. The strange thing about this movie is that it features poor camera work, poor acting, silly editing and an all around bizarre feel yet that's what makes it rather special. The movie wasn't glossy or pretty to look at and instead of it trying to come off like something you'd see in a mainstream theater it seemed more at home being like various other grindhouse movies that featured nothing but weird images and in the case of this film, the hardcore sex. I can't say I found anything here erotic or overly sexy but at the same time the film kept my attention just because of how strange it was. We have very little dialogue and instead we're pretty much just treated to the sexual images going on but even they are done in strange ways. Most of them don't feature any music and are as silent as silent can get. Ever so often we'll get a few moans or groans but for the most part they're silent until much later in the movie. The cheap looking stage and pathetic lighting are just perfect for the film because they fit the atmosphere that the Mitchell brothers have going on. It seems out of all the "mainstream" porn stars Chambers has come out the best, which might be because she's the most naturally beautiful of all of them. She's certainly got that "girl next door" image and she's certainly easy on the eyes. As someone who came to know her for her "non-hardcore" roles, it was a little strange seeing her here but that quickly went away. No one else in the supporting cast really stood out with most of them just delivering cheap dialogue and bad performances. That's not a major fault as I'm sure most are going to be checking this out for Chambers. I'm not sure if the final scene was just added on because the movie would be too short without it but it sort of sticks out more like a deleted scene than anything else that came before it. Is this a good movie that would rival something in mainstream theaters? No. Is this an important film? Yes. Is it a good adult movie? Why not?