User reviews

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.

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

Behind The Green Door is an historic adult movie relic from 1972 that was among the trilogy of films that were considered "Porno Chic" the other two being Deep Throat and The Devil In Miss Jones. Behind The Green Door is the least erotic of the 3 but maybe the most important film artistic wise. Marilyn Chambers performance has no dialogue , but it was her wholesome pure girl next door good looks that made this the centerpiece..not plain jane looking like Georgina Spelvin and Linda Lovelace , and not as whorish and sleazy looking as the various other performers in the early years..Chambers represented the pretty girl who's looks werent so beautiful she was threatening or plastic. However the film itself suffers from it's heavy emphasis on artsy film making techniques ..such as the final "money shot" scenes running in multicolors and freeze frames and slow motion...kinda ruins the feel. Also the scene between Johnny Keyes and Chambers missed any penetration angles giving the scene a simulated sex feel. Plotwise Chambers is kidnapped and forced to perform sexual acts on stage in front of an audience of vouyers , the trapeze oral sex scene and the group orgy are it's standouts. View this in the mind that it's a look at the adult industry in it's classic years before it all went down the toilet because of it's low video standards

9/10

I had the unique experience of seeing "Behind The Green Door", which is always brandied as a "classic from the Golden Age Of Porn", immediately behind "Manos, The Hands Of Fate", which is widely considered to be the worst movie ever made bar none of all times. Well, BTGD doesn't compare very favourably. Whereas "Manos" is a fairly ambitious but ultimately botched feature film, BTGD is a 15 minute stag movie spoof of Histoire d'O, set in the American boondocks instead of saucy France, which has been stretched by the factor 5 to bring it to feature length. Dash that, it's a gonzo shoot which has been racked beyond the point of tediousness, with some psychedelia, Histoire d'O and a pantomime thrown in. The movie consists almost entirely of one long orgy scene in a swinger club with former washing powder model Marilyn Chambers (who doesn't have a single line except "Eek!" and "Ugh!") and a handful of talent thrown in. Marilyn gets thoroughly eaten (15 minutes), she gives head (another 15 minutes), then there is a general orgy mêlée with not particularly attractive people (15 minutes), and eventually another stapled-on car sex scene (15 minutes). The remaining 15 minutes are filled by the flimsy background story, in which two lowlifes tell their mate about this classy swinger club, where the special attraction was a freshly abducted girl (Chambers) who had apparently warmed up to the whole idea of "ravishment" surprisingly quickly.

Overall, it's simply not a good film, although it holds a certain historic interest and, well, it's a hardcore porn movie. Chambers is its absolute highlight because of her natural good looks, and not least because she is one of the few porn actresses who actually made good money whilst not being loth to a good hard shag. So at least you don't have to feel guilty for getting off on someone getting traumatized for life.

By contrast, the other three golden-age-of-porn stalwarts are good movies: "Debbie Does Dallas" is a well made and very enjoyable porn movie, "The Devil In Miss Jones" can pass as an exploration into the darker niches of playing "hide the kreplach" and "Deep Throat" at least popularized a previously obscure technique. "Behind The Green Door", however, is two strip club owners venturing far out of their depth, with a camera.

One of the first porno chic crossovers, this 1972 film helped bring XXX movies to a mainstream audience. Anonymous young woman (Marilyn Chambers) is "abducted" to kinky sex theater where she performs on stage with a variety of other people for the delectation of an audience of voyeurs, who eventually perform among themselves. There are some fair SFX, though hardly on an ILM scale, and the story content is inherently slanted against any real involvement other than arousal by the viewer.

Despite its B.O. and reputation, this is a fairly primitive picture. Every print I have seen is both overly dark and dupelike grainy. Chambers is stunning here, and though it is now nothing odd, at the time it was a real shock to see anyone so wholesomely attractive in the centerpiece role of a porn film. (The Ivory Snow publicity did not hurt ticket sales a bit.) Chambers later demonstrated (in the superior RESURRECTION OF EVE and in David Cronenberg's R-rated horror film RABID) acting talent not particularly visible in DOOR, but even now, 30 years later, she remains the BGD girl to an entire generation.

Film remains of much historical interest, though it has long since ceased to be a beacon for the seeker of cheap thrills. Look for lovely San Francisco porn actress Candy Johnson in the supporting ranks and pro footballer Ben Davidson in a non-sex role.

I became interested in seeing Behind the Green Door after seeing Marilyn Chambers in David Cronenberg's Rabid. She had a charisma and sex appeal that stayed with me long after the movie ended. Having finally gotten a chance to see it, I ultimately found it disappointing.

Simply put, I did not find the film erotic. As an adult film, its ultimate goal is to create arousal, and this is the first criterion on which it should be judged. The action takes place largely in silence, with the participants in its central orgy forbidden from speaking. Chambers has no actual dialogue other than sighing and moaning. This prevents the viewer from engaging with the characters.

The film does deserve kudos for trying to establish a narrative, however limited. It is also noteworthy as a time capsule of a period when pornography was on the cusp of mainstream acceptance. It features cameo appearances by football star Ben Davidson and by local San Francisco celebrity Toad Attel. (Imagine a major celebrity like Davidson appearing in an adult film today!) It gives a glimpse of an era of sexual freedom that was sadly lost with the AIDS crisis and the incursions of the religious right.

1972 was, of course, the year that porno briefly became "chic", entirely due to a triumvirate of films that have lost little of their iconic stature three and a half decades further down the line. Queens hairdresser turned quim artist Gerard Damiano unleashed the double whammy of DEEP THROAT and DEVIL IN MISS JONES while the ultimately tragic Mitchell Brothers pooled their considerable talents and resources for the very different BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR. Different in its approach to erotica, making a serious bid for highbrow respectability rather than just content to stimulate its audience's groin area, it was clearly intended to appeal to women as well as men. As a result, the female contingent of its viewer-ship during its initial theatrical run at the brothers' fabled O'Farrell cinema was rumored as being uncharacteristically high. Though exact numbers are nigh impossible to come by, it has also been documented elsewhere that an inordinate amount of female buyers procured the cassette when it was launched on its particularly profitable video career. Supporting the distinction between "rape fantasy" (fuelled by bodice-ripping romance novels) and the disturbing reality, GREEN DOOR details the feature-length subjugation of one woman – fair-haired all American girl Gloria Saunders, portrayed by former Ivory Snow model Marilyn Chambers in her indelible adult baptism by fire – abducted and taken to an underground sex club where for one night she's told she will be publicly "loved like she has never been loved before" with freedom returned to her the next morning.

Story was taken from an anonymously penned pamphlet that has been passed around among soldiers ever since the Second World War, framed by the supposed eye witness account of two "Everyman" types, strapping young Barry (George S. MacDonald, the boyfriend from David Gerber's superlative SCHOOLGIRL) and elderly Dudley (character actor Yank Levine, who played Abraham in the Mitchells' ill-fated epic SODOM & GOMORRAH) to an inquisitive diner cook. Helpless to save the girl Barry had been flirting with mere moments before, they watch her being dragged (by Jim & Artie no less !) into a car and speeding off. As coincidence would have it, she turns out to be the main attraction at the mysterious Green Door Club both men frequent later that night. Making their bid for real world respectability, the Mitchells enlisted a pair of minor celebrities for brief appearances at this stage. Former pro football player for the Oakland Raiders Ben Davidson plays the bouncer and Angela Castle a/k/a "Toad Attell", who was a regular on Sid Caesar's family-oriented YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, performs her patented mime routine which stands as one of few elements that really date this film. Though she's an unwilling participant at first, Gloria gradually grows to enjoy the erotic experiences afforded by her captors, a rapt audience progressively partaking which shifts the film's focus from stage to auditorium. In a key element to women's enjoyment of the premise, Gloria is immediately soothed by a sympathetic, tellingly mature matron (with the hint of a British accent, supplied by Linda Grant who thereby has the most extensive dialog scene in the movie) who assures that no harm will come to her and that she should just open herself up – okay, you can stop sniggering ! – to the physical pleasures that await her. Ravishment by half a dozen women in stylized nun garb, beautifully shot at strangely skewed angles by regular Mitchell DoP Jon Fontana (who worked on AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FLEA and their rarely revived CB MAMAS), leads to Gloria's response to the call of nature in the shape of the industry's original black stallion Johnny Keyes in an all time classic encounter. No longer on the receiving end, our silent heroine reciprocates in the legendary trapeze number with Mick Jones (another man of color, also in Ann Perry's COUNT THE WAYS and Gary Graver's V – THE HOT ONE) and an early appearance by Tyler Reynolds, culminating in the extended solarized spurting that now unfortunately seems mostly like the brothers showing off their technical prowess as it tends to stop the film dead for a ten minute stretch. The highly ritualized theatrical "performance" contrasts effectively with the spontaneous action bursting out among the rapt audience, including an imposing obese lady whose presence has engendered reviewer references to Fellini, along with a recent French critic likening the film to the works of Godard and Ozu in light of the brothers' documented film school training. Great, so at least I don't have to venture down a path that can logically only lead to ridicule ! More than just a hardcore history relic, GREEN DOOR actually holds up well for most part, save for its few dated aforementioned stylistic touches. By restricting their central heroine to complete silence throughout, the Mitchells adopted the "blank screen" approach onto which each viewer can project his or more specifically her private fantasies. There had been cute girls in porn prior to 1972, like Tina Russell for instance, but Chambers was without doubt the first truly beautiful woman to enter the industry, her until then minor real world recognizability facilitating audience identification. It may also be an important factor, as critic Danny Peary points out, that the sexual feats she performs are relatively modest in comparison to those achieved by Linda Lovelace and Georgina Spelvin around the same time and therefore quite attainable for the average Jill Public. Further proof that the genre was still in its infancy and feeling its way is the haunting and utterly non-porno type music composed by Daniel Le Blanc which perfectly accompanies this timeless and still tantalizing classic.

Two guys goes into a diner, where the owner wants to hear about this "Green Door", so one of them starts on about the sordid tale about how Gloria (Marilyn Chambers in her career making role) gets kidnapped and subsequently massaged and forced to perform in sex acts for high society clientèle, that culminates into a trapeze act with a slow-motion money shot. Marilyn has to be the most passive kidnapped person in the history of the world of cinema. The three things that killed this porno for me was the long stretches of almost complete silence, the lack of any real story, and the mime. I HATE mimes with all my heart.

My Porn Grade: D Babe of the Movie:This is Marilyn's movie all the way

Unlike most of todays porn pictures, Behind the Green door is a well made film, pretty good camera work for a movie in this genre. It takes its time until it becomes explicit, but I did not feel inclined to push the fast forward button, since the film works pretty well as a movie and not only as a way to arouse the viewer erotically, though it still is an amazingly sexy piece of work.

Artie and Jim Mitchell's Behind the Green Door, like most early films of the porno chic movement, has some interesting attributes. For one, it's believed to house the first interracial sex scene between a black male and a white female in American pornography, in addition to taking a known commercial model (Marilyn Chambers, who initially worked as the recognizable lady in the Ivory Soap commercials and on the product's packaging) and having her headline in a pornographic film. Finally, the story for this film came from an idea that was passed around through various carbon copies. On these bases alone, Behind the Green Door has a heavy nostalgia factor and just the name likely inspires subtle smirks from males of the baby boomer generation, who fondly remember sneaking out late at night to a seedy adult theater on Harlem Avenue to witness the kind of low-grade smut in motion that their magazines just couldn't cover.

Unlike its companions such as Debbie Does Dallas and Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door really can't hold up in the modern age. Its entire premise is a drudgery of unerotic imagery and long-winded events that don't involve any kind of characters. Something that made this time period in porn so special was the fact that screenwriters decided to include characters and story lines when they really didn't need to. They could've stuck to just showing a montage of sex scenes with little to no connective tissue, but were brave enough to try and give life to a genre that needed to be taken seriously.

Unfortunately, Behind the Green Door cops out at simply settling for a lengthy sex scene rather than anything along the lines of wit. We focus on Marilyn Chambers' Gloria, who is abducted by two men and forced into a live stage show where she'll be forced to allow her body to go into a state of complete tranquility in order to perform a barrage of sexual favors before a horny audience. This includes cunnilingus, interracial sex, and an orgy, all for the pleasure of a - mostly masturbating - wide audience.

Chambers embodies the idea of a sex object here, for she has not a single line of dialog, unless you consider the frequent moans of ecstasy a line worthy to pen on a screenplay. The Mitchell brothers settle for a mediocre array of camera angles that fail to capture any arousing shots, as well as making one long sex scene that loses power and gusto after about fifteen minutes.

What infrequent charm there is in Behind the Green Door comes from the absurdity of all the situations in this film. Before Gloria is brought on stage, several miming clowns perform their act before the eager audience in a way that can only be described as fascinatingly disturbing, especially in a pornographic film. On top of that, there is a very kinky fellatio by Chambers towards the end of the film and a series of slow-motion money-shots that, on their own, could serve as one of the most artful shots in any pornographic film I've ever seen.

With that, Behind the Green Door doesn't lack any conceivable charm, but given the fact that Chambers nor the male performers like Johnnie Keyes don't have any characters or any creative dialog to work off of makes this film a depressingly narrow exercise of redundant depravity without the vaguest element of wit. There's occasional art, sure, but it's like getting on a heavily hyped roller-coaster just to get a middling ride and comment on how you could see the next town over from the coaster's average-sized peak.

Starring: Marilyn Chambers and Johnnie Keyes. Directed by: Artie and Jim Mitchell.

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?

I didn't think that it was all that good of a movie, but then porn flicks didn't have much of or any plot at all. I thought that it was also slow moving. I guess that part of it also was poor in the fact that I know that one actress "Kandi Johnson .... Female Attendant" wasn't very good at what she was trying to do in the movie. The one part that I did think was interesting was when she was part of a girl on girl scene. I wish that she had pulled that one off when I was around and married to her. Kandi was also in another movie and went by her real name of Kandi Jones. The makers of this movie didn't have to go far to get people to act, and it shows.

Let's be serious: we all like a good porn now and then. The only question here was whether it was porn or art, for it definitely tried to be both which is practically impossible as it just fails to turn on in this age where everything has already been seen... But the oral scenes were of great quality. Respect!! But this movie is very hard to categorize. Some other in out shots were also made with great panache. Morning this is hard to say but we can agree on the fact I suppose that this movie only exist for a certain kind of profile of movie cars which don't really care for the story and then they are good here but even so the arty feeling of it all is enough to destroy the sweetest of words.

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 is a ground-braking movie, it was the first adult movie with widely released in the United States, not only in adult theaters, but also in respectable mainstream movie houses. With Behind the Green Door the Mitchell Brothers changed the face of the adult film industry.

Marilyn Chambers stars as Gloria Saunders, and she plays a girl that's being kidnapped, and forced to perform various sexual acts before an audience at an underground sex club. The plot line doesn't sound that complex, and it isn't either, but this movie has one great and interesting character played terrific by Marilyn Chambers. The story is also very artistically, stylish and most erotic. Behind the Green Door isn't "just a porn movie", is actually much closer to an art-movie. Is like, if Kubrick ever made porn, than I guess it would look something like Behind the Green Door.

Behind the Green Door is really a masterpiece in its genre, and one of the most important movies in the history of America. 9 out of 10.

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.

Got this movie as a birthday gift and I was enormously surprised. Clearly my favorite movie. Undoubtedly the best porn film of all time. Marilyn Chambers is gorgeous and a truly fantastic actress. This is a must see and should be in everyone's collection. I just got a great deal on the DVD at www.behindgreendoor.com. That website also has a great description of the movie and some interviews with Marilyn Chambers which I strongly suggest you see. The bottom line is that this is a classic porn film with a level of quality that surpasses all other films. I was particularly impressed with the depth of the story along with the high quality of sex scenes. Truly a must film and a great gift for that discerning gentleman.

I guess we all found out that Marilyn Chambers wasn't 99 and 44/100's percent pure. But it's clear that in the annals of porn movies, along with all her up's and downs, she has carved out a niche in movie history within this genera. From what I've come to understand, Chambers was a struggling actress who was looking for a way into legitimate film when she was offered this role. It ranks as one of the three most memorable X rated film of it's time. It was interesting what became of the two guys who produced this film. I understand they are both gone now and their porn empire went out of business. Still, it's something of an icon and should be viewed by any real devote to this type of film. Popcorn anyone?

Obviously the first writer had not the experience of this being his first pornographic film ever seen:

as it was for this olde farte.

Yes, it is lacking in technical depth, but then again, having seen it at the O Farell in SF, in the company of a Playboy Playmate, the overall evening's ambiance was........sublime....

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I would agree that the "Insatiable " series were horn-doggy to the max: yet this story has it's own maxi-horn moments: like that poor kid that gave her a ride in the country..

hee hee