Inside Deep Throat Interview

I recently spoke to the directors of the documentary Inside Deep Throat, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Previously the duo had helmed the feature docs The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Party Monster, also making a fictional companion feature film to the latter. Their sensibilities are a perfect match for the social commentary and portrait of a different America brought to life by Inside Deep Throat.
The film examines the release and subsequent cultural impact of the 1972 porno film Deep Throat. Unbelievable as it may seem to those not around in the 70s, Deep Throat popularized the idea of oral sex, then an almost unmentionable act, and created porno chic. Inside Deep Throat skips along with a briskly edited pace, contains excellent songs from the era – Melanie “Brand New Key,” Tommy James “Draggin’ the Line,” Marmalade “Reflections of My Life” – all while showing that censorship can be as damaging to society as the issues it seeks to limit.
You’re likely to be jarred by some factoid you never knew. In my case, I had no idea that the performer of the disco hit “More, More, More,” Andrea True, was also a porn star. Bailey explained that the money that was used to record that hit song was money she had made shooting a film in the Caribbean, only she couldn’t take the cash out of the country. “So she called a producer friend and he flew down, they recorded the song in a studio and took the master tape out of the country,” said Bailey. “Andrea True was also the star of Deep Throat Part II,” added Bailey, a fact not covered in Inside Deep Throat.
Barbato feels the elements of controversy that surrounded the original film, “are relevant today,” and in fact “set the agenda for the film.”
While federal prosecutors had cut a deal of immunity with the director and star Linda Lovelace, the feds tried (unsuccessfully) to jail Deep Throat’s male star, a hapless crew member turned lead actor, Harry Reams. Reams was even cast and then unceremoniously uncast as the coach in the hit movie Grease.