If you were talking about the devil back in 1973, chances
are you’d be referring to a notorious Christmas present that Warner Brothers
was about to unleash: The Exorcist.
In fact, 1973 was chock-full of presents from Hollywood. The
Sting had dominated most of the box-office that year and would go on to
steal most of the Academy Awards including best picture. A new up -and-coming
director named George Lucas had left a lasting impression with American Graffiti. Clint Eastwood was riding
high both as the High Plains Drifter
and the cop with the big gun in Magnum
Force, whilst legendary director Fred Zinnemann hit his target artistically
(if not at the box-office) with his classic thriller The Day of the Jackal.
Then you have that “other†devil that everyone was
talking about, The Devil in Miss Jones. Now -to give the devil his due, The Exorcist did go on to gross over
$400 million, but dollar for dollar, with a much, much lower budget and the
star herself cooking the meals for the whole cast and crew, The Devil in Miss Jones was the film
that was the real blockbuster. Director
Gerard Damiano’s follow-up to his previous smash Deep Throat, retains its status as an adult film classic. In porn
terms, Damiano was one of a dozen or so auteur filmmakers who at least
attempted to interject an artistic approach to what were, up until that time,
basic “stag†films. The buzzword of the day was “porn-chicâ€, everyone was
talking about the “dirty†movies that were cleaning-up at the box-office. From Richard Nixon to Johnny Carson, the
spotlight was focused on the rapidly emerging skin-flick business, which was
primarily dominated by organized crime from the very start. Not that -Hollywood, didn’t have its mob
connections, but   in porn the goal was to use films to launder
money rather than actually make it. Vast
drug, gambling and prostitution profits had to be washed through the
neighborhood adult bookstores and theaters in order to re-invest it in “cleanerâ€
enterprises. Damiano, a streetwise guy
who once ran a New York beauty salon, knew that when the mob bankers offered to
buy out his stake in the Deep Throat cash
cow for a mere $25,000, he had little choice but to – well, swallow it and
smile.
Double bills of Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones played in the same theaters for years - and the protesters only increased box-office revenues.
Meanwhile –out of stage left, a self-described
“ultra-liberal, Broadway gypsy-cum-flower child†was about to enter the
picture. Living in a commune or work co-operative, hungry and seeking a job,
Chele Graham, who once was the understudy to Shirley MacLaine in The Pajama Game, had gone
underground. She was now using a
theatrical pseudonym, Georgina Spelvin. In the porn world, no one used their
real name. Having just made an X-rated
underground movie with a porn star known as Marc “Mr. Ten and a Half-Inches†Stevens,
Georgina was encouraged to audition for Gerard Damiano for a new film he was
casting. On calling the number, she spoke
on the phone to the co-star of Deep
Throat Harry Reems, who would go on to become a male legend in the porn
business. On the basis of that conversation, she was referred to Gerard
Damiano, who strangely seemed more interested in her abilities in the kitchen
than the boudoir. Upon being hired, Spelvin found she was not only expected to
be “cooking†in the scenes onscreen, but was literally obligated to do the
cooking for the crew during breaks!
Quentin Tarantino's high profile re-imagining of Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 original is boosting the B movie director's career and putting him back in the spotlight. Castellari is in Cannes, where Tarantino will be premiering his version of the WWII actioner starring Brad Pitt. Castellari was given a cameo in the new film and is now making the rounds promoting his next film, Caribbean Basterds. (The misspelling of "bastards" is obviously a new vogue). For more on the Odd Couple of Cannes, click here