Though terrifically ho-hum by today’s athletic standards, Deep Throat remains the most famous porno in cinema’s history. Made for $22,000 in 1972, its comedic high-concept premise – girl with clitoris at the back of her throat finds she can only get down by, well, getting down – was embraced by an idealistic anti-establishment alliance comprising hip liberals, sexual revolutionaries and giggling housewives.
Thanks to them, the film became an unlikely box-office smash, eventually grossing $600 million. Messrs. Bailey and Barbato’s buzzy historical doc is a fast and loose account of the making of Deep Throat, its cultural impact in the buttoned-down Nixon era and the fates of those involved, including hairdresser turned wannabe porn auteur Gerard Damiano, girl next door turned porn star turned feminist crusader, Linda Lovelace and Shakespearean actor turned celluloid stud turned counter-cultural icon, Harry Reems.
Less of a car-crash than Mark Kermode’s unsettling and similarly themed (not to mention similarly titled) Inside Linda Lovelace, Inside Deep Throat provides a witty portrait of an era and the fledging porn industry. A post-MTV bombardment of spliced images tours everything from Richard Nixon to Ms. Lovelace’s astonishing prowess with her gob (seen here in full side-profile splendour) while waggish recollections are supplied by the likes of John Waters, Hugh Hefner and Erica Jong. The entertaining results are kind of a trashy one-spurt affair, but I suppose that’s exactly as it ought to be.

Running Time 90 mins. Cert 18. Opens July 8.