15 MUST-SEE Porn Movies from the 1970s

If it wasn’t for the bold, fearless, and rebellious attitudes of the people who made porn films in the 1970s, it’s likely we wouldn’t be enjoying adult movies today. The people who produced, wrote, directed, and starred in adult movies in the 1970s had to risk their money, reputation and even their freedom. They challenged the status quo and fought for their rights to make adult films. They were mavericks who held themselves to a different standard and it shows in their work. We have put together this list of “must-see” movies from the 1970s. Everyone should see these movies at least once in order to appreciate their trailblazing efforts and the consequential fruits of their labor.

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	*Behind The Green Door* (1972) – The revolutionary adult film that ushered in a new era of “Porn Chic” introduced America to the idea of sex as sophistication and erotic films as art. The film broke new ground through its acceptance and appeal to mainstream audiences. It is also considered to be the first feature-length film to include an interracial sex scene.
	*Deep Throat* (1972) – Deep Throat was a watershed event in American cinema, reaching a general audience unlike any other adult movie since. The term “deep throat” became a cultural buzzword as the movie inspired the nickname of a government informant during the Watergate political scandal. The movie was banned in many countries and spurred a number of obscenity prosecutions across the United States. Deep Throat earned $50 million at the box office, coming in at #4 behind The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure, and What’s Up Doc? for the year 1972.
	*The Devil in Miss Jones* (1972) – This was Gerard Damiano‘s follow-up to Deep Throat, and the first “critically acclaimed” adult movie. It was reviewed by the likes of Roger Ebert, who said it was the best adult movie he had ever seen. He credited that to the performance of Georgina Spelvin, a thirty-something actress and former Broadway chorus girl who became a household name and an adult movie legend overnight. With box office earnings of $15 million in 1973, it successfully competed against many other mainstream films for that year.
	*Johnny Wadd* (1973) – Bob Chinn wrote and directed what became a series of legendary detective movies that traced his rise from film student to porn pioneer. In his first feature role, John Holmes enriches the screen with an easy confidence matched by a solid acting ability and jaw-dropping prowess.
	*French Blue* (1974) – The very first full-length feature film from Lasse Braun, this was one of the first hard sex films ever shown at Cannes Film Festival. It has an interesting backstory of how Braun smuggled the film into France and snuck it into the festival itself.
	*3 AM* (1975) – One of the most highly praised erotic films of all time, Robert McCallum‘s 3 AM is truly a landmark in the adult motion-picture industry if for no other reason than the fact that Orson Welles himself edited the shower scene. Welles needed the director to work on his project, The Other Side of the Wind. Welles edited the scene in the hopes of hurrying the project along to free up the McCallum’s time.
	*Pussy Talk* (1975) – This film defined the genre as it was the first internationally successful film for French adult cinema. Irony, obscenity, and in-your-face sexual savagery are the ingredients of this absolute must-see that met incredible triumphant success when it debuted. The movie is a comedy featuring a pussy that, you guessed it, talks.
	*The Farmer’s Daughters* (1975) – The Farmer’s Daughters is one of the better known “roughies” mostly because it features mainstream actor and monologist Spalding Gray (Swimming in Cambodia, The Killing Fields). Roughies were a subgenre of sexploitation movies that had more violent themes. In this movie, even the so-called victims are sexual deviants. The farmer’s daughters get caught watching their parents have sex by the farm hand, so they force themselves on the farm hand. Meanwhile, three escaped convicts are witnessing this unfold and they take the farmer’s daughters by force and have their way with the daughters. And then it gets worse… or does it? One of the early reviewers said it was “a parade of bad taste that sullies the good name of porn.”
	*Naked Came The Stranger* (1975) – One of the most famous hoaxes pulled in U.S. history, Naked Came the Stranger is based on the 1969 book which spent a week at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list—not for its literary value, but in spite of it. The book was written by a group of 24 prominent journalists led by Newsday columnist Mike McGrady, whose goal was to write a terrible book that contained a plethora of sex.
	*The Opening of Misty Beethoven* (1976) – Widely considered to be the greatest adult film of all time, Radley Metzger’s The Opening of Misty Beethoven is an erotic retelling of George Bernard Shaw’s classic play, Pygmalion, and considered to be the apex of the Porno-Chic era!
	*Waterpower* (1976) – Like The Farmer’s Daughters, this movie was a controversial roughie starring Jamie Gillis as a sexual deviant known as “The Enema Bandit.” It was loosely based on the real-life escapades of Michael H. Kenyon, who would rob women and then make them take an enema afterwards. Gerard Damiano is credited as the director, but the actual director was Warren Evans. The film itself was commissioned by the Gambino Crime Family, and they slapped Damiano’s name on it to because his name was a bigger draw.
	*Josephine Mutzenbacher* (1978) – Josephine Mutzenbacher, a fictional novel, was written in 1906 and is based on the “memoirs” of a German prostitute in Vienna. It is the best-selling erotic novel of all time in Germany. The movie is based on the book which is a “graphic, unapologetic description of the reckless sexuality exhibited by the main character.” The movie remained in the Top 100 Selling Titles on HotMovies for a good part of a decade since its release.
	*Italian Stallion* (1978) – Originally shot in 1969 and titled, “The Party at Kitty and Studs,” the movie was re-edited in 1976 and retitled The Italian Stallion. The reason is obvious; the movie featured Sylvester Stallone, who’d written and starred in Rocky, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1977.
	*Debbie Does Dallas* (1978) In terms of name recognition, Debbie Does Dallas is second only to the aforementioned Deep Throat. It was released in 1978 and capitalized on the popularity of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, who were being commercialized in magazines, posters, and on TV. They even had a TV movie based on the squad. Debbie Does Dallas stars Bambi Woods who had auditioned to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader in real life, but did not make the final cut.
	*Olympic Fever* (1979) It was while working on this movie that Ron Jeremy was given the nickname “The Hedgehog” by Bill Margold. You can read more about that in the movie’s description. This is also the first movie where Ron shows off his unique talent of being able to suck his own dick!