Inside Deep Throat Page #7

The money disappeared

and they found his body in

the back of a pickup truck.

(Shipley)

A theater manager

refused to pay.

And the next thing I know,

I heard

the theater burned down.

I'm not saying

they would do somethin'.

But I did have a Colt.45

with the hammer back

in my belt.

They had people

that--that would do things.

Was it any kind of, uh,

an organized crime?

Well,

is every ltalian

[stammers]

a criminal?

Is every ltalian a gangster?

I don't think so.

You know, some ltalians

have actually opened up

ltalian restaurants

[laughing]

and done very well with them.

(Sommer)

I've met

some mafia men in my life.

They won't threaten you

in any way.

But if you do

something dishonest,

most of the times,

they don't give you

a second chance.

(interviewer)

So why did you walk away

from it yourself?

Because I was told to.

Rather, my wife was told

that I should

Ieave.

And no money in the world

is worth

just worrying about something.

[door opening]

That's my wife.

(Terry)

Artie, again?

(Sommer)

Now, Terry.

Are you enjoying this?

[footsteps approaching]

Damn it.

You're some kind of nut.

(Sommer)

Okay. They're finished,

Terry, all right?

(Hopper)

Finally, after three years

of FBI investigation,

the government launched one of

the most ambitious

obscenity trials ever mounted.

Designed to nail Deep Throat

and all pornographic films

once and for all.

(Bruce Kramer)

I think this case was

a case of prosecution

that was directed,

orchestrated,

uh, from Washington, D.C.

(Hopper)

All told, 1 17 people

were charged with conspiracy;

from the distributor

to the projectionist.

And one man,

the government intended to

make an example of.

The director had immunity.

The star had immunity,

but the actor did not.

The theory was,

if you prosecuted the star

then nobody would ever

wanna make a film like this.

And you could drive

the industry out of business.

(Kramer)

Harry Reems was paid $250

to appear in Deep Throat.

He had no control,

no say, no input

with what the final version

of this film was gonna be

or whether it was gonna be

distributed interstate,

intrastate, intergalactic.

It's impressive,

for the first time

in the history

of the United States

an artist has ever been

brought to trial

by the government.

(reporter)

All of the trials

have been prosecuted

by a young assistant

US attorney

named Larry Parrish,

a lay Protestant preacher

who has been quoted as saying

he'd rather get smut off

the streets of Memphis

than dope.

Larry Parrish is the...

About one of the finest people

I've ever known

in my entire life.

(Kelly)

Fine guy.

And on top of that

he's, uh,

he's movie star quality.

(Damiano)

First of all,

he was very tall.

And I hate tall people.

Uh...

But he was also

very arrogant.

If you're gonna dance,

you need to pay the piper.

And, uh, I'm the piper.

You've got to be accountable

under the law.

It was like

when some people know

that they have

the answer to everything

and everybody else

is--is--is--is totally wrong.

It was purely and simply

a matter of law enforcement.

And I guess if there was

any passion in it for me,

it was that, um,

these are laws

that had not been enforced.

And I knew of no reason

why they should

not be enforced.

(Hopper)

To make his case,

Larry Parrish invoked

a highly unusual use

of the conspiracy laws.

The government explained

their conspiracy theory

in the terms of a train.

(Kramer)

That if the train starts

in Los Angeles

and you get on in Los Angeles,

and you ride to Denver

and get off,

but the train continues

on to Memphis,

you are legally responsible

for the entire journey.

And if you're responsible

for everything

that takes place,

you have unlimited liability.

This was a very creative use

of the law of conspiracy

and prosecutors

should never be creative.

That's not their job.

If my mother

had been involved,

she would

have been indicted.

I will promise you that.

Uh, she wasn't.

When you tell artists,

bad artists or good artists,

that they cannot experiment

in certain avenues,

you are taking away

the basic freedoms

of every American.

For some reason, though,

it was as if

he is involved in art.

And so art is protected.

Well, not by the definition

of the Supreme Court.

(Reems)

Maybe I'm disgusting

in some peoples' eyes.

Maybe others are bored by me.

But there are no laws against

acting in these films.

(Parrish)

And the actors

and the actresses,

I really hesitate

to call them that.

They are prostitutes

and whoremongers

[laughing]

on the screen.

I'm sorry,

that's just all they are.

And, uh...

Uh, they...

They don't even believe

that there is any law.

How do you communicate

to those persons

that this is against the law?

I face five years in jail.

Do I belong in jail

for five years

for acting in Deep Throat,

which is not

in violation of the law?

(Kramer)

If seeing this motion picture

as many times as

Larry Parrish has seen it

has not corrupted him,

or made him into a sex addict,

than I think

that's, uh, proof positive

that these films do not have

a deleterious effect

on the human being.

I'm sitting here right now

trying to draw some images up

from Deep Throat.

To be honest about it, uh,

do I feel that I'm worse off

because of it?

Yes, I do.

Uh, I can't get images

out of my mind

that I have seen.

I have told people

I'm not a eunuch.

I-I'm a regular

red-blooded American male.

And, uh,

and those images

I wish were not there.

(Kramer)

We had a lot of eye contact

with the jury.

I think the jury

was very sympathetic

to Harry.

And there was

a palpable change

in the jury's reaction

to Harry

after seeing him in the film.

(Parrish)

That was one of the amusing

times in the trial.

He sat over in a, uh,

in a corner by himself,

sort of hoverin'

and wouldn't look at

the jurors,

and they were all

staring at him.

[sighs]

I felt as though

my life was being

taken away from me.

And that I was

being depicted, characterized

as something evil,

a demon.

(Hopper)

After a two-month trial,

the jury took just five hours

to return

a unanimously guilty verdict.

(Roy Cohn)

The substance of what you say,

in effect,

is you were the little man

who wasn't there.

But the fact

of the matter is,

you deliberately

and knowingly

committed a long series

of immoral, revolting,

obscene acts.

You might have found it

obscene, and immoral,

and distasteful,

and disgusting.

Others don't.

The acts you performed on film

are acts that would be crimes

if they were performed

on the street

or someplace else.

No. They are wonderful

celebrations of life.

They're called sex,

Mr. Cohn.

You just can't cloak yourself

with the American flag

because you don't fit

the image.

You talk as though

the Bill of Rights

was created just for you.

(Hopper)

For the first time

in US history,

an actor had been convicted

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes