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LINDA LOVELACE FOR PRESIDENT (1975)
DVD (region 0)
d. Claudio Guzman, Arthur Marks; pr. Charles Stroud, David Winters; scr. Jack Margolis; ph. Robert Birchall; m. Big Mac & the Truckers; ed. Richard Greer; cast. Linda Lovelace, Fuddle Bagley, Val Bisoglio, Jack DeLeon, Mickey Dolenz (95 mins)
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Power of the American Sexual Celebrity
After starring in the film Deep Throat in 1973, in which she demonstrated her remarkable abilities as a fellatrix, Linda Lovelace became a national American celebrity.
As Deep Throat legitimized the pornographic feature film, Lovelace toured the talk-show circuit and posed for adult pictures. Although Lovelace was not to make another major porn film outside of loops and eventually denounce Deep Throat, in the midst of her 1970s celebrity, before the gimmick of her fame wore off and she found herself destitute, she starred for blaxploitation director Arthur Marks in Linda Lovelace for President, a non-porn comedy intended to highlight Lovelace’s celebrity status.
Lovelace indeed has a naïve charm and Linda Lovelace for President is an entertaining, if light, spin on her fame.
At a political rally, delegates debate who they can put forward as a presidential candidate during the next election. A woman jokingly remarks that the only people the American public would trust would be Jesus Christ or Linda Lovelace. The men take this seriously and, between those available options, recruit Lovelace as their candidate. Thus, she enters the American political process, bringing to it the charm of her innocence and the gimmick of her sexual speciality, motivating her fans with campaign songs and frequent nudity. The plot doesn’t matter very much as the film is essentially a softcore showcase for a hardcore actress and thus takes time for nudity and sex scenes amidst its political rallies and conferences.
Linda Lovelace for President can’t be taken seriously as satire although the intent is there at a basic level and exists primarily as a sex comedy – jokes about a politician coming are intercut with the look on a man’s face as Lovelace services him and a submarine shoots torpedoes. It’s a parody of the way Gerard Damiano edited scenes in Deep Throat and fans of that film will respond to this with more enthusiasm than others unfamiliar with the strange cult of Lovelace and Deep Throat. Amidst adolescent jokes about the need to “pull it together”, the film is actually quite wry about the cult of celebrity that would elevate Lovelace to national icon based on nothing but her ability to give head. Paralleling the cult of inane celebrity to the American democratic process makes for a few snickers but the constant procession of racial stereotypes, bad acting and endless jokes about coming render this film a light fluff: pleasant enough, but just filler for the real talents that endeared Lovelace to legions of pornhounds in Deep Throat (also released now by Umbrella DVD).
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The Comedy of Sexual Innuendo and Celebrity Mockery
There’s a lot of racist stereotyping, cheap and smarmy sexual innuendo here, more so than in many porn films themselves.
In a style which might be described as political incorrectness 1970s fashion, Linda Lovelace for President takes the kind of sexual emancipation fluff of the popular Happy Hooker films and plays it for broad comedy at the expense of American political celebrity. There are some jokes here about Lovelace’s oral preference (she quips before taking a microphone that she’s afraid she’ll get nervous and blow it) which suggests she is being treated as a gimmick but she plays the humour with an honesty that beguiles the filmmakers. Thus, although the film mocks the American cult of celebrity, it is warm to Lovelace as a woman and she has a certain charm that might have been better drawn on than ever evident in this clumsy sophomoric mess.
There is an adoring camera on Lovelace in nude scenes, which reveal a more pin-up mentality than evident in Deep Throat, and she is placed in comedy skits which suggest little more than adolescent titters.
Watching Lovelace play Jane to Tarzan and an irritating chimpanzee seems to amuse these filmmakers. If you can sense entertainment value in this, then Linda Lovelace for President will prove an amusing sexploitation curio. Despite beginning the film with a title card that reads “(t)his picture is intended to offend everybody.. regardless of race, creed, or color” the film is ultimately harmless stupidity. Seen stoned it has the value of a protracted bad joke with some tits ‘n ass thrown in every now and then, but there is little to engage the intellect here – though that was never the part in me aroused by Lovelace – after all in this film “a vote for Linda Lovelace is a blow for democracy”, at least according to “the Committee to De-Criminalize Cock-sucking”.
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Comedy Treats for the Devout Pornhound
For those interested in 1970s sexploitation, Linda Lovelace for President is a worthy release, as it is for pornhound fans of Lovelace.
The bonus documentary on this DVD is a valuable insight into the backstory of the featured film, offered from the reminiscence of veteran blaxploitation legend Arthur Marks. Marks’ recollection of Lovelace is an intriguing perspective on the woman at the time of her biggest fame and as the region 1 DVD releases of Marks’s work with another sex symbol, Pam Grier, have no special features, this is a valuable portrait of the director in his own words. Oh: and fans of 60s pop group The Monkees may be surprised to find Mickey Dolenz putting in an appearance.
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THIS FILM IS NOT YET AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY
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