“Looks harmless enough on the outside. But underneath, could be a weirdo.”

Director Joe Sarno’s notorious blunder, Deep Throat Part II is a (Gerard) Damiano Films production, with Linda Lovelace returning to her most infamous character role. Sort of. Sarno isn’t interested in replicating the flash-in-the-porno-pan success of the original 42nd Street blockbuster, instead, he ditches all the hardcore action in favor of a goofy spy thriller boner comedy—funded by Louis Peraino, the same Colombo crime family associate that helped distribute the highly lucrative, landmark first film, and another little film called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

As a sequel to Deep Throat, it’s terrible. As a showcase for some of the finest adult actors and actresses working in the 1970s, it’s kind of a hoot. Deep Throat II was a work-for-hire job for Sarno, with the director recollecting that he handed the film off for post-production as soon as he finished shooting, but it’s clear he had a good time making it, and would go on to work with many of the actors again in subsequent years. 

Sarno always had a secret funny bone, and love for the Borscht Belt style humor that is evident all the way back to one of his earliest films, Pandora and the Magic Box. He would continue to scratch this funny-bone itch with softcore comedy films like A Touch of Genie and the gender-swap Jekyll and Hyde, The Switch, before moving almost exclusively into hardcore in the late 70s. In that way, despite not actually having any explicit sex, Deep Throat II feels like an important piece of Sarno’s filmographic puzzle. 

The film’s critical and commercial failure doesn’t seem to have hurt Sarno’s ego. He got paid, the mobsters apparently got what they asked for, and he made some important connections within the industry. A few of those connections include: Jamie Gillis, playing a straight-laced CIA operative who loves Nixon and hates “pinkos and faggots”; Harry Reems as the comically horny, comically mustached doctor; Tina Russell as the most adorable “old” white-haired aunt; Helen Madigan as a nail-filing secretary; A Touch of Genie’s Chris Jordan as a cute little female KGB agent; and last but not least, Linda Lovelace as…Nurse Lovelace (and Agent 0069).

It does wear out its welcome at about the 40 minute mark, but when it finally reaches the mind-boggling sled dog chase and pie-throwing finale on the streets of Queens, New York, you kind of have to respect the absurdity. And here’s the thing, Linda Lovelace, the human being, had a rough go of it in her short career (to put it lightly), and in this film, she actually looks like she’s having fun with friends. Her smile is infectious. 

“That man is a dangerous freak.”

You can view deep throat part II through Vol. 3 in the Joe Sarno Retrospect Series curated and released by Film Movement