Marilyn Chambers Movies
When X-rated movies began to creep out of stag parties and storefront theaters into semi-respectable movie houses in the late '60s and early '70s during the short-lived reign of "porno chic," Marilyn Chambers became one of the biggest and most bankable stars to emerge from the adult industry. What made her remarkable, however, was how Chambers was able to hold onto her popularity; in a business where few female stars can last five years in the spotlight, Chambers retained a loyal fan following which has kept her busy throughout a career that's spanned four decades.Marilyn Chambers was born Marilyn Ann Briggs on April 22, 1952; she was born in Rhode Island, but spent most of her childhood in Westport, CT. In her teens, Chambers became interested in acting, and began looking for work as a model. After appearing in print ads for Clairol shampoo and Coca-Cola, a photo of Chambers holding a freshly diapered baby was chosen for use on boxes of Ivory Snow, a detergent. That same year, Chambers landed her first film role, a small part in the Barbra Streisand vehicle The Owl and the Pussycat. Chambers, however, was disenchanted with the experience, and was considering giving up acting when she answered an ad placed in a San Francisco newspaper by Jim Mitchell and his brother, Artie Mitchell. Chambers soon discovered the Mitchell brothers were making an X-rated feature, but the adventurous Chambers agreed to give the role a shot -- provided she was given a percentage of the profits, along with a flat fee. Chambers' decision proved shrewd: 1972's Behind the Green Door became one of the biggest adult hits of the decade, with Chambers' silent but rabidly enthusiastic performance responsible for much of the film's notoriety. Chambers also provided invaluable publicity for the film when it became known that she had been "the Ivory Snow girl" -- the manufacturer immediately replaced her picture on the box, but this semi-scandal made newspapers all across the country, boosting the film's box office in the process.
In 1973, Chambers and the Mitchell brothers teamed up again for Resurrection of Eve, which proved to be another major success, and in 1975 Artie Mitchell produced a semi-documentary look at her career to date called Inside Marilyn Chambers, which would be the model for hundreds of similarly titled adult films to follow. In 1976, Chambers announced she was leaving the X-rated industry to pursue other career options; she starred in David Cronenberg's horror film Rabid, appeared in a number of stage productions in Las Vegas, put together a cabaret act as a singer and dancer, and cut a record as the lead singer with a country & western band called Haywire. In 1980, Chambers made her return to adult movies with Insatiable, in which she played a promising country & western singer, appropriately enough. The film was a box-office hit, and several more adult features followed, but Chambers began making softcore R-rated adult comedies and dramas as well (beginning with 1982's Angel of H.E.A.T.), and by the end of the 1980s, she had once again forsaken hardcore adult films for R-rated efforts such as The Marilyn Diaries, Party Incorporated, and Bikini Bistro, which found a ready audience on home video and cable television.
In 1999, Chambers made a surprise return to hardcore adult films when friend and fellow adult film actress Veronica Hart persuaded her to star in Still Insatiable, under the condition that the film depict and endorse safe sex in its erotic scenes. Chambers died ten years later, just over a week prior to her 57th birthday. ~ All Movie Guide
Adult cinema's lustiest ladies reveal it all as the hottest segments from the legendary late-night cable show Midnight Blue offer a series of intimate encounters with Debbie Does Dallas star Bambi Woods, masturbation guru Annie Sprinkle, The Devil in Miss Jones star Georgina Spelvin, and many more stars from the era affectionately referred to as the "Golden Age of Porn." Watch snow-white innocence take a swift blow as former Ivory Soap girl Marilyn Chambers ponders the prevalence of sex in showbiz before proving without a doubt that she is definitely not a racist, and after notorious bad girl Veri Knotti performs "the most shocking act in adult film" before a live audience at New York's Melody Burlesque, the smoldering Seka discusses the benefits and drawbacks of working with porn legend John Holmes. Additional commercials for the New York swingers clubs of yesteryear, adult theaters, and shady spas take viewers back to an uninhibited time when sex was in style and porno chic ignited the box office. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Goldstein, Alex Bennett, (more)

- 2000
- Add The Directors: David Cronenberg to QueueAdd The Directors: David Cronenberg to top of Queue
For those who enjoy discovering or learning more about directors with unique or even bizarre filmmaking interests, David Cronenberg is a true find. His movie Crash tells the story of a group of people who think sex is best when it involves violent car accidents, his remake of The Fly is an eerie masterpiece combining the disturbing with the comedic, and his film Scanners is a witty satire about the relative madness of society at large. This video, produced by the American Film Institute, includes an interview with Michael Ironside, an actor who appears in at least one of Cronenberg's films. Ironside provides some interesting insights into the "real" David Cronenberg.
~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide
~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide
In this softcore feature, former porn star Marilyn Chambers plays a movie star who has carefully recorded all her erotic adventures. Unluckily for her, this diary falls into the unfriendly hands of a reporter. Luckily for her, he doesn't know who wrote the diary, as she has concealed everyone's identity. Unluckily, the reporter and his girlfriend are persistent investigators. Luckily for Ms. Chambers' fans, her erotic attractions are still potent as she recreates a (softcore) version of the encounters in the diary. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marilyn Chambers, Tara Buckman, (more)
- Starring:
- Marilyn Chambers, David Winn, (more)
Videophiles will know The Protectors, Book 2 by its original title, Angel of H.E.A.T.. Porn star Marilyn Chambers plays a secret agent, teamed up with cult favorite Mary Woronov. Their mission is to stem the world-domination plans of evil Dan Jesse. To accomplish this task, Chambers finds it expedient to shed her clothes at the least provocation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marilyn Chambers, Stephen Johnson, (more)
For his second commercial feature, following a pair of experimental films and 1977's Shivers, Canadian horror auteur David Cronenberg continued to mine the themes of disease and mutation that were already becoming his perennial concerns. Marilyn Chambers stars as Rose, an attractive young woman who becomes horribly injured in a motorcycle accident. Spirited away to the clinic of Drs. Dan and Roxanne Keloid (Howard Ryshpan and Patricia Gage), a pair of experimental plastic surgeons, Rose becomes an unwitting guinea pig in an operation that grafts genetically modified tissue into her body. Waking from her coma to find she is unable to ingest normal food, Rose unwittingly feeds on human blood by means of a phallic organ that emerges from a vulval orifice in her armpit. Within hours of providing Rose with sustenance, her victims fall prey to an incurable, highly contagious disease that turns them into raving lunatics who foam at the mouth and attack others indiscriminately. Soon, Montreal is under martial law, but nobody can find the Typhoid Mary whose vampiric urges are driving the epidemic -- not even Hart (Frank Moore), Rose's befuddled boyfriend. Although she is best-known for her starring role in the crossover porn epic Behind the Green Door, Chambers actually received her start in features with 1970's The Owl and the Pussycat. Rabid also stars TV and stage veteran Joe Silver as Murray Cypher, a mutual friend of Hart and the Keloids. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, (more)
The Owl and the Pussycat began life as a two-character Broadway play by Bill Manhoff, about a stuffy author who entered into an explosive relationship with his neighbor, a foulmouthed, freewheeling prostitute. Manhoff wrote the part of the hooker for a black actress, but all that changed when Barbra Streisand was cast in the role for the film version. George Segal portrays the male lead, and the play's two-character austerity was expanded to a cast of 19 speaking parts. Beyond the added characters (including Robert Klein as Segal's swinging roommate), the heart and soul of the film is the Segal-Streisand relationship; he is utterly appalled by her lifestyle, she is turned off by his prudishness, and both are made for each other. The Owl and the Pussycat was adapted for the screen by Buck Henry, who shows up in a cameo role in one of the bookstore scenes. The film represented the last work of cinematographer Harry Stradling, who'd previously photographed Streisand in Funny Girl; Stradling died during production, and was replaced by Ernest Laszlo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbra Streisand, George Segal, (more)
















