X-rated: Adult Movie Posters of the 60s and 70s

This magnificent book is the new, expanded, complete edition of Nourmand and Marsh’s cult bestseller, with text by renowned writer Peter Doggett. The 1960s and ’70s were the Golden Age of the X-rated movie. For the first time, these films were shown in mainstream cinemas to a fashionable, young crowd. The “porno chic” movement around films like Deep Throat (1972), The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) and Debbie Does Dallas (1978) gave skin flicks an air of credibility that had never existed before. Johnny Carson and Bob Hope talked about Deep Throat on TV, and respected artists became involved in promotional campaigns for adult films.

Of all film genres, the X-rated movie is possibly the one that lends itself best to the use of posters as a promotional medium. Screaming taglines, provocative titles and scantily clad bodies are all elements that can be used to great advantage in poster form. Even though many of the adult movies of the ‘60s and ‘70s have faded into cinematic history, their posters remain an inspiration for graphic designers. And today they are wonderful, joyful period pieces that evoke the temptations and taboos of a bygone age of suspender belts, stockings and eye-popping, gravity-defying brassieres. To quote Steve Frankfurt’s iconic ad campaign for the soft core masterpiece Emmanuelle, “X was never like this.”