Flickgrrl

Posted: Monday, April 13, 2009, 3:12 PM | 6 comments |

Marilyn Chambers 1952--2009

Carrie Rickey, Inquirer Film Critic

Email Carrie Rickey

options

Marilyn Chambers, pure as the driven Ivory Snow.

Marilyn Chambers, the Meg Ryan of X-rated film, was found dead by her daughter in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita Sunday. The demure-looking Connecticut beauty became famous as the 99 44/100 % pure mother pictured on the Ivory Snow box in 1969 and infamous as Gloria, the innocent babe abducted and whisked off to a private sex club in the 1972 XXX sensation "Behind the Green Door." Her sunny presence as the sleeping beauty sexually awakened by male trapeze artists in crotchless tights helped mainstream porn movies. She also appeared in "Rabid," David Cronenberg's 1977 cult film about a bionic vampire with a blood-sucking syringe underneath her left arm, as unnerving an image of sexual voracity as anything in her X-rated films. The madonna/whore of the Boogie Nights era, Chambers died 10 days shy of her 57th birthday.

Posted by Carrie Rickey @ 3:12 PM Permalink | 6 comments

Comments

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:44 PM, 04/13/2009

brilliant point about "Rabid" and comparative sexual voracity. that casting was genius .. i remember sneaking into see "Rabid" with my buddies at the Lincoln Drive In ..and i don't think i quite appreciated it until your mention. It may seem a stretch to compare her, too, to Harry Kalas, he of the heartland purity of baseball and Iowa .... but they were both pioneers, and emblems of generations.

— bob ickes

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:01 PM, 04/13/2009

Kind of pales in comparison to the loss of Harry Kalas, but point taken. She was fairly young.

— MojoMama

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:12 PM, 04/13/2009

agree totally that the loss here in philly can't compare .... just found the juxtaposition curious

— bob ickes

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:46 PM, 04/13/2009

Too much coke, too much booze, too much weight. She was one of the first in that business to work out regularly - one review described her (accurately) as having hips "like cut glass." She also got a percentage of "Green Door," which puts her in the company of Katherine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, who also got percentages on some of their work in the male dominated, producer driven industry, i met her once and thought she was funny and smart. Hot, too.

— JDM

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:03 AM, 04/14/2009

Colleague Roger Ebert refers me to the quip of performance artist Susie Bright re Chambers: "It's the other 56/100 % that interests me."

— carrierickey

6 comments

About Movies -

Consider our Movies blog your essential guide to new movies and classics, interviews with filmmakers and stars, news and views on the latest screen trends, reviews and the occasional rant--all from trusted voices at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News.