TITLE    : X-Rated Movie Taglines
STORYID  : x-rated-movie-taglines
SUMMARY  : Tagging the audience.
AUTHOR   : Cal Y. Pygia@lit
DATE     : 2008-07-29
CATEGORY : reviews-and-essays
FLAGS    : 
TAGS     : |x-rated|adult|film|movie|porno|metaphor|character|plot|


A tagline is a clever, pithy one-line slogan or story line summary, often involving alliteration or a play on words, meant to promote a film. The more effective taglines also worked with the movie's titles, serving almost as a punch line or a subtitle. For example, the tagline for Debbie Does Dallas is "Everyone on the team scores when her pom-poms fly!" Often, the tagline suggested, rather than stated, the type of setting, conflict, action, characters, and theme that the movie was likely to present. For example, the tagline for the motion picture Casting Call ("There was only one part to be cast, and each girl knew what she had to give to get it") suggests that the film will be set in a motion picture studio or set, that actresses will compete against one another for the part to be cast, that their competition will be of as much a sexual as a dramatic nature, and that they will knowingly participate in such activity to land the single role that is to be had. That's quite a bit of summary for a one-sentence summary! 



These taglines also reveal the metaphors that disclose how society views sexual intimacy. Since, for better or worse, these metaphors often shape the thoughts, feelings, and discussions pertaining to sex and gender, it's helpful to see them laid bare, so to speak, by movie tagline writers. The metaphors, often repeated, are sex = game or sex = sport; sex; mechanical performance; sex = food; sex = crime; sex = battle or sex = war; sex = business; sex = education; sex= therapy or sex = medication; and sex = adventure. Women are cast in roles of actresses, students, criminals, animals, cheerleaders, babysitters, farmer's daughters, tramps, and athletic supporters, so to speak. Men, when they're alluded to at all, are cast into the roles of film directors, athletes, servants, soldiers, businessmen, teachers, and drivers.



Writers of short stories and novels can, and, frankly, should learn from this technique; it focuses one's writing and gives it unity, a definite purpose, and a specific direction. (See my attempts at one, for a made-up film, and another, for an actual film, at the end of this review.)



The movies for which the taglines are given in this post were all produced in the 1960's and 1970's.



Casting Call: There was only one part to be cast, and each girl knew what she had to give to get it.



Love Kisses: Cheri--she's an expert in the most exciting sport of all!



Debbie Does Dallas: Everyone on the team scores when her pom-poms fly!



Bang Bang: A sexual explosion.



"Assignment--Female": Too young to be so experienced.



Hot Lunch: This main course is finger-licking great!



Spread Eagles: They were flying high and laying low.



Male Service: What number does a girl dial for. . . male service?



The Pleasure Machines: They could do anything people could do, only longer and better.



Trader: The film that breaks the law of the jungle.



Hot Shots: The story of those centerfold nymphets.



Divorcee: Sexually handicapped by order of the court.



Come One, Come All: So adult it smarts.



Girls That Do: Born to love and be loved, these are the girls that do.



I Feel It Coming: To him, even bed is a battlefield!



Wall Street Walker: It was buy and sell, but she gave it away.



All Men Are Apes: All men went ape for her!



Slip of the Tongue: Over the lips, over the gums: come on, tongue; here she comes.



School of Hard Knocks: Where girls learn about life flat on their backs!



The Erotic Adventures of Zorro: The first movie rated "Z."



The Babysitter: She came to sit with baby and ended up with daddy!"



Carmen Baby: The total female animal!



Cheering Section: "Gimme an 'F'! Score, team, score!"



Cheerleaders Beach Party: Score with the cheerleaders.



The Cheerleaders: Come and huddle with the cheerleaders.



Daily Double: Take one? She took them all!



Deadly Weapons: See the mob get "busted" when "Chesty" takes her revenge.



Doctors from Oh! Copenhagen: A masterful prescription for sexual enlightenment.



Eat, Drink, and Make Merrie: A hilarious game of musical beds.



Forbidden Lessons: Let them teach you all they know!



Fritz the Cat: We're not X-rated for nothing, baby!



Getting It On: Don't miss the stripped-down fun and hot-wired action!



Girls For Rent: Delightful, dirty, and deadly.



Grindhouse: The Forbidden World of "Adults Only" Cinema.



Let's Do It: Freddie's got the perfect gift for Melanie's birthday. He just doesn't know how to wrap it.



Let's Make a Dirty Movie: A wild, funny look at what really goes on behind the scenes!



Lunch Wagon: Finally, a movie you can sink your teeth into!



Mid-Day Mistress: The businessman's lunch.



The Pig Keepers' Daughter: She brought new meaning to the phrase "driving a hard bargain."



Pink Motel: All scoring ain't done on the field.



Ride a Wild Stud: When men were men, and women didn't forget it!



Schoolgirls Growing Up: Will open--and close--the eyes of all parents.



The Schoolgirls: The things that teenage girls learn in school that aren't in the books.



Sex Education: Today: show and tell! These girls do it all. They think life's a ball.



Shame of the Jungle: You're going to laugh your "X" off!



Striptease Girl: Delectable dolls dancing and prancing.



Stuck on You: You'll come unglued with laughter!



The T &amp; A Team: They don't need Mr. T. They've got T &amp; A!



Swinging Teacher: She's head of her class in homework.



Teenage Playmates: They keep getting in trouble, but that's half the fun of being young.



Teenage Tramp: Don't pass her up! She's looking for more than a ride.



The X-Rated Girl: If you want to hold your man, you have to be an "X"-rated girl. An alternate tagline: The "X"-rated girl knows the way to a man's heart is not through his stomach.



Deep Throat: How far does a girl have to go to untangle her tingle?



My own attempt, for an imaginary movie called "Poster Girls" is a bit unimaginative, but it does suggest the type of setting, conflict, action, characters, and theme that the movie is likely to present.: "For a chance to star in legitimate films, they modeled for X-rated movie posters."



Here's my attempt at one for an actual film, "The Devil In Miss Jones": "The devil wasn't the only thing inside her!" 

