Featuring Marilyn Chambers, who became a mainstream celebrity, it was one of the first hardcore films widely released in the United States and the feature-length directorial debut of the Mitchell brothers.

[2] Behind the Green Door was adapted from an anonymous short story of the same title, which was circulated by means of numerous carbon copies.

[4] The manager of a diner asks two of his regular customers to tell him a supposedly true story that they had previously mentioned to him, involving a "green door".

The silent, largely masked audience become increasingly aroused[4] as her white dress is removed and she is stroked, kissed and receives cunnilingus by the women.

[5] Several years after Andy Warhol's seminal Blue Movie in 1969, and along with Deep Throat, also released in 1972, Behind the Green Door helped launch the "Golden Age of Porn" (1969–1984),[4][9][10][11] and somewhat later, the "porno chic" boom.

[11][3] The movie ultimately grossed more than $50 million[13][14] including its video release, which was controlled exclusively by the Mitchells out of their headquarters in the O'Farrell Theatre, San Francisco.

That Chambers's image was so well known from Ivory Snow boosted the film's ticket sales, and led to several jokes on television talk shows.

[21] The Supreme Court's 1973 Miller v. California decision adversely affected the mainstream release of porn films, including Behind the Green Door.

When Behind the Green Door opened in Suffolk County, New York in 1973, it – along with the porn film The New Comers – was successfully prosecuted.

This film stars Brooklyn Lee as the main character Hope, a wealthy young woman drawn into a seedy underworld while on an erotic journey to find her birth mother.

The movie includes footage of the original Behind the Green Door, as Hope describes a sexual fantasy that recalls the plot of the 1972 film.