The Marilyn Chambers Online Archive
Together (1971)
A soft-core pseudo-documentary about teenagers in the wake of the sexual revolution, Together was the brainchild of Sean S. Cunningham who would later go on to create the original Friday the 13th. Marilyn, credited under her real name, Marilyn Briggs, is one the main players in the film and she appears fully nude in several scenes. Marilyn's family grew up with the Cunninghams, and at the time the film was made Marilyn was dating Sean's brother, Kevin. Together marked the first time Cunningham worked with novice filmmaker Wes Craven. The money made from the success of Together helped fund their next film, the horror classic The Last House on the Left.
With the trifecta name value of cult icons Sean S. Cunningham, Wes Craven and Marilyn Chambers it's a wonder why Together has never seen an official release on DVD in the U.S. Apparently Cunningham is embarrassed by the film and won't issue a release. The only available prints are rather poor quality and almost always dubbed in German(!). Still, the film is worth seeing as it offers a glimpse of a pre-Green Door Marilyn, shortly before she moved to San Francisco, and features her doing numerous dives in the nude.
When Green Door and Eve blew up, Together was re-released to capitalize on Marilyn's new-found fame.
Marilyn told Mr. Skin in 2004: "Sean told me he wanted to make a documentary with real people. It was about ESP and that whole genre of films about awareness. Not free sex, but love, peace, couples feeling comfortable in their relationship -- blah, blah, blah. I didn't even get a billing. Sean did something really smart where he made a lot of money with this silly film. He bought advertising time on local television stations, and the ads would announce a special sneak preview at 10 a.m. for all the housewives. They'd see this film with a black man and white woman, and she was holding his huge schlong in her hand. There was another scene where the black man got an erection, but no sex. The housewives would tell everybody about this scene, but when it played its regular run in the theaters, the scene would be cut out. That's the power of advertising."
Starring: Marilyn Briggs, Maureen Cousins, Jade Hagen, Kimi Hoelter, Vic Mohica, Jan Pieter Welt
Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Producer: Sean S. Cunningham, Stephen Minasian, Wes Craven (associate producer, uncredited)
Writer: Sean S. Cunningham
Released: December 1971, Hallmark Releasing; January 19, 1972 (New York)
Also Known As: Sensual Paradise (UK); Kama Sutra Today
Availability: 35MM color positive master print held at the BFI National Archives; never released on home media
Marilyn appears on the one sheet of Together, titled Sensual Paradise for the British release.
Ad material from the pressbook prominently showing Marilyn's face but not identifying her. That wouldn't happen until the film was rereleased following the notoriety she received for Behind the Green Door.