AVN’s The 101 Greatest Adult Tapes of All Time

1. Night Trips
Caballero Home Video. D: Andrew Blake. Tori Welles, Porsche Lynn, Peter North, Others. (1989) Porn's premiere stylist, Andrew Blake, daringly expanded the possibilities and definition of adult with this thrilling technical/artistic achievement that boasts a look and feel utterly different from anything that preceded it. Oh yeah, Night Trips also delivers the sexual goods big time. AVN's Best Film of 1989, Night Trips forever raised the porn bar and laid down a creative challenge to the rest of the industry to follow suit. Twelve years later, its bold vision still reverberates. ~AVN

2. Nothing to Hide
Cal Vista/Metro. D: Anthony Spinelli. John Leslie, Richard Pacheco, Chelsea Manchester, Others. (1983) This hardcore homage to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is arguably the greatest adult feature of all time. Sexy, realistic and with career performances from John Leslie, Chelsea Manchester and Richard Pacheco, Nothing to Hide is a porn classic so good, so compelling, it rises to the level of art. The late Anthony Spinelli at his very best. ~AVN

3. Latex/Shock
VCA Platinum Plus. D: Michael Ninn. Tyffany Million, Sunset Thomas, Jon Dough, Others. (1995/1996) An original vision unlike anything seen in adult before, these two tapes, shot simultaneously by porn's other stylist extraordinaire, Michael Ninn, perfectly combine high-end production values, computerized special effects and wall-to-wall scalding sex. Direction, videography, art direction, music, makeup, costuming, editing and a huge A-list cast all combine to make this stellar, crowning achievement among the very, very best adult has to offer. Sexual highlights? Are you kidding? Every scene - gooey, messy facials, anals, d.p.s and multiple pileups abound - is a sexual highlight. Not surprisingly, Latex and Shock won AVN's Best Video awards in back-to-back years. It doesn't get much better than this, folks. ~AVN

3. Latex/Shock
VCA Platinum Plus. D: Michael Ninn. Tyffany Million, Sunset Thomas, Jon Dough, Others. (1995/1996) An original vision unlike anything seen in adult before, these two tapes, shot simultaneously by porn's other stylist extraordinaire, Michael Ninn, perfectly combine high-end production values, computerized special effects and wall-to-wall scalding sex. Direction, videography, art direction, music, makeup, costuming, editing and a huge A-list cast all combine to make this stellar, crowning achievement among the very, very best adult has to offer. Sexual highlights? Are you kidding? Every scene - gooey, messy facials, anals, d.p.s and multiple pileups abound - is a sexual highlight. Not surprisingly, Latex and Shock won AVN's Best Video awards in back-to-back years. It doesn't get much better than this, folks. ~AVN

4. Behind the Green Door
Mitchell Brothers. D: Artie Mitchell, Jim Mitchell. Marilyn Chambers, Johnnie Keyes, Others. (1972) One of three early porno-chic classics (the other two being Deep Throat and the Devil in Miss Jones)that gave birth to what is now a multi-billion-dollar industry. Elevating Marilyn Chambers to the then-new cultural designation of porn star, Behind the Green Door is a one-of-a-kind movie where all the elements - most notably the scandalous revelation that Chambers was a former lily-white Ivory Snow model - were in place to break new sexual and stylistic ground. Door made Chambers a household name, entered the American lexicon and still holds up 30 years later. ~AVN

5. Justine: Nothing to Hide 2
Cal Vista Video/Metro. D: Paul Thomas. Roxanne Blaze, Mike Horner, Nick East, Others. (1993) AVN's 1993 Best Film, this story of a doomed father-son-girl love triangle isn't just a porn movie infused with a million volts of sexual energy. It's a movie, period. And a masterfully scripted, acted and directed one at that. Elegantly simple, fueled by intimacy, Justine is that all-too-rare achievement: true erotica. ~AVN

6. Bobby Sox
Vivid Film. D: Paul Thomas. Nikki Tyler, Shanna McCullough, Steven St. Croix, Others. (1996) A crowning jewel of both the Vivid and Paul Thomas catalogs, Bobby Sox is a wickedly sly '90s style Candide. Sex-wise, it radiates with agonizingly joyous tease sequences and spirited couplings, especially those featuring busty blonde Nikki Tyler as a small town girl with a bad case of raging hormones. Imaginative, arresting and highly entertaining, Bobby Sox is one of the very finest couples tapes of all time. AVN's 1996 Best Film. ~AVN

7. Buttman's European Vacation
Evil Angel Productions. D: John Stagliano. Zara Whites, Sunny McCay, Rocco Siffredi, Others. (1991) Early, quintessential John Stagliano, who, as one of the creators of the hugely popular Gonzo genre, is arguably the most influential pornographer on the planet. Here, in AVN's 1991 Best All-Sex Video, Stagliano's probing, always-in-motion camera captures six scenes of blistering Buttman-style sex, including a searing Rocco Siffredi/Zara Whites/Silver threeway that won Best Group Sex Scene honors. A ravenously erotic tape that promised even more pornographic greatness in the future, a pledge Stagliano has since fulfilled time and again. ~AVN

8. The Opening of Misty Beethoven
VCA Pictures. D. Henry Paris. Constance Money, Gloria Leonard, Marlene Willoughby, Terri Hall, Jamie Gillis, Others. (1975) Pygmalion meets porn by way of director Henry Paris. Witty script (starting with the double-entendre in the title), European locations, Jamie Gillis at his best with Constance Money as the cynical hooker groomed to be a glamour girl. This is what they mean by the Golden Age of Porn. ~AVN

9. Dog Walker
John Leslie Productions/Evil Angel. D: John Leslie. Krysti Lynn, Christina Angel, Steven St. Croix. (1994) John Leslie, hands down one of adult's greatest and most honored directors, at the very top of his game. Brilliantly blending the violent, purposely fragmented, sometimes surreal plot with wall-to-wall scalding sex (check out the late Kristi Lynn getting rump-roasted then face-frosted by a pair of hoods after they've beaten the sh*t out of her husband and forced him to watch), Leslie produced a porn masterpiece for the ages, something that still outclasses 99 percent of the adult market. Dog Walker picked up several AVN Awards that year, including Best Director and Best Screenplay. ~AVN

10. Scoundrels
Command Video. D: Cecil Howard. Lisa Be, Chelsea Manchester, Ron Jeremy, Others. (1983) Winner of AVN's very first Best Film award in 1983, this could be the great Cecil Howard's top film. The moral symbolism and soul-searching drama is astounding. So is the sex, such as a classic erotic moment between Lisa Be and a considerably trimmer Ron Jeremy. A sexual psychodrama, this is a true underrated classic. ~AVN

11. The Devil in Miss Jones Parts 3 & 4
VCA Pictures. D: Gregory Dark. Lois Ayres, Vanessa Del Rio, Amber Lynn, Jack Baker, Others. (1986) Stroke for stroke, the greatest porn opus of the 1980s, one that took hardcore (Hell - sorry - what even passed for hardcore prior to it?)to new filthier depths, promised all sorts of squalid porn possibilities in the future and influenced just about everything that came after it. Steeped in Greg Dark's inimitable whacked-out sensibilities, DMJ3&4 offers up slab after slab of scalding sex, including Vanessa Del Rio's cum flying gang bang, a young Amber Lynn's driving double pussy penetration, a monster Lois Ayres facial and Pattie Petite's twin black dong spit-roasting. After the DMJ3&4, the porn landscape would forever, unalterably be changed for the uh, darker. Part 3 won AVN's 1986 Best Film honors. ~AVN

11. The Devil in Miss Jones Parts 3 & 4
VCA Pictures. D: Gregory Dark. Lois Ayres, Vanessa Del Rio, Amber Lynn, Jack Baker, Others. (1986) Stroke for stroke, the greatest porn opus of the 1980s, one that took hardcore (Hell - sorry - what even passed for hardcore prior to it?)to new filthier depths, promised all sorts of squalid porn possibilities in the future and influenced just about everything that came after it. Steeped in Greg Dark's inimitable whacked-out sensibilities, DMJ3&4 offers up slab after slab of scalding sex, including Vanessa Del Rio's cum flying gang bang, a young Amber Lynn's driving double pussy penetration, a monster Lois Ayres facial and Pattie Petite's twin black dong spit-roasting. After the DMJ3&4, the porn landscape would forever, unalterably be changed for the uh, darker. Part 3 won AVN's 1986 Best Film honors. ~AVN

12. Insatiable
Caballero Home Video. D: Godfrey Daniels. Marilyn Chambers, Jessie St. James, John Holmes, Others. (1980) This late-golden age offering will remind veteran viewers of days, and production values, gone by. Marilyn Chambers plays a pampered and well-to-do starlet on her way to stardom, with a sexual desire that just won't quit. Opening with Chambers' masturbation scene and following with a series of flashbacks and encounters, her character reveals herself as a creature that knows no limits to her wants and needs. The final encounter between Marilyn and John Holmes will leave jaded porn fans with a scene they will not forget. ~AVN

13. Drop Sex
John Leslie Productions/Evil Angel. D: John Leslie. Kimberly Jade, Mikki Malone, Valentino, Others. (1997) Selecting the best of John Leslie is a bit like selecting the best of John Coltrane - there's just so much outstanding product from the two masters, it's difficult to choose (the analogy isn't that big of a stretch; Leslie, as anyone who has ever listened to one of his soundtracks knows, is a die-hard jazz lover). But the overall excellence of Drop Sex makes it a no-brainer for inclusion on this list. Scorching our eyeballs with nasty, fetish-tinged sex from first frame to last and wrapping it in a breath-taking Oliver Stone-like visual tapestry, Leslie, with Drop Sex, achieves that virtually unheard-of porn standard of rendering the fast-forward button a useless adjunct. ~AVN

14. Debbie Does Dallas
VCX. D: Gerard Damiano. Bambi Woods, R. Bolla, Others. (1982) Along with Bad Girls, one of the great tease movies in that we don't get to see sultry, sexy Bambi Woods get down and dirty until the film's final sex scene, one of the very best in adult history. A classic of its time. ~AVN

15. Café Flesh
VCA Pictures. D: Rinse Dream. Pia Snow, Marie Sharp, Kevin James, Others. (1982) The apocalypse has rendered most of its survivors "sex negatives," who are unable to fu*k without getting violently ill. The minority are "sex positives," and forced to perform at a bizarre nightclub for the angry, celibate masses. Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight)wrote this stylish cult classic under the pseudonym Herbert W. Day. The film won an AVN Award for Best Art Direction. ~AVN

16. Sex World
VCX. D: Anthony Spinelli. Annette Haven, John Leslie, Kay Parker, Leslie Bovee, Cris Cassidy. (1978) One of the few adult films to truly deserve the much-abused term "classic," Anthony Spinelli's '70s opus centers on an irresistible Westworld-meets-Behind the Green Door concept. Visitors to the eponymous sex-therapy resort act out a wide variety of desires with their fantasy mates. All-star cast, superior production values and John Leslie's funniest acting performance, truly make this one for the ages. ~AVN

17. New Wave Hookers
VCA Pictures. D: Gregory Dark. Ginger Lynn, Kristara Barrington, Jack Baker, Others. (1985) Funny, bizarre and most importantly, extremely raunchy, New Wave Hookers was to the adult industry a blast of fresh - no, make that filthy - air, defying convention, opening up all sorts of new possibilities and spawning numerous imitators. Essential desert island '80s porn, the film is load-launching throughout, including, perhaps, most notably, during a classic Ginger Lynn d.p. Its immortality wasn't hurt by the fact that it had to be reedited to cut out a searing appearance by an underage Traci Lords. Apparently way ahead of its time, NWH didn't win any major AVN Awards, having to settle for Best Packaging. ~AVN

18. The Devil in Miss Jones
VCX. D: Gerard Damiano. Georgina Spelvin, Harry Reems, Others. (1972) Ask your average Joe on the street which adult films he knows, and he'll tell you about the top three early '70s classics: The Devil in Miss Jones, Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door. Opens with a long suicide sequence, as virginal spinster Justine Jones (Georgina Spelvin)kills herself in her bathtub, then goes to hell, meets devil Harry Reems, and is forced to endure multiple sexual experiences with no release. Features an intense double penetration scene and one of the most disturbing endings in porn history. ~AVN

19. Face Dance, Parts 1 & 2
Evil Angel Video. D: John Stagliano. Tyffany Million, Tiffany Mynx, Rocco Siffredi, Others. (1992) AVN's 1992 Best Film, Face Dance is The Ten Commandments of porn, a spectacle which staggers the senses and occasionally amuses with its own self importance. Featuring a huge cast that was a virtual who's who of the early '90s smut biz, Face Dance 1 & 2 is the sexual equivalent of two cordon bleu seven-course meals, offering up one sizzling sex scene after another. They include, perhaps most notably, the now-classic Blindfold Butt Orgy which garnered Best Couples Sex Scene honors that year. With the possible exception of 1997's Buda, this is the great Stagliano's most ambitious project, one whose breathtaking vision won the Buttman AVN's 1992 Best Director - Film Award. ~AVN

19. Face Dance, Parts 1 & 2
Evil Angel Video. D: John Stagliano. Tyffany Million, Tiffany Mynx, Rocco Siffredi, Others. (1992) AVN's 1992 Best Film, Face Dance is The Ten Commandments of porn, a spectacle which staggers the senses and occasionally amuses with its own self importance. Featuring a huge cast that was a virtual who's who of the early '90s smut biz, Face Dance 1 & 2 is the sexual equivalent of two cordon bleu seven-course meals, offering up one sizzling sex scene after another. They include, perhaps most notably, the now-classic Blindfold Butt Orgy which garnered Best Couples Sex Scene honors that year. With the possible exception of 1997's Buda, this is the great Stagliano's most ambitious project, one whose breathtaking vision won the Buttman AVN's 1992 Best Director - Film Award. ~AVN

20. Bad Wives
Vivid Entertainment Group. D: Paul Thomas. Dyanna Lauren, Melissa Hill, Missy, Stephanie Swift, Tricia Devereaux, Steven St. Croix, Tony Tedeschi, Others. (1997) St. Croix is pretty good at keeping his women... frozen. So it's not too surprising that bored housewives Lauren and Hill fall for, and fantasize about, him - but little do they know that he's much more than he seems. Great story, volcanic sex and high production values will keep this selling for years. Bad Wives pretty much swept the AVN Awards in '97, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, St. Croix for Best Actor, Lauren for Best Actress, both of them for Best Anal Scene, and Hill for Best Supporting. ~AVN

21. Taboo
VCX. D: Kirdy Stevens. Kay Parker, Juliet Anderson, Dorothy LeMay, Brooke West, Holly McCall, Others. (1980) Parker plays a typical housewife... except for the fact that hubby has gone bye-bye, and she's a bit starved for horizontal affection... and she starts to notice how buff her son is looking. In the meantime, she discovers that there's plenty of sex going on around her... and her inhibitions start to dissolve in a sea of lust that can have only one climax. AVN wasn't around when Taboo first came out, but the direction, Parker's acting and the professional soundtrack would likely have taken awards. ~AVN

22. The Voyeur 5
John Leslie Productions/Evil Angel. D: John Leslie. Kymberly Kyle, Sid Deuce, Peter North, Others. (1995) Arguably the best all-time volume of arguably the best all-time line from arguably the best all-time director. This sucker explodes with super-strokable sex scene after sex scene such as a blistering Sapphic threeway in which the strap-on wielding duo of Madelyn Knight and Caressa Savage stuff Missy's *beep* and sh*tter and a scalding hetero menage-a-trois in which Peter North does much the same to Kymberly Kyle and Natalie Tizara. Voyeur 5 was instrumental in Leslie's flagship line nabbing AVN's 1995 Best Gonzo series honors, demonstrating once and for all that sex is a spectator sport. ~AVN