The Story of Joanna (1975): Damiano’s Golden Age SM Feature

In 1975 Gerard Damiano released the adult feature The Story of Joanna. Jamie Gillis and Terri Hall lead the cast, with Zebedy Colt, Juliet Graham, and Steven Lark. The film puts sadomasochism at the center of the story and is openly influenced by Pauline Réage’s 1954 novel Story of O. It is counted among classics of the Golden Age of Porn, roughly 1969 to 1984, and it is in the XRCO Hall of Fame. That induction is the industry saying a hardcore film that treats SM as plot, not as a list of positions, still belongs in American adult-film history.

The roles are drawn in clear lines. Jamie Gillis plays Jason. Terri Hall plays Joanna. Zebedy Colt plays Griffin. Juliet Graham plays Gena. Steven Lark plays the Dancer. Damiano’s name, the dominant coding Gillis carried as a star, and Hall’s Joanna are the draw. For viewers who know kink, it is period hardcore with a literary SM ambition: uneven in pace, dark in tone, and still on the canon list for the way it tells the story.

Roger Feelbert at Pornonomy gave it a B−. He praised the craft, and the scene between Juliet Graham and Zebedy Colt in particular: it “would have to rank as one of the best shot hardcore scenes I can remember.” He also called the pacing uneven. The tone is dark, he wrote, but “not as arresting as, say, 3 AM or Damiano’s Devil in Miss Jones.” His conclusion was that he was glad he saw it and was unlikely to watch it again, except perhaps for the Graham and Colt scene.

That review matches where the film sits. It is a Golden Age SM landmark people cite more than they casually rewatch. It stands beside Damiano’s better-known titles and carries Story of O into explicit American porn. A novelization exists for anyone following that O-adjacent culture off the screen and onto paper. Among 1970s U.S. theatrical hardcore that used sadomasochism as a narrative subject, The Story of Joanna keeps a place.

It remains on adult and BDSM film lists because it is one of that era’s attempts to put literary ambition inside hardcore. It is not a smooth watch. It is a historical marker: part of Damiano’s filmography, and an XRCO Hall of Fame title, from a moment when SM could be the language of the story.