Sundance review: 'The Disappearance of Shere Hite' tells how a famous sex researcher's work has gone down the memory hole

How exactly did a controversial, charismatic and best-selling sex expert get shoved down the memory hole, to the point where many people today don’t know who the was? That’s the intriguing question director Nicole Newnham poses in the fascinating documentary “The Disappearance of Shere Hite.” 

(Warning: This review, like the movie, uses language about human sexuality that some may find offensive.)

Hite became famous in the mid 1970s for authoring “The Hite Report,” at the time one of the most thorough studies of how women think about sex. Taking thousands of completed surveys from women around the world, Hite and her research team came up with some jaw-dropping data — with the headline being the news that women were far more likely to achieve an orgasm through masturbation than through being penetrated by a man’s penis.

The news was a bombshell. So was Hite, who had a lithe figure and gorgeous strawberry-blonde hair. She used both to  get through college, working as a model for advertising and illustrations (she was the model for the buxom babes flanking Sean Connery in the poster for “Diamonds Are Forever”), as well as some tasteful nudes that would come back to haunt her. 

Hite also was politically active, and signed on early with the National Organization for Women. She enlisted her fellow activists to distribute her survey, which asked open-ended questions detailing one’s sexual experience, feelings and preferences. 

Hite also promoted the heck out of “The Hite Report,” making it a best-seller. That’s in spite of efforts by the publisher, the company’s former editor-in-chief tells the filmmakers, to deep-six the book by printing only 4,000 copies on its initial run and not providing any publicity. But Hite, deploying her striking looks and her command of her subject, made numerous TV appearances to talk up her findings.

The uproar over Hite’s first book was nothing compared to what happened with her second book, a survey asking men to talk about their sexual experiences, as well as their feelings. The biggest finding was that the vast majority of men were unhappy in their relationships — but couldn’t say so out loud because of the pressure on men not to show their feelings.

The release of the second “Hite Report” generated some of the most outlandish footage in Newnham’s film. There’s one clip where talk-show host Mike Douglas is asking Hite about her findings, and actor David Hasselhoff makes the mistake of trying to equate Hite’s thousands of survey responses to the anecdotal evidence of some of Hasselhoff’s pals. (Theree’s a similar clip that “Buck Rogers” star Gil Gerard won’t be happy to see circulating again.)

Newnham — who co-directed the 2020 Sundance doc “Crip Camp” — recounts how the survey respondents sometimes recorded their answers on cassette tapes, and other stories. Her team even found cassette tapes some respondents sent, which are now in the hands of the archives of Harvard. And actor Dakota Johnson is heard, reading from Hite’s memoirs, throughout the film.

So how did Shere Hite — who died in September 2020 — go from the most talked-about author in America to a forgotten figure? Blame the backlash against feminism in the 1980s. Blame her own consternation with the media. Or blame, appropriately, the rise of conservatism in the age of Reagan. “The Disappearance of Shere Hite” is a potent reminder that Hite was revealing truths that some didn’t want to hear then or now, truths that are resurfacing to reach a new generation.

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‘The Disappearance of Shere Hite’

★★★1/2

Playing in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.  Screens again Wednesday, Jan. 25, 9 p.m., Prospector Square Theatre, Park City; Thursday, Jan. 26, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Centre Cinemas, Salt Lake City; Friday, Jan. 27, 6:15 p.m., Holiday Village Cinemas, Park City. Also screening online on the Sundance Film Festival platform, starting Tuesday, Jan. 24. Not rated, but probably R for nude photos, sexual descriptions, and language. Running time: 118 minutes.