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Black Emmanuelle / White Emmanuelle
[Severin]
1976; color
Directed by Brunello Rondi
Starring: Laura Gemser, Annie Belle, Al Cliver, Gabrielle Tinti, Theodore Chaliapin, Ziggy Zanger & Susan Scott
Black Emanuelle 2
[Severin]
1976; color
Directed by Albert Thomas
Starring: Angelo Infanti, Sharon Lesley, Don Powell, Percy Hogan, Danielle Elison & Dagmar Lassander
Emanuelle And The White Slave Trade
[Severin]
1978; color
Directed by Joe D'Amato
Starring: Laura Gemser, Ely Galleani, Gabrielle Tinti, Venantino Venantini & Pierre Marfurt
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Before we begin this trilogy, a brief word about the Black Emanuelle films. Emanuelle was a 1974 French film starring Sylvia Kristel, who went on to play the role four more times on the screen. Black Emanuelle was a 1975 Italian effort started as direct competition with the original. Laura Gemser, an exotic looking Indonesian actress, played Emanuelle in the "black" series almost a dozen times on screen; maybe more if you count re-titlings.
With a series popular enough to warrant a number of installments it's kind of surprising Black Emmanuelle / White Emmanuelle is included here, because it seems to be among the weaker and more confusing installments. Oddly, Gemser is only called Emmanuelle in the Italian version and in the subtitles, in the English dubbed version she's called Laura; this is also the only time she gets an extra "m" in the title. But that's just the tip of this utterly nonsensical hunk of Eurosleaze that comes off like 4th rate Fellini with badly edited softcore sex. With parts of Egypt as a backdrop (one of the films alt titles was Emmanuelle In Egypt), there's some kind of story about a wealthy woman with an array of weird houseguests. First there's a guy who reminds me of a bad hippie version of Woody Harrelson. (He's some sort of guru who is involved with the woman and one of her daughters.) Then there's Laura (who's some sort of fashion model) and the obnoxious photographer who is traveling with her. We also get a washed up, aging British stage actor who has nothing better to do with his time than recite Shakespearean monologues to anyone within earshot and, last but not least, the wealthy woman's visiting lesbian daughter, Pia (AKA White Emmanuelle), and one of her girlfriends. Lots of BS ensues between Laura, the guru, Pia and her mom that—aside from a completely out of place possession sequence—leads to absolutely nothing. In the end, Black and White Emmanuelle walk off together into the sunset, naked. Yawn. This movie really could have gone somewhere in the hands of a director like Jess Franco. Hell, even Andy Milligan could have turned in a better effort than this bit of cinematic gobbledeygook.
Black Emanuelle 2 fares little better, offering a different Emanuelle this time around, but about the same level of plot cohesion. In this one, Emanuelle is in a sanitarium of some sort, trying to regain her memory and, subsequently, her sanity. This is no regular mental hospital though. The rooms look like swanky hotel suites and no doors ever seem to be locked. Emanuelle's doctor (who's got his own share of problems with a wife who thinks he's cheating on her with his female patients and a niece who keeps getting herself committed because she wants to fuck her uncle) plays detective, trying to unlock the hidden trauma at the root of her amnesia. And wouldn't you know it, it's tied in to sex. Emanuelle either has to have it all the time or can't bear the thought of another person's touch. This flip-flopping eventually caused the breakup of her marriage and a lot of other problems in her life. She keeps on remembering events from her past, only her recollection is diametrically opposite from everyone else's. (For example, she remembers her tea-drinking, seemingly wealthy and educated concert pianist father as an angry, drunk, child molesting jazz trumpeter living on the street like a bum.) Eventually, after a lot of "erotic" flashbacks (making this the "raciest" of the three films in the set) and some screwing around with the doctor's niece - as well as a stud friend of hers and the help of a bottle of J&B - she remembers everything and motors off into the sunset to live happily ever after.
Emanuelle And The White Slave Trade is far and away the best of the three in this set, although that's still not saying much. Gemser is back, this time reprising the character as a journalist, which she apparently is in a number of the films. While on assignment in Kenya she sees a woman in a wheelchair being pushed through the Nairobi airport; first by one man and then another. (After the subtle passing off of a briefcase.) A couple weeks later, in New York City, she sees the same woman being led by the arm, and walking with no problem at all, by one of the same men. This piques her reporter's curiosity so she begins to snoop around to see who the man is. She learns he's part of a white slavery ring and, with some help from a stewardess friend and a guy who's an Arab prince, Emanuelle goes "undercover" to get more info - with the hopes of writing a big story exposing it all. After lots of oddly edited softcore (much of that, I believe, lies in the hands of director Joe D'Amato; this is the seventh of the nine Emanuelle movies he made) our heroine secures a position with a brothel in San Diego and begins to collect the data she needs. She also gets caught, and almost lobotomized, but escapes in the end and lives to… well, you know. Overall, this box set is better suited to true fans of the series; of which I gather there are many. I'm just not sure I'm one of them.
—the Kommandant
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