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Emanuelle
(Laura Gemser) conspires to kill her abusive husband and get
revenge on his cronies, all while trying to raise her young
stepdaughter...
Also known as Emanuelle's Daughter, Emanuelle:
Queen of Sados is a tedious sexploitation potboiler.
While the Greek locales and plentiful nudity from the likes
of Laura Gemser and others gives the film some pictorial value
(thus accounting for my possibly too generous rating... I guess
I'm just a sucker for naked Mediterranean chicks), it is too
clumsily staged and plotted to be engaging.
Going in to a Laura Gemser Emanuelle picture,
the viewer should have a good idea of what to expect — plenty
of nudity and softcore groping. Typical in a film of this sort,
any time the plot gets in the way, entertainment value begins
to wane. This is particularly troublesome in this film, which
becomes increasingly soap opera-esque in the most laughable
way imaginable. After setting up a convoluted tale of revenge,
director Elia Milonakos seems to forget what the story is actually
about! The last act is a rushed mess, ending on a most inappropriately
abrupt note with several plot strands still left dangling and
unresolved. Milonakos' staging is so flat and unfeeling that
even the sex scenes become a little boring through repetition
— he tries livening them up a bit through arty cross-cutting,
but it's not particularly effective. The subplot involving Emanuelle's
stepdaughter feels particularly half-baked, and the scenes of
young Livia Russo stripping down to take a shower, lose her
virginity on the beach, or be subjected to a violent rape feel
a little creepy since the actress in question looks to be significantly
under 18 years of age; if indeed she was "of age"
it certainly doesn't appear that way.
It's really difficult to find much of interest
in this film. The performances range from the disinterested
(Gordon Mitchell, whose credits range from dreck like Frankenstein
'80 to art house classics like Fellini
Satyricon to any number of Italian sword and sandal pictures,
pops up as a potential heavy) to the amateurish (Russo, in seemingly
her only screen role, is particularly risible during her emotional
scenes), and even Gemser seems a bit bored by it all. Gemser's
real life lover Gabriele Tinti, a veteran of several Emanuelle
flicks as well as Mario Bava's Lisa and
the Devil (1972), shows up and has the requisite sex
scene with Emanuelle but is otherwise given little to do. While
there is some camp value in the tacky fashions (dig all those
leisure suits, man!) and lethargic action scenes, ultimately
Emanuelle: Queen of Sados is recommended
only for the staunchest of skin flick enthusiasts. There are
any number of similarly poorly made and plotted hardcore films
that at least deliver where it counts.
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Media
Blaster's release of Emanuelle: Queen of
Sados (packaged as Emanuelle's Daughter:
Queen of Sados) is part of their Exploitation Digital
line of DVDs. The fullframe image is reasonably colorful and comes
from a decent source print. It's hard to tell if this was matted
for theaters, or if this is a cropped release. Compositions are
seldom particularly striking, and they appear to be well balanced,
so the lack of letterboxing doesn't pose an obvious issue. Image
quality is good if a little soft, though this could be the fault
of the original cinematography. The mono English soundtrack is
rife with laughable dubbing, but is otherwise clean and clear,
showing off the funky score to its best advantage. Extras include
silent outtakes from the filming (granting us different angles
to some of the shots, only appreciated when it comes to Gemser
stretching out to sunbathe on the beach), a photo gallery, and
trailers for this film and other Media Blasters' erotica releases.
The hilarious trailers for stinkers like Porno
Holocaust and Yellow Emanuelle
are actually more entertaining than the feature itself.
12/22/05 |
