BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX, VOL. 2

Italy | 1976, 1978 Directors: Brunello Rondi, Bitto Albertini Joe D'Amato Starring Laura Gemser, Gabriele Tinti Annie Belle, Sharon Lesley Dagmar Lassander, Ely Galleani Color | Not Rated BLACK/WHITE: 95 Min. BLACK EMANUELLE 2: 92 Min. WHITE SLAVE TRADE: 89 Min. Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC | 4-disc set) Severin Films

Music from the film Run, Cheetah, Run MP3 format - 6.6 MB

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Also available: The XXX edition of EMANUELLE AROUND THE WORLD

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"Extra Cheese" icon does not apply to BLACK EMANUELLE/WHITE EMANUELLE

Severin has graced the world with a second volume of "Black Emanuelle" movies, bringing another three titles in this very loose series to Region 1 DVD. They've done a great job presenting the films but this dip into the erotic pool is less fun than the first. Not that the box set is without its pleasures, but it gets pretty strange this time out. Art and sex just don't always mix satisfactorily.     The first film in this new collection is called Black Emanuelle/White Emanuelle on the packaging but the onscreen title, in Italian, is Black Velvet. (There actually isn't a character named "Emanuelle" in the pic at all.) Directed by a collaborator of Fellini, the 1976 film seems to be trying desperately to say something but I was never sure what that might be. For the most part it's the usual amalgam of attractive women going to beautiful places to do very little. Plot? We don't need no stinking plot! We have four gorgeous women willing to parade around naked at any time and in any place. That's all the damned plot we need! Of course, one might argue that this is true of most of this kind softcore sexploitation but this one tries so hard to be... something... that it's never any fun. It's so serious that it slides repeatedly into the silly category best termed "Artsy Fartsy" — and that means dullsville, friends!     The very attractive Susan Scott (AKA Nieves Navarro) plays a middle-aged woman living in a seaside villa in Egypt. She and her nymphomaniac daughter Magda (Ziggy Zanger) are waiting with some trepidation for a group of weekend visitors to arrive. One of the visitors is the youngest of Scott's children, Pina (Laure's Annie Belle), who was last seen running off with her dear mother's third husband. That she's coming to visit with a lesbian lover does not seem to reassure anyone. The other visitors are model Laura (Laura Gemser) and her jerk of a photographer Carlo (Gabriele Tinti, Gemser's frequent co-star and real life husband). Carlo seems to revel in taking "important pictures" of naked chicks next to dead bodies, both animal and human. He also likes abusing his models while commanding them to pose in certain ways. By the time he chases a crying Laura into the desert and rapes her I was sure something was being said about art and ego — but I couldn't have cared less.     So the couples meet at the villa and are introduced to Horatio (Al Cliver - Zombie, Cannibals) a mystic holy man with a following of locals in awe of his... I was never really sure why Horatio had followers. He never said anything revelatory or insightful. Or interesting. At any rate, he's Scott's lover and it's obvious he doesn't give a damn about her and is using her for her money. I figured he was a complete fake until he exhibited some hypnotic abilities at a party. In this scene he is able to force the people at the party to reveal their hidden fears and act like morons. I'm not sure if they were supposed to act like morons but they did anyway. This party is thrown by expatriate American actor Hal Burns (Theodore Chaliapin) who appears to be retired from his career. This character is in the movie to prove that someone present can act even if he simply fluctuates between under and overacting with little reason for either style. I'm not sure that occasionally breaking into random lines from Shakespeare qualifies as highbrow but these certainly stand out as the more coherent lines spoken in the film.     The movie meanders along with Scott's character afraid her daughter will run off with Horatio the same way she took her third husband. Laura finally tells Carlo to go to hell and he acts like an idiot. Scattered about are various sex scenes with the supposed highlight being the sadly dull lesbian encounter between Belle and Gemser. Neither actress seems very enthused about being nude with each other so it turns out to be pretty bland. There seem to be several attempts to make important points about life, love and sex but they're all so sloppily laid out that I ended up vacillating between scratching my head and rolling my eyes. Striking Egyptian locales are shown to no effect and artfully photographed scenes are constantly undercut by ridiculous actions from the characters. There is nearly no internal consistency to the way people interact with each other with every single decision made by the characters seeming to be completely random. If some of the odd goings on were supposed to be symbolic or intellectually insightful I guess they got past me. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and sometimes a sex film just needs to figure out what it is and get to the point. Merely wandering around wallowing in decadence and ennui can be pretty damned dull.     Black Emanuelle 2 (1976) is another thing entirely. The movie is sex happy and proud of it but can't stop shoving its hysterical plot in the way of the nudity and groping. Luckily the story is extremely silly and played with such a straight face that the film becomes an unintentional comedy. There are few things funnier than stiffly emoting, poorly-dubbed actors going on and on about the sexual hang-ups of a woman hopping from bed to bed. It might be "an erotic odyssey" but it's pretty far from drama. Here our eponymous Emanuelle is played by Sharon Lesley, making this the only film in the box set not to star Laura Gemser in the role. Ms. Lesley is certainly a gorgeous lady with an amazing body but her face is both less interesting and less striking in its beauty. Gemser is often referred to as too skinny but Lesley certainly can't be said to have that flaw. Voluptuous best describes her... This is a woman with some very nice curves.     The film begins with famous model Emanuelle having checked herself into a private psychiatric clinic. She was recently in Beirut where she witnessed a terrorist bombing and now is having trouble remembering her past. Her psychiatrist, Paul (Anglo Infanti), digs into the tales she relates about her life but finds that her spotty memory differs sharply from the reality laid out by her family and friends. In a plot conceit that shamelessly steals from Citizen Kane the doctor goes around questioning people to get their stories about Emanuelle in an attempt to make sense of what's happened to her. And, hysterically, the film also steals from Rashômon the idea of each person telling E's story with the details shown often being very different from her version. (Rip-off from the best, I guess!) A photographer friend of Emanuelle's tells of a night together in Venice that resulted in her freaking out and screaming at the poor guy while E's story paints this mild-mannered fellow as a predator. Emanuelle tells the doctor that her father is a drunken bum living on the street, but instead he's a sober professional musician who has taken care of his daughter her whole life. And she professes not to remember her husband Fred (Percy Hogan), who recounts her voracious sexual appetite that only kicked in once they were married.     And the doctor has problems of his own on the home front. Foxy wife Susan (Dagmar Lassander of Forbidden Photos Of A Lady Above Suspicion) is angry that he's spending so much time at work, ignoring her needs. (If I had her at home I think I'd be spending more time around the house.) But wifey's petulant attitude is just a distraction for the dedicated shrink as he tries to concentrate on Emanuelle's trauma.     Doc's investigation is complicated by the arrival at the clinic of his nymphomaniac niece, who checks herself in occasionally to rest and make passes at her uncle. Soon the girl is convincing Emanuelle to play around in restricted areas and get naked together. Ah... the joys of multiracial lesbian pseudo-sex. The lusty duo sneak out of the clinic and have a threesome with a sailor who can dangle a 12-pound anchor from his manhood. And then it's back to the doctor to finally pull the deep dark secret out of E's tortured psyche that explains why she is so traumatized. Ridiculously, her father could have cleared this problem up with a simple mention of siblings when this mess started but then we'd have had a pretty short film. This information allows Emanuelle to make a breakthrough in her therapy and then all she has to do is decide with who she wants to ride off into future happiness.     Calling this film silly is an understatement. It gets to be so laughable that I kept waiting for talking animals to start popping up in Emanuelle's flashbacks. And if I'm ever in a mental hospital I hope the security is as lax as it is in this one. If the night guard isn't off screwing a nurse he's prattling on about the long hours he works. And somehow I doubt most of these kinds of clinics come with hot & cold running nymphomaniacs — although a guy can dream, I suppose. Overall, it's a funny but dumb movie that I actually enjoyed for its sheer goofiness. It's not good by any real measure but it is entertaining.     The third film in the set was like returning to an old friend. The last film of the series to be directed by the amazing Joe (Images In A Convent) D'Amato, Emanuelle And The White Slave Trade (1978) has Laura Gemser again playing her signature role, that of a crusading — and extremely horny — American photojournalist. Much like previous Emanuelle collaborations between these two the film unfolds like a loose collection of sequences masquerading as a story. You almost get the feeling that the entire tale might have been made up after the fact when they were dubbing the dialog. For me this adds rather than detracts from the fun. After all, the point here is the scenery and even as the story veers into dark territory it remains oddly light. And damned silly as well!     The film opens with Emanuelle in Nairobi, trying to get an interview with wealthy recluse Giorgio Rivetti (Valentino Venantini). Turned away from the man's house without even spotting him, E and her ex-model friend Susan (Ely Galleani) pose as stewardesses to get close to Prince Arausani (Pierre Marfurt). The prince is being wined and dined by Rivetti to influence him to ink an oil deal with Kenya. The charming Prince sees through the girls' subterfuge but after talking to them agrees to introduce the bikini-clad ladies to Rivetti any way. At first Rivetti is angered at having a journalist in his home but he slowly softens, soon enlisting Emanuelle to help him convince Arausani to sign the oil papers. She agrees for the right to an interview and soon the four of them are off on a photo safari and gliding over the African veldt in a hot air balloon. Of course, sex is the next logical step. Soon the happy prince has signed on the dotted line and gone home, leaving Susan and Emanuelle time to have a drug fueled threesome with Rivetti. I love a happy ending. Oh, wait! That's only the first 30 minutes! Now for the plot.     Before Emanuelle goes back to America she spots for a second time a woman involved in a shady public money drop on the streets of Nairobi. Rivetti tells her that the man she notices with this woman is named Francis Harley (Tinti again) — who's rumored to be involved in the white slave trade. E arches her eyebrows and begins to think.     Back home she starts looking into Mr. Harley's activities. Following him around town she's able to surreptitiously watch him participate in a slave auction — right in the heart of Manhattan! (The things they keep off the tourist routes...) She disguises herself as a down-on-her-luck but still hotter than hell gal alone in the big city. She's able to meet Harley easily enough and soon he's making her an aboveboard offer of work as a high class prostitute. Emanuelle agrees and she's off to San Diego where she's ensconced in an upscale brothel on a country estate. The place caters to very wealthy men and lesbian Madam Claude of the house informs E that The Organization frowns on people that talk about their business.     Emanuelle settles in, performs her first trick (while the masturbating Madam watches) and finally sneaks around the house to peep at the sexual shenanigans in the various rooms. This is a standard D'Amato sequence, with Gemser snapping pictures of sex scenes that could be filmed either hard or softcore. Similar sequences turn up in at least two other of his Black Emanuelle movies and I always find them welcome. But , of course, I'm a perv.     Then poor Emanuelle is caught with the camera. Things look bleak until she gains an unexpected ally in the madam's cross-dressing second-in-command. He spirits her away from the estate but the pair are then attacked by Organization minions. This sequence is one of the funniest things I've seen in years! There's nothing like seeing a man dressed in drag whip out some kung fu badassness on a group of stuntmen. (At a bowling alley, no less.) I watched this whole scene at least three times and the violence gets funnier each time. This needs to be on YouTube!     The evil minions rape Emanuelle (you didn't think she’d make it through one of these movies without getting raped, did you?) and ship her off to a private hospital. Here she's scheduled for a nice little lobotomy but a randy lesbian nurse provides an accidental way to break free. You gotta love the old prison laundry truck escape. The film ends with our lovely Ms. Emanuelle trading group sex with a boatload of fishermen for a ride to Los Angeles. And she does it with a smile!     Wacky in the extreme, this is exactly what I come to a Black Emanuelle film looking to see. Some exotic locations, some gorgeous naked women, some lesbian sex, some straight sex and ...uh... whatever else gets tossed in to fill roughly 90 minutes. Globe hopping and bed hopping are the hallmarks of these films, with the always game Ms. Gemser going about it all with a twinkle in her eye. White Slave Trade isn’t the best of the series in my opinion but it is a good entry. Never boring and always in motion, the film kept my interest with its crazy mix of off-the-wall elements. It seems to be two separate story ideas welded together for feature length but the enthusiasm and energy is infectious. Special mention should be made of the insane song that plays over the opening and closing credits, "Run, Cheetah, Run" — one of the nuttiest bits of '70s disco funkiness I've yet encountered. I'm pretty sure the vocalist was not well acquainted with the English language. Few things make me laugh harder than someone singing in a tongue in which they aren't fluent, constantly putting the wrong inflection on words. Hysterical! (You can give it a listen by clicking on the speaker icon near the top of the left-hand sidebar.) This film is a fun bit of Euro-sleaze and well worth checking out for anyone curious. The fact that the back cover of the DVD case claims this complete print was found in the private collection of a "depraved European industrialist" just adds to the craziness. If this is true, what other bits of trashy madness await us in future Severin DVDs?

Each of the three films is given its own disc and each has its own slight extras. All sport a short interview piece and a trailer for the movie presented, often under an alternate title. The Black Emanuelle/White Emanuelle interview is with actors Al Cliver and Annie Belle. They talk a little about the experience of making the film and relate the short form of their years-long love affair. The Black Emanuelle 2 extra is a recent interview with Dagmar Lassander called Diva '70. The retired actress is very open about her career and has some fascinating tales. This interview I wished had been longer and gone into her credits with more depth but what's offered is very good. On Emanuelle And The White Slave Trade the extra is a candid interview with Joe D'Amato captured on a camcorder. Filmed in 1994 'after hours' at a convention in London, the director is questioned about his hardcore films and what he likes in his own list of works. This is a very informal interview; even though he isn't entirely comfortable speaking in English a lot of great information is presented. As with Black Emanuelle's Box, Vol. 1, a CD of soundtrack music from three films in the series is included — in this case Emanuelle In America, Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals and Emanuelle And The White Slave Trade (the latter under the title Life Of A Prostitute). Again, this is a great extra and one that's getting much play through my headphones.     This set is quite an addition to the Eurotrash stack and Severin continues to do an exemplary job. Each film is presented widescreen and enhanced for 16x9 TVs (of course). Only Black Emanuelle/White Emanuelle has more than one audio option, with both the Italian and English tracks plus optional subtitles. The other two movies make due with only the English dub jobs which are serviceable if not exactly perfect versions of the dialog shown onscreen. Only White Slave Trade had any picture or sound faults but they were very brief. Overall this is a satisfying dip into the European erotica pool but not as much fun as the first box set. I wonder if there are plans for third... 1/04/08

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