Emanuelle Around the World (1977)

 

 
By 1977 the Black Emanuelle series was becoming very popular, and in a turn of events that most Spaghetti Western fans would appreciate, every film that Gemser starred in was becoming known as an Emanuelle film. As with most of the rest of the films in the series, here Emanuelle is a photo-journalist, paid to travel the world in search of a good story, and she does. This time however, instead of just liberating repressed couples, she develops a concience and tackles some deeper issues, in this case white slavery and women being kidnapped from Italy and sold overseas. The film remains entertaining, and rather unpredictable throughout, as Emanuelle delves deeper and deeper into the white slave trade conspiracy and often puts herself at risk. There are some interesting characters, most notably Dr. Malcolm Robertson who keeps cropping up throughout the film, while the Indian guru sequence has some good comic moments.

Unfortunately it is clear that by 1977 the filmmakers were being pushed into including ever more shocking and sex filled sequences and a lot of the flow of the storyline is lost beneath some rather gratuitous sex scenes (the lesbian encounter on a boat seems to be completely unnecessary) and shock scenes (some brutal rapes and hints at beastiality [not so much hinted at in the film's XXX cut!]) - the shock sequences in particular make the film a little harder to watch than the earlier Black Emanuelle but will certainly please the sleaze fans. The ending does seem rather unnecessary, a tacked on sequence that seems to exist just to show another rape scene, although the conclusion is rather fitting.

Director Joe D'Amato is clearly at home here and directs the film very well throughout - however there do seem to be some problems with the editing; Emanuelle travels between various countries throughout the film, yet it is often hard for us to tell when one place ends and another begins, a few stock shots of planes or boats might have been helpful in clarifying matters. Several scenes seem to cut away very quickly, most notably a rape scene in the white slavers villa cuts straight into the characters walking out of a police station and cheats us of the police raid - an anticipated action highlight of the film. In keeping with the aim to outdo previous films in the series, the sex scenes are longer and more explicit than before, although this does mean that they can drag a little in places. The soundtrack again comes from Nico Fidenco with a suitably cheesy opening soundtrack (that sounds disturbingly like something from ABBA) and some solid incidental music.

 
Laura Gemser is back in her trademark role, and looks as good and beautiful as ever. The more mature, but still attractive Karen Schubert (who some might recognise as the all blond 'Zaira' from Spaghetti Western Companeros (1970)) plays her comrade Cora Norman, while the big George Eastman is heavily made-up to play the Indian guru and Ivan Rassimov returns from Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976). As expected there is a big supporting cast of nubile and often naked men and women (mostly women) throughout.

Emanuelle goes sleazy but sacrifices some of the quality of the earlier films in the series. Certainly recommended to fans of the sleazy sexploitation films of the era it also makes a good sampling point for anyone interested in exploring these darker entries to the genre. Partly recommended.

All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 29th March 2007.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

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