Black Emanuelle’s Box 2 (Part 1)

Once upon on a time, I worked at a video store. As jobs go, it was a blessing, allowing me nearly unlimited access to foreign films, cult classics and, thanks to a miraculous back room full of wondrous carnality, every perversion known to man. But, it was a job not without its frustrations. Most involved getting in between a young man in an oversized 2-Pac shirt and his $5 late fee for Scarface, but many were caused by the soft-core porn section, and its convoluted maze of various Emmanuelle films and their seemingly endless yet unconnected sequels.

I soon discovered that there are actually two separate series of Emmanuelle films. The first was a French series of X-rated films based on the Emmanuelle Arsan novel Emmanuelle. These were shocking, explicit, and provocative, but weren’t quite soulless enough for the Italians, who decided to remove one “m” from the title and replace it with plenty of violence and debauchery. These films were known as the Black Emanuelle series and, for the most part, starred Laura Gemser as a globetrotting journalist investigating various ways of getting the clap on different continents.

And thanks to Severin Films, audience can revel in the bacchanalian excess all over again, with the release of Black Emanuelle’s Box Volume 2, an excellent collection of three films from the Italian exploitation series. The DVDs are unrated, and feature behind the scenes footage, interviews, and deleted scenes, as well as a soundtrack CD featuring scores from several Emanuelle classics.

Emanuelle And The White Slave Trade

There’s not much to say about this film that’s not contained in the title. Laura Gemser’s Emanuelle is on assignment in Kenya, though it’s unclear as to what that assignment is. It seems to involve either writing a story about an international businessman or, judging by the amount of sex she has in the first 20 minutes, swelling up with children like a trap-door spider’s egg sac. What’s astounding about the film is how this initial premise eventually results in Emanuelle turning tricks in a San Diego brothel under the watchful eye of a transvestite kung-fu prostitute, like some sort of massive run-on sentence that spans the history of exploitation film.

In a film like this, there’s little that presents itself to be judged with any degree of seriousness. Filmmakers like Joe D’Amato know their audience and pander to their needs, providing exotic locals, outlandish plot conceits, and brief non-sexual interludes of violence to allow viewers to recover their strength. The script is efficient, in that it moves from point A to point B to sexually transmitted disease C with little flourish or even self-parody. Director D’Amato is far more comfortable with sex scenes than he is with action or dialogue, and wisely keeps the viewer’s attention focused on the former. Gemser, however, infuses her role with more life than one might expect from an adult actress. In her hands, Emanuelle is less of a wanton harlot and more of a sexually empowered modern woman, which gives the film at least a mildly interesting social context, and makes it definitely worth at least a $5 late fee.

Rating (film): 7 on 10

Rating (box set): 9 on 10

alkratina@comicbookbin.com