For the second part of our massive look at Severin’s THE SENSUAL WORLD OF BLACK EMANUELLE box set, let’s move onto to disc three with Joe D’Amato’s EMANUELLE AROUND THE WORLD, which is yet another undisputable high watermark of the series, and in its uncut form, moves in a similar milieu as D’Amato’s EMANUELLE IN AMERICA. Beginning in San Francisco, Emanuelle (Gemser, ’natch) is first seen getting it on with a truckdriver (an uncredited Paul Thomas) in the back of his moving truck, and in a genuinely humorous touch, she casually refers to her return from a “desert island”, which, rather tenuously, connects this film to EMANUELLE IN AMERICA’s rather baffling conclusion. After dutifully returning to work, Emanuelle meets with Dr. Malcolm Robertson (Ivan Rasismov), a United Nations chairman with a position on the Third World Aid Committee, which leads her to embark on an ambitious assignment to reveal the oppression of women around the world. Following a lengthy sojourn to India to meet a world-renowned sex guru (George Eastman) who has “discovered the secret of the ultimate climax”, Emanuelle soon learns of a ruthless white slavery ring, which leads her to Rome. Joined by fellow reporter Cora Norman (Karin Schubert), their investigation takes them to Hong Kong and Tehran where they witness first-hand the “cruelest forms of violence”, and an Emir (Gianni Macchia) who controls a vast harem (“This Emir is pretty groovy!”). However, upon their return to the United States, they are coerced into witnessing a brutal rape at the hands of several wealthy U.S. senators, which proves that her potential expose will offer no solutions and merely confirm the infinite vicious circle of violence against women…
In spite of the film’s generally upbeat tone, which is helped along by Nico Fidenco’s irresistibly compulsive score, D’Amato’s ultimate cynical message here seems to be that irredeemable human corruption exists not only at the top of society but also at the very bottom… and everywhere else in between. Individual segments connected by a general linking theme expose several acts of violence upon a host of white slavery victims. In a sequence snatched right out of an adult fumetti, a monstrously-scarred Italian mafioso (an uncredited Craig Hill) has his way with several kidnapped women (including Emanuelle) as D’Amato’s gloomy cinematography paints characters in suitably murky twilight hues, which effectively conveys a morbid façade akin to a horror film nasty. Later in Hong Kong, the sleaze continues to flow as Emanuelle is ensnared by the vice ring and is forced to witness the brutal punishment inflicted on defiant girls, and in what is arguably the film’s roughest sequence, Emanuelle is once again held against her will and forced to give fellatio to a homeless man at gunpoint, this, after witnessing a brutal gang-rape underneath a garbage-strewn New York overpass. In spite of the film’s rougher moments, it’s all handled with style by D’Amato, and the alluring mystique of Emanuelle and the empowerment she endows (“I am love!”) still prevails, which cleverly echoes Fidenco’s unforgettable main theme.
As released by Wizard Video (in both a slipcase and big box edition) during the ’80s, this was another popular VHS videocassette, which seemed to appear in just about every video store all those years ago. One of the first DVD releases out of the gate was a Russian DVD, which contained the theatrical cut of the film and looked acceptable for the time. Severin’s DVD from 2007, which was released as part of their Black Emanuelle’s Box Volume 1, also contained the film’s shorter theatrical cut with an improved transfer, and also contained the aforementioned Black Emanuelle’s Groove interview with Fidenco, and the film’s U.S. theatrical trailer. As expected, Severin’s new Blu of the full uncut version is another expertly transferred title, which looks great in HD with rich, nicely balanced colours and excellent detail. The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio tracks include English and Italian audio (with optional English subtitles) and both sound excellent with Fidenco’s score adding immeasurably to the film’s experience.
Once again, Severin packs their disc with an embarrassment of riches beginning with Around the World with Emanuelle (31m03s), a very welcome on-camera interview with author and film historian Stephen Thrower who provides his usual erudite observations. He discusses how D’Amato is always “willing to pull out all the stops” and the similarities to some of Jess Franco’s vast filmography, the “leering quality” of the film, the “mis-match” between the film’s message and how it goes about expressing it, the globetrotting locations, and much more. In I’m Not a Guru (13m54s), actor and frequent collaborator Luigi Montefiori (a.k.a. George Eastman) talks about D’Amato’s “jovial and good-hearted” nature and his ability to convince an actor to do anything, and he also believes that when D’Amato turned to directing, it ruined his career. Actor Gianni Macchia also has a lot of nice things to say about D’Amato including his incredible talent as a camera operator, and he also speaks extensively about his breakout role in Fernando Di Leo’s A WOMAN ON FIRE (1969). And finally, in A Tribute to Karin Schubert: The ‘Nackedei’ Actress (19m18s), Kier-La Janisse, Stephen Broomer, and writer Jean-Luc Marrat, chronicle Schubert’s films, stardom and troubled life in yet another fabulous visual essay, which is easily one of the highlights of the disc. The film’s familiar U.S. theatrical trailer (“Join Emanuelle as she goes around the world in 80 ways!”, 2m29s) is once again included.
Opening with a hilarious and patently false opening blurb (“This is a true story as reported by Jennifer O’Sullivan.”), Joe D’Amato’s EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS (1977) is the second film on disc three, and is his answer to the then-burgeoning cannibal films such as Ruggero Deodato’s THE LAST CANNIBAL WORLD (a.k.a. JUNGLE HOLOCAUST, 1977). Once again opening in New York City, a patient at a psychiatric hospital takes a nasty bite out of a nurse’s breast; an incident which hard-working ‘on-the-scene’ photojournalist Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) happens to snap a photograph of with her conveniently-hidden camera. Later that night, Emanuelle sneaks into the room of the attacker – who, by the way, is confined to a straightjacket – and (ahem) ‘eases her tensions’ in a way that only Emanuelle could. Upon snapping a few more gratuitous photos of the half-naked bite victim, she then reports back to her editor. Immediately sensing a hot story (“The last cannibals! What a scoop!” exclaims her overzealous editor), Emanuelle is put in contact with Mark Lester (Gabriele Tinti), a curator at the Natural History Musuem, who goes on to educate her about various tribal rites across the globe via some scratchy B&W movie footage. Of course, Emanuelle also jumps into bed with Mark as the film crosscuts them rolling around the sheets with their journey to the Amazon (“Amazonia is a land that lives by its own rules.”). Upon their arrival, they meet Wilkes (Geoffrey Copleston), who organizes their trip into the jungle to meet Father Morales, the only outsider who has ever had any contact with the elusive cannibal tribe. Also along for the ride are Wilkes’ daughter Isabelle (Monika Zanchi), who will be their guide for the trip, and Sister Angela (Annamarie Clementi), one of the nuns working at Morales’ mission. During their trek, they also come across Donald and Maggie Mackenzie (Donal[d] O’Brien and Susan Scott), a bickering dysfunctional couple whose deceitful and uncooperative relations are the least of the expedition’s problems when the cannibals strike.
What it lacks in sophistication, EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS more than makes up for in scuzzy exploitation, delivering ample sex and gore at regular intervals. At this point in his career, director D’Amato was also no slouch at making straight-ahead horror films as well (his DEATH SMILES AT MURDER [1973] is a particular standout), so he came with impeccable credentials to tackle this hybrid of two styles. Unlike the earlier entries, contentious social issues aren’t really explored, but its repulsive enough to meet and exceed expectations, even if, many of the gore effects are cheaply executed including one laughable optical effect; Sister Angela’s demise, however, is actually quite gruesome, and one of the strongest scenes in the film. Attaining a nice balance between its less typical and more familiar elements, EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNBIALS is a solid assault of sleaze complimented by yet another fab Nico Fidenco score, parts of which were later re-used in Marino Girolami’s ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST (a.k.a. DR. BUTCHER M.D., 1980), yet another unforgettable Italo gore hybrid.
Available during the VHS boom on Twilight Video under its notorious U.S. release title of TRAP THEM AND KILL THEM, this was released on DVD in 2003 courtesy of Shriek Show, whose edition featured a solid transfer that was highlighted by robust colours and solid detail for an SD release. This long out-of-print DVD included a generous stills gallery, a theatrical trailer, plus trailers for some of Shriek Show’s other titles. The film made its HD debut in 2016 via 88 Films, which was passable for the time, but left a lot of room for improvement. In 2018, Severin debuted the film on North American Blu in yet another one of their superlative packages, which featured a crisp new transfer and an excellent assortment of extra features. Scanned in 2K from “original vault elements”, Severin’s disc was far more detailed with a healthy amount of film grain. The DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 was also offered in both English and Italian and both sounded clear and free of distortion despite the rather wonky English dub track. Happily, Severin also included properly-translated English subtitles for the Italian track, as well as closed captions.
The copious extras begin with The World of Nico Fidenco (27m04s), a career-spanning interview with the film’s music composer, who collaborated with Joe D’Amato a number of times. Initially studying to become a director at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografica, this ambition was cut short when Fidenco had to do his mandatory military service, but upon his return, he started singing and playing guitar instead. This led to him singing the title song “What a Sky / Su ne cielo” in Francesco Maselli’s SILVER SPOON SET (1960), which subsequently launched his musical career. Through further “coincidences”, this fortuitous event also initiated a prolific career composing film music, beginning with his sparse if highly-memorable score for Giovanni Grimaldi’s spaghetti western IN A COLT’S SHADOW (1966). Additionally, Fidenco goes on to speak of his long working relationship with D’Amato and his ability to make “three movies with the budget of one”; a piece of advice he took from famed composer Henry Mancini to “make one theme (or two, if necessary) that will be remembered” (which is most certainly the case with this film’s catchy score!); and finally touches on working with Gemser, Tinti, director Marino Girolami, and how his life is a “never-ending surprise”. Solid stuff, indeed! In Nocturno’s A Nun Among the Cannibals (22m53s), Annamarie Clementi talks about how she got into the business through her friend and agent Pino Pellegrino and how her life at that point was much akin to a “spin-dryer”; she also discusses her nasty demise in the film under review and found it “amusing”, but was less amused when she found herself covered in smelly offal on the set while shooting the scene. Next up, in Doctor O’Brien (18m47s), Donal(d) O’Brien discusses his early years at the Dublin Gate Theatre; his breakthrough on John Frankenheimer’s THE TRAIN (1964) – in which he memorably portrayed a stubborn Nazi NCO opposite the film’s protagonist Burt Lancaster – and his migration to Italy where he “fell in love with Italy and its people”; he also goes on to call D’Amato’s nasty-nun shocker IMAGES IN A CONVENT (1979) a “semi-masterpiece”! In From Switzerland to the Mato Grosso(18m40s), Monika Zanchi talks of her turbulent lifestyle before she was ‘discovered’, which led to a brief film career that began with Pasquale Festa Campanile’s crimeslime road movie HITCH-HIKE (1977) and SISTER EMANUELLE; she also speaks warmly of maverick director Alberto Cavallone as “the most-human, the most-creative” director she ever worked with. The featurettes concluded with the aforementioned I Am Your Black Queen audio interview, the film’s original theatrical trailer, and for the first 3000 copies, a soundtrack CD of Fidenco’s memorable score, which included 31 tracks totalling 59m04s.
Given Severin’s superb track record with this film, it should come as no surprise that the box set contains the same transfer, audio options, and extra features (minus the CD) as their earlier Blu, but not wanting to simply re-cycle the same contents, Severin have generously added a couple of new – and essential – extras beginning with a highly-detailed and well-researched audio commentary with Stephen Thrower. In it, he shares a great deal of background info on Joe D’Amato whom he considers to be a “vanguard of European directors”, the film’s quickie status and filming locations, jumping on the cannibal film bandwagon, and some of the film’s more problematic scenes including Emanuelle’s rather “unethical” approach to journalism. Having seen her name appear in the credits of quite a few Italian trash films, it’s great to finally get an interview with costume designer Silvana Scandariato in Dressed to Eat (18m46s), wherein she gives us her thoughts on D’Amato and their long-standing working relationship including their numerous collaborations on the Black Emanuelle films.
Delving into the more obscure entries of the Emanuelle series, disc four begins with Bruno Mattei’s PORNO NIGHTS OF THE WORLD (1977), a late-in-the-trend mondo film, which is basically a variation of the ‘white-coater.’ Produced during the late ’60s and early ’70s, white-coaters were explicit sexploitation films (many of which included hardcore sex), which skirted the law because they purported to include educational context due to their inclusion of a talking head in a white coat (i.e., an obviously fake doctor). Mattei dispenses with the doctor angle completely, and instead has photo journalist Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) introduce and narrate the film’s numerous – and increasingly ridiculous – vignettes. Relegated to mostly striptease routines and nightclub acts, the first performance is a take on the classic story of The Beauty and the Beast wherein porno starlet Marina Frajese, dressed in a safari costume, performs a slinky if chaste exotic dance before a man in a gorilla suit forcefully has his way her. In Hong Kong, women “dance like butterflies within the shadows” in a posh lesbian club, which once again highlights more exotic stripping. Other increasingly bizarre clips include a magician who turns a woman into a man, mud wrestling, fertility rites, a visit to “deepest, darkest Africa” where a man is graphically castrated for adultery (stock footage re-used from EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS), naked roller skating (more sneakily re-purposed footage, this time from Erwin C. Dietrich’s PIN-UP PLAYMATES [1972]), and a visit to Bangkok where the “inhabitants are completely uninhibited.” In between the vignettes, Emanuelle cheerily offers plenty of silly philosophical ruminations as she too clumsily sheds her clothes while taking numerous sips of whiskey (“I really love whiskey!”). Completely absurd, this freakshow of perversity is just too damn silly to be taken seriously, but Gemser is charismatic as ever (nicely dubbed on English versions by the always reliable Pat Starke), and Gianni Marchetti’s (credited here as Joe Dynamo) score provides a jaunty synth / funk score that keeps things jugging along nicely.
Barely released on home video, the film first turned up on Canadian VHS as SEXY NIGHT REPORT via Intercontinental Film & Video Enterprises, a Canadian based label affiliated with the Metro Theatre, a Toronto adult movie house that shuttered its doors in 2013. The film eventually made its way to Italian DVD as part of Cecchi Gori’s Cine Sexy line, but sadly, it was in Italian only, but unlike the Canadian VHS, it was at least uncut and remained the optimum release prior to Severin’s uncut, English-friendly Blu-ray. With its fair share of borrowed material, this was always going to have a rather rough-hewn appearance, but Severin has performed a small miracle here, and outside of the grainy stock footage, it’s far better than anything preceding it. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks in both English and Italian are also clean and free of any issues. Optional SDH subtitles are also provided.
The extras begin with Master of the World (8m41s), an archival interview with Bruno Mattei wherein he talks about some of his uncredited directing chores on Joe D’Amato’s EMANUELLE AND FRANCOISE (1975), his collaboration with D’Amato on the present film, and the genesis of the film and its relative success. In At the Dining Table(18m46s), producer Franco Gaudenzi enthusiastically discusses his love for movies and how he got his start in the business, his time at Variety Film in the ’80s where he produced many of Mattei’s latter-day efforts, and his relationship with D’Amato and how he always enjoyed working with him because there was “no risk.” In The Naked Eye: Sex and the Mondo Film (43m29s), film historian Elizabeth Purchell, author Mark Goodall and Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin explore the more lascivious properties of the mondo film beginning with their origins in “ethnographic nature films” such as Elwood Price’s MAU MAU (1955) and other early “mondo adjacent” nudist films, the differences between European and U.S. efforts, the aforementioned white-coaters, the “snapshot in time” many of these boundary-pushing films showed including “world’s that no longer exist”, and of course, they also discuss the D’Amato and Mattei films at great length alongside a wealth of fascinating film clips; it’s a superb doc and one of the many of the highlights of the set. Lastly, the film’s hilarious (which includes several mis-spelled title cards) English opening credits (2m14s) and the film’s original English export trailer (3m03s) are also included.
The next film on disc four is EMANUELLE AND THE PORNO NIGHTS OF THE WORLD (1978), credited to ‘Jummy Mathews’, one of Mattei’s lesser-known (and laughably mis-spelled) pseudonyms. Virtually interchangeable with the above reviewed movie, Mattei’s stock-in-trade is delivering the exploitation goods, and he certainly doesn’t skimp here. Bookended by Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) driving on the Las Vegas strip (which makes use of obligatory stock footage of brightly-lit casinos), she cheerfully introduces our first clip about a group of horny spiritualists, which Emanuelle jokingly refers to as “the porno nights of the round table” as they try to invoke a sex-obsessed spirit that culminates in a protracted orgy. Along the way, we are further treated to a sex-oriented carnival, penis enlargement surgery in Japan (“This operation is so complex, it seems like something out of science-fiction!” quips our narrator.), more fertility rites from New Guinea, a guide on “how to make a porno film”, bubble-bath wrestling (!), and plenty more besides.
Once again, D’Amato goes uncredited for his work alongside Mattei, who offer yet another unpretentious contribution to the worldwide mondo craze, unfolding more borrowed footage alongside ‘all-new’ scenes, which they probably threw together over a few weekends. Classifying SEXY NIGHT REPORT and EMANUELLE AND THE PORNO NIGHTS OF THE WORLD as two separate films almost seems like a bit of stretch, which Emanuelle cheekily confirms in her narration about the filmmakers collecting “enough material to make three movies!” But even though it delivers much of the same, this follow-up to SEXY NIGHT REPORT amounts to a another surprisingly watchable, and at times gleefully sleazy bit of hokum exemplifying the sex / mondo film crossover.
Like its predecessor, this also had a sparse home video history, surfacing on Australian VHS as EMANUELLE AND THE PORNO NIGHTS courtesy of Palace Video and their short-lived Vibrant line. The full-screen presentation looked quite good, but given Australia’s rather strict censorship policies at the time, some of the more extreme bits were indeed censored. Thankfully, Severin’s new Blu-ray is completely uncut and properly presented in its correct aspect ratio with all of the newly-shot footage looking detailed and nicely textured. Although in view of the film’s very modest production values and judicious use of stock footage, expect the usual fluctuations in picture quality. DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio English and Italian tracks are once again included, which sound fine, but since both tracks feature post-synched audio, you’ll want to stick with English, even if, just to hear many of the usual English-language dubbing artists.
Additional extra features on disc four include Crazy, Crazy World (13m33s), an interview with make-up artist Pietro Tenoglio where he touches on his long-standing relationship with D’Amato whom he considers to be “not the least bit arrogant”, working with both Gemser and Ajita Wilson (who makes a surprise appearance in said film), and many anecdotes regarding these rather “comical films.” Recorded during the 1994 Eurofest, After Hours with Joe D’Amato (12m28s) is a very casual and relaxed interview segment with the director. In it, he goes into his reasons for getting into the hardcore film market, why he shot alternate versions for many of his films, censorship, and much more. The film’s original English export trailer (3m32s) is also included.
Moving onto disc five, Laura Gemser dons a habit and becomes a nun in SISTER EMANUELLE (1977)! Directed by Giuseppe Vari (here using his regular alias ‘Joseph Warren’) from an original story by lowly director Mario Gariazzo and BLACK EMANUELLE scribe Ambrogio Molteni, this was yet another attempt to bust out of the more typical mould of an Emanuelle outing. At the behest of her frustrated father (Rik Battaglia), pampered nymphomaniac rich bitch Monika (Monika Zanchi) is sent to the convent whereupon Sister Emanuelle is assigned to try and help restrain her out-of-control sexual urges (“She’s got the devil in her!”). However, when Emanuelle gets into a catfight in the convent’s courtyard with the would-be novice, Emanuelle lands in hot water herself for exposing her swanky undies. Things only go from bad to worse for poor Emanuelle when Monika harbours a dangerous fugitive (Gabriele Tinti) within the convent walls…
As played by Gemser – who looks quite heavenly in her nun’s habit – the conflicted Emanuelle character tries her very hardest to comport herself with feminine dignity even if she is constantly tempted by the sins of the flesh or suffering constant foul-mouthed tirades from Monika. Knowing precisely what buttons to push, Monika constantly taunts her about joining the nunnery and attempts to ‘consumate’ her loathe / hate relationship with Emanuelle. Elsewhere, Monika even seduces her innocent roommate Anna (Vinja Locatelli) during a peak moment of duress (“You mustn’t! Go away! It’s wrong!”) whose warped idea of a seduction verges on all-out rape. In a typically lewd backstory, the script endeavours to fabricate the real reason for Monika’s sex-obsessed rationale when she has an affair with her sexually voracious stepmom (Dirce Funari). Complete with a few instances of briefly glimpsed hardcore footage, which doesn’t appear to have been crudely ‘inserted’ after the fact, this highly-charged erotic effort dispenses with much of the traditional trappings of an Emanuelle film, but succeeds admirably as an appropriately nasty nun shocker.
SISTER EMANUELLE first became available to most U.S. / Canada viewers via Private Screenings’ 1989 VHS videocassette (“There are sisters and there are… sisters!”), which looked extremely soft and hazy, while in Europe, the more sexually explicit version surfaced on the Swiss-based Italian language label Star Video. In 2007, the film made its North American DVD debut as part of Severin’s Black Emanuelle’s Box Volume 1, which looked superb when compared to any previous VHS tape. Extras consisted of deleted scenes of the aforementioned hardcore bits (taken from the Star Video VHS), and the film’s theatrical trailer. Featuring a new 2K scan of the full uncut version, the new Severin Blu-ray improves upon the DVD significantly, which appears very film-like with nice colour balance and excellent detail. As per usual, the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks feature English and Italian audio options, which are effective enough, but the audio really shines whenever Stelvio Cipriani’s propelling rhythms take over.
Outside of the film’s superior transfer, Severin have also seen fit to include a new audio commentary with writer and academic Lindsay Hallam, which covers a lot of ground beginning with how this film “goes against everything that has been set-up about Emanuelle in previous films”; Monika Zanchi’s “lethal Lolita” character; the film’s theme of voyeurism and “revealing the forbidden”, a thorough discussion of nunsploitation tropes and films, and the film’s unique place within the expansive Emanuelle series, in what amounts to a very informative and interesting listen, which sheds plenty of light on this mostly neglected film. The film’s theatrical trailer (3m47s) finishes off the extras.
Despite the film’s salacious title, Joe D’Amato’s EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE (1978), the second film on disc five, possesses a similarly spirited demeanor as the first BLACK EMANUELLE film. While trying to photograph and interview Giorgio Rivetti (Venantino Venantini), a notorious gangster from Italy hiding out in Africa, Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) and fellow photographer Susan Towers (Ely Galleani) also take time out to enjoy the sights on the Dark Continent, which even includes a spontaneous make-out session with Susan’s local car mechanic, or “her superman” as she excitedly refers to him. They eventually meet and interview the elusive mob boss thanks to the help of a local prince (Pierre Marfurt), which leads to the obligatory make-out sessions, and more fittingly exotic travelogue scenes. At the airport, Emanuelle and Susan catch a glimpse of a man possibly exchanging money for a young woman, but unable to do anything, she forgets about the occurrence. Later, while back in the U.S., she quickly learns about a “hostess club racket” while the man at the airport turns out to be Francis Harley (Gabriele Tinti), a shadowy individual that lurks on the sidelines. After witnessing a clandestine slave auction in a hotel meeting room (!), Emanuelle takes on the task of investigating this operation by infiltrating Madame Claude’s (Gota Gobert) high-end brothel…
While it may lack the driving tabloid dynamism found in the previous entries, Emanuelle nonetheless embarks on her noble quest with grim determination (“Journalist or not, my dear. You know too much!” remarks Madame Claude), even if, D’Amato’s script (co-written by Romano Scandariato) pilfers most of the white slavery storyline from his very own EMANUELLE AROUND THE WORLD. Although possessing a plot thinner than a spaghetti strand, D’Amato’s stunning imagery incorporates picture-postcard views of exotic locales and busy New York cityscapes, but is most enjoyable during the film’s plentiful softcore sex scenes, which he shoots and edits with fast-paced, genuine energy. As usual, Gemser is charismatically persistent, but after their criminal plot has been exposed, Madame Claude seeks to keep her quiet and mete out punishment via a “lobotomy.” An occasionally perverse ambiance prevails when Emanuelle gains the trust of Madame Claude’s transvestite henchman (Nicola D’Eramo), and no sooner have they escaped, Emanuelle is gang-raped in a bowling alley, while her cohort is pummeled to death with a bowling pin during a particularly nasty bit of action. As with most Emanuelle films thus far, it is softened by an unexpectedly expected anti-climax, which is more in keeping with the general tone of the movie.
A difficult film to track down during the VHS era, most North American audiences had to suffer through various bootlegs, which were usually taken from either the Dutch or Greek PAL videocassettes. In 2007, as part of their Black Emanuelle’s Box Volume 2, Severin debuted the film on DVD in its first official English-friendly edition, which was a huge improvement over those crummy PAL to NTSC transferred dubs. The brief extras included the aforementioned After Hours with Joe D’Amato interview, and the film’s original English export trailer. While Full Moon released the film as a bare bones Blu in 2022, nothing but praise should be given to Severin and their remarkable new disc, which looks absolutely stellar with deeper, richer colours and plenty of fine detail. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks in English or Italian aren’t overly-rigorous mixes (with cheaper-than-usual English dubbing), but sound fine without anything to complain about.
Unlike Full Moon’s Blu, Severin’s disc is filled-to-the-brim with extra features beginning with an audio commentary from film programmer Lars Nilsen where he enthusiastically discusses the overall series and how they were released, the colourful cast including the “extraordinarily photogenic” Laura Gemser and D’Amato’s ongoing relationship with Gemser and Tinti, recurring crew members, how D’Amato’s initial notoriety stemmed from his “extreme gore” horror films, his filmmaking efficiency, the film’s “poorly executed ending”, and even more oodles of illuminating tidbits. A great listen, indeed! Next up, Venantino Venantini is interviewed in The Bohemian (10m27s) who gets his say on making these Em(m)anuelle films including his work with both Sylvia Kristal and Gemser whom he recalls as being “beautiful, kind, and really charming”, and all the great trips he made around the world making “bad movies.” In the wonderfully poignant 2016 documentary COME IN UN FILM: LA VERA STORIA DI GABRIELE (GASTONE) TINTI (50m26s), director Riccardo Marchesini delves into the actor’s life and career via several interviews and fascinating film clips with his many friends and relatives who knew him both personally and professionally, and in a rare on-camera interview, Laura Gemser speaks warmly of her late husband. The film’s English export trailer (2m26s) is also included.
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