Beavers, Billionaires, & Snuff Reels: Emanuelle in America – Joe D’Amato’s Sleaziest Trip to Hell
Laura Gemser and Joe D’Amato have seldom appeared on the pages of Severed Cinema. I can think only of The Alcove (see The Alcove DVD Review from Severin Films) and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (see Erotic Nights of the Living Dead Review on DVD from Shriek Show) which is wild since I love Joe’s movies — yes even Porno Holocaust. Anthropophagus is in my top 20 flicks of all time. I know it gets a lot of hate, but it damn well entertains me with each viewing.
Joe D’Amato was (like Jess Franco) an unfairly frowned upon movie maker. Snobby poser fans scoff and turn their noses up. “He’s so boring! He makes pointless films! Too much nudity! Too hairy!” Blah blah blah. Fuck. Those two directors were feeders for dirty ass back-alley cinemas and then later video shops. Their titles were necessary to bulk up stock plus satisfy gore ‘n’ boobies fans worldwide. Which brings us to the infamous whispered about, Emmanuelle in America.
Joe made five of the Emmanuelle movies, also known as Black Emmanuelle with Indonesian ‘n’ Dutch actress, Laura Gemser, taking on the seductive smirking central role. She rarely keeps her clothes on; the movies build up a very flimsy story around nude set pieces with hairy men and even hairier women. By the Gods, the beavers are loose. More beavers than is needed to build a dam. This was the era of natural, when men and women’s pubic hairs entered a room minutes before they did. Look closely and Tarzan is chilling out drinking juices with Jane.
This quickly chucked together tale has Emmanuelle as a roving investigating reporter who travels worldwide, getting herself into cartels and whoever takes her fancy gets into her, plus sinister rich men. This time around, her sniffing deeply into the muck and grime exposes the world of snuff films. That’s it, in a nutshell, there is the story.
So, how do we build up a 100-minute film around that, Big Joe? Sex! Sex, bestiality and a whole lot of snuff. Emmanuelle really cannot keep it in her pants for five minutes it seems. We open to her taking nude shots of beavers before her assignment flies her off elsewhere. Not before being abducted by a religious unhinged dude who’s the fiancé of one of her models. This concludes with her forcing a blow job on him, “It’s happiness… it’s cleanliness, it’s love.” He runs off, leaving his gun, screaming in terror whilst she laughs.
I must make a point of saying two things, firstly, the soundtrack is one of a kind, sublime and takes you away. The theme is satisfying, getting under your flesh (check it on YouTube when you get a chance). Secondly, my Partner in Gore Willow refused to speak properly for an hour after this movie (it didn’t help that we followed up with Tobe Hooper’s truly diabolical empty void of a creation, The Mangler).
Emmanuelle’s huge ego explodes more when she enters a boxing club to visit someone, and the distraction causes a fella to get fully KO’ed. She smiles and smirks. We follow with some lovely shots of ‘70s NYC, though not as lush as The Executioner and Midnight Cowboy. Anyway, she gets into the harem of some lavish bloke and is known as her birth sign, Virgo. She is ordered to wear a gold bracelet, perfect for hiding a clumsy looking camera inside — bear in mind she must stop, lift her arm, and click at the camera to get pics — hidden weaponry, etcetera, making it really obvious.
What is also obvious is that she’s fucking one of Mr. Big’s henchmen within moments of entering. Didn’t see that coming, well apart from them coming, but we don’t get the money shots in this because Joe is a bit more arty than Dracula Sucks (see Dracula Sucks DVD Review from Vinegar Syndrome) and The Taming of Rebecca (see The Taming of Rebecca: Avon Productions’ Vicious, Filth-Soaked Roughie Classic) for instance. In pure Bond villain style, our big baddie has a pool surrounded by young women — these are topless unlike the Bond miscreants though. His name is Van Darren, by the way, and he’s a billionaire.
Much underwater playfulness and bushiness prevails when she enters the pool area, then Van Darren invites everyone inside. Oh yeah, one of the ladies hears a horse calling so she rushes off.
He takes all his entourage through the house and across the yard in a very long shot that drags as he witters away about shit before we see the prior said lady exciting a huge stallion horse with an even bigger cock. We couldn’t stop laughing at the horse sounds that have been looped over-and-over, including a demented scream as she plays with him. You must hear it to disbelieve it. To be honest, the poor bugger just wants to eat hay throughout the scene.
After those frolics, we have girl on girl in a steam room — wow, the raincoats would have been totally dried out by now, just puffing dust out — and there’s more bounding in soon. She plays with Van Darren, then smirks as she beats him in a poker dice game repeatedly. With her winnings she buys herself out of the contract and seeks more thrills in this engaging storyline. Her next target is The Duke of Elba, Elvize. He catches his wife with a man, so to him it equals open relationship which means Emmanuelle stays over, thus beavers are out again. No hanging pendulums just yet, sorry ladies, wait a bit longer, there’s a handful coming up.
Anyway, let’s skip most of this because there’s more sex, phone sex, and a big orgy, so it means nothing to the overall impact. We’re here for the famous snuff reels. Whilst darting and diving around various locations, she discovers a woman fucking whilst watching naked girls being butchered on film. Is it real? That is what our heroic reporter has to find out!
Emmanuelle smirks even when in danger and it’s fucking stupid! She’s irritating as a character anyhow without that happening. This was made for the bishop bashers and the bean flickers. It’s a skin movie but with a lot of gore added to certain scenes — the snuff films. And they are very well done, striking in their detail. Nothing is spared, merciless showcases of brutal torture, knives cutting, mad painful contraptions, unbelievable. Top Severed thumb in the air to the legendary Giannetto De Rossi (Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Beyond, Conan the Destroyer). All done grainy and wobble cam to seem genuine.
The copulation scenes are frequent and become really dull. I ended up noticing other things like a really nasty looking mosquito bite on a man’s leg instead, for instance (a George Eastman lookalike). Willow had sunk into a bored mood. She usually doesn’t mind ‘70s skin trash, she’s watched a fair few, but I think Laura Gemser and the beavers got too much in the end.
What is remarkable is the way the film plummets into hell. Starting as a naughty flashy harmless movie, it gradually degenerates into a debauch atrocity exhibition of underworld filth — ruined by the upbeat silliness of the ending.
By the way, she has pics of the snuff dealings, the deaths, and such, her editor is hard pressed by those above into not publishing. Emmanuelle pleads her case saying that exposing this will save other girls, then she backs down. Rather than take the pics anonymously to another newspaper she basically fucks off on vacation with her boyfriend to give us a comedy wrap up. Stupid as fuck!
The Region 0 Blue Underground release is THE REAL DEAL! It’s all available to see in all of its gory glory, beavers and fat hairy cocks in widescreen 1.85:1 / 16:9. I watched it many years ago, then sold it on. Having picked up the Blue Underground DVD again for a couple of quid at Weird Worcester, viewing it again, I had mixed feelings, but had forgotten how freaking annoying Laura is!!
At least the rest of the cast are capable and ease you down. Gabriele Tinti as the Duke is a scene stealer. You’ll recognise him if you’re sharp eyed from films such as Violence in a Women’s Prison, Cut and Run, plus loads of various Emmanuelle incarnations. Hey, checking IMDb, some of the briefly seen murdered snuff women did okay in other films, one going on to work with Joe in both Porno Holocaust and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, whilst another made films into the late ‘80s. It still amuses me how the media jump on stuff in movies like this for being real at the time.
Emanuelle in America Extras include a thirteen-minute interview with Joe and adds information about he and Laura’s artistic bond through the decades which ended upon her retirement when her hubby passed. He says he had a lot of fun working with her, they were close friends, then when she stopped acting, he’d employ her in other roles behind the camera. Joe explains how they made the scratchy atmospheric snuff reels, that’s cool, as are his other tales to share – an actress suing him is quite interesting.
Ahh, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Well, there’s plenty of fake snuff horrors around, but none of them mix in the camp silliness of Emanuelle in America — for better or worse.
Directed by: Joe D’Amato
Written by: Maria Pia Fusco
Produced by: Edmondo Amati, Maurizio Amati
Edited by: Vincent Tomassi
Cinematography: Joe D’Amato
Music by: NIco Fidenco
Special Effects by: Giannetto De Rossi, Maurizio Trani
Cast: Laura Gemser, Garbiele Tinti, Lars Bloch, Giulio Bianci, Paola Senatore
Year: 1976
Country: Italy
Language: English Dubbed
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 40min
Studio: New Film Production
Distributor: Blue Underground
Emanuelle in America on Blu-ray and DVD!
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