Emmanuelle in Soho (1981)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

David Hughes

Writer:

John M. East (writer)

Release Date:

5 September 1983 (Finland)

Tagline:

London's red light district - naked and blue!

Plot:

Emanuelle lives in London where almost everything in the realm of erotic is available. Her friend Kate becomes a nude revue show to help her husband pay the bills.

Plot Keywords:

Erotic | Pubic Hair | Male Nudity | Sex | Female Full Frontal Nudity

Cast

Angie Quick	...	Emmanuelle of Soho (as Mandy Miller)
Julie Lee	...	Kate Benson
John M. East	...	Bill Anderson
Kevin Fraser	...	Paul Benson
Gavin Clare	...	Adie
Timothy Blackstone	...	Derek
Geraldine Hooper	...	Jill
Anita Desmarais	...	Sheila
Georges Waser	...	Tom Poluski
Erika Lea	...	Judy
Kathy Green	...	Sammy
Suzanne Richens	...	Suzie
John Roach	...	Albert
Vicki Scott	...	Showgirl
Louise London	...	Showgirl

Also Known As:

Funeral in Soho (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

68 min | USA:72 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-18 | UK:X

Filming Locations:

Bayswater, London, England, UK

Company:

Roldvale

Trivia:

It was originally intended that Julie Lee would play Emmanuelle, but she swapped roles with Angie Quick.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Mary Millington's World Striptease Extravaganza (1981)

Pretty weak effort

The only really worthwhile part of this movie is the beginning which is kind of mini-documentary on London's Soho district in the late 70's and early 80's (which was kind of a slightly tamer version of New York City's 42nd Street during that same era). It has one of those ridiculous moralistic-sounding narrators whose prattle about the "vice" in Soho is pretty ironic considering that the makers of this film were as responsible for the "vice" in the Soho of that time as anyone. After the documentary opening, however, the film settles down into a very boring fictional story about a nudie photographer, his wife (Julie Lee), and their close friend "Emanuelle" (Mandy Miller). While the husband and "Emanuelle" plot to take a revenge on a pornographer who has been ripping them off, the wife participates in some kind of all-nude theatrical revue, and the "plot" goes absolutely nowhere from there.

Obviously, this has nothing to do with either the pretentious French "Emmanuelle" series featuring Sylvia Kristel or the sleazy Italian rip-off "Black Emanuelle" series made famous by Laura Gemser and Joe D'Amato. This is instead a strictly British film by English porn magnates David Sullivan and John N. East. Unfortunately, this was made after Mary Millington had committed suicide, Suzy Mandel had gone on to small parts in Hollywood movies ("The Private Eyes") and starring roles in American hardcore features ("Blonde Ambition"), and Anna Bergman had gone back to Sweden to work with her famous father on films like "Fanny and Alexander". So Sullivan and East were reduced to some real "scrubbers" here and/or "actresses" who generally couldn't act their way out of an 8 mm porn loop. Mandy Miller is very bad, and Julie Lee is even worse, but, to be fair, the male actors (including producer East himself) don't fare much better.

The continental films of this era tended to be softcore with hardcore "inserts" featuring none of the original talent. In typical, more puritanical British fashion this is basically just a "nudie" film as far as Miller and Lee are concerned but with softcore sex "inserts" of other anonymous actresses to spice it up (at least by British standards). The problem with a lot of these sex films though, however graphic they are, is that there is literally NOTHING of interest in them beyond the strictly prurient. This is a pretty weak effort compared to both the continental "Emmanuelle"/"Emanuelle" films and also compared to Sullivan and East's earlier modest efforts like "Come Play with Me" and "The Playbirds". Not really recommended.

PS--If you are considering buying the "remastered" DVD of this, keep in mind that the "master" it was re-mastered from is apparently a crappy old VHS tape with tracking problems.