Black Emanuelle (1975)

While on assignment in Nairobi, a photojournalist questions her racial and sexual identity when she engages in affairs with her wealthy hosts.

Director:

Bitto Albertini (as Albert Thomas)

Writers:

Bitto Albertini, Ambrogio Molteni

Stars:

Laura Gemser, Karin Schubert, Angelo Infanti

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Laura Gemser	...	Mae Jordan / Emanuelle (as Emanuelle)
Karin Schubert	...	Ann Danieli
Angelo Infanti	...	Gianni Danieli
Isabelle Marchall	...	Gloria Clifton
Gabriele Tinti	...	Richard Clifton
Don Powell	...	Professor Kamau
Venantino Venantini	...	William Meredith

Storyline

In her first onscreen adventure, journalist/photographer Mae Jordan (known to her readers as "Emanuelle") travels to Africa on assignment. Questions of her own racial and sexual identity come to a head as she observes the troubled marriage of her hosts, Ann and Gianni Danieli. Matters are complicated further when Emanuelle finds herself in affairs with both of them, after which she flees Africa, only to be persued by Gianni, who had earlier rejected her and ridiculed her advances.

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Plot Keywords:

voyeur | africa | lesbian kiss | panties pulled down | female explicit nudity | 

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Taglines:

No one is ever the same after Black Emanuelle.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

X

Did You Know?

Trivia

On original advertising art as well as on original prints of the film, Laura Gemser is credited simply as "Emanuelle," rather than by her own name.

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Goofs

There are obvious body doubles during the hardcore scenes.

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Quotes

[Gianni tries to kiss Emanuelle, but she stops him]
Emanuelle: Isn't there anything to drink? You Italians don't beat around the bush - normally, when a man invites a girl over, he offers her a drink, and... then, they talk a bit, and then they make love.
Gianni Danieli: You're right.
[he gets up, but Emanuelle pulls him back to the bed]
Emanuelle: Idiot, it's you I want to drink.

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Alternate Versions

For some markets outside Italy, a "hardcore" version was released. The "hard" print contained a brief sequence of shots of explicit penetration during the scene in which Emanuelle and Gianni first make love. These shots were performed by doubles, not by Angelo Infanti and Laura Gemser, neither of which were informed of this addition at the time. One extra shot was also included during the tribal dance scene of many tribesmen running their hands over Emanuelle's body as she lies on the ground.

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Connections

Followed by Emanuelle in America (1977)

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Soundtracks

An Impossible Love
Written by Don Powell
Performed by Don Powell

User Reviews

Introducing Emanuelle (with only one 'm').

The first of many Emanuelle (spelt with only one 'm') films, this Italian rip-off of the famous French sex classic Emmanuelle (two 'm's) sees its sultry star Laura Gemser as journalist/photographer Mae Jordan (known professionally as—you guessed it—Emanuelle), who is in Africa for her latest assignment. Her employers are married couple Ann and Gianni Danieli (Karin Schubert and Angelo Infanti), who supposedly want our sexy snapper to capture shots of African ruins, but seem more interested in getting her into bed (and who can really blame them? The lovely lens-woman is gorgeous and gagging for it!).

What follows is a string of silly soft-core couplings with Gemser and her free-loving associates getting busy with each other at every available opportunity; these are interspersed by some really dull exposition about Ann and Gianni's marital troubles (which serves as the basis for the weak plot), some non-sexual nudity including a hilarious photographic session with Ann going back to nature (pretending to be a gazelle!), plus a little bit of 'padding' in the form of National Geographic style wild-life footage.

Director Bitto Albertini's handling of his material is, for the most part, fairly routine, although he does excel when it comes to delivering very unsubtle suggestive imagery: in particular, Ann's sex scene with a garage mechanic is made all the more entertaining by the juxtaposition of shots of a petrol nozzle filling up a car, whilst Emanuelle's naughty encounter with a hockey team whilst on a train is inter-cut with the locomotive's piston pumping rapidly in and out. Hardly a stroke of genius, but very funny!

Later entries in the series, helmed by sleaze-king Joe D'amato, combined Genser's soft-core romping with other exploitation sub-genres, making for more satisfying films as a whole. This one, however, is content to simply show as much naked flesh as possible without ever crossing the line into hard-core territory. It's just about worth catching if you're a big fan of Ms. Gemser and/or very trashy films in general, but probably of little interest to anyone else.

Details

Country:

Italy Spain

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

October 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Emanuelle's Holiday

Filming Locations:

Amboseli Lodge, Amboseli National Park, Kenya

Company Credits

Production Co:

San Nicola Produzione Cinematografica, Flaminia Produzioni Cinematografiche, Emaus Films S.A.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1