Operación Nicaragua

La belva dalla calda pelle stands as a testament to how good intentions and literary source material can be utterly squandered through incompetent filmmaking. What emerges from this adaptation of Fontana's own novel is a confused, poorly executed mess that fails to deliver on any of its genre promises, whether as an action thriller, exploitation film, or revenge drama.

The cinematography feels amateurish throughout, with static shots that drain tension from what should be intense desert survival sequences. The camera work lacks any sense of visual storytelling, often positioning viewers at awkward distances from the action. Desert landscapes, which should provide a stark, unforgiving backdrop for the story's brutal themes, instead appear flat and uninspiring under Fontana's direction. The lighting frequently feels artificial, particularly during outdoor sequences where harsh desert sun should create natural drama through shadows and contrast.

The atmosphere never establishes the psychological tension necessary for this type of survival story. Instead of building dread as the mercenaries face their desert predicament, the film meanders through poorly paced sequences that fail to generate any meaningful suspense. The violent revenge elements feel gratuitous rather than earned, lacking the careful buildup that would make them impactful or meaningful within the narrative structure.

Laura Gemser, despite her experience in similar genre films, delivers a surprisingly wooden performance that lacks the fierce intensity her character demands. Her portrayal of the mysterious woman seeking vengeance feels detached and unconvincing, missing the emotional core that could have elevated the material. The supporting cast of mercenaries fares even worse, with performances that range from stilted to completely amateurish. Gabriele Tinti and Angelo Infanti, both capable actors in other contexts, seem lost within Fontana's unclear direction, delivering dialogue with little conviction or natural flow.

The film's technical aspects compound these performance issues. Sound design feels hollow and disconnected from the action, while editing creates jarring transitions that disrupt any sense of narrative momentum. The pacing suffers from Fontana's inability to balance character development with action sequences, resulting in a story that feels both rushed and tediously slow in different moments.

The reviews so far on IMDb seem to be split down the middle regarding "La belva dalle calda pelle," also known as "The Dirty Seven" and "Emanuelle, Queen of the Desert." The majority of the negative reviews seem to base their criticisms on the fact that it is clearly not an official Emanuelle film (Laura Gemser is in fact called Sheila in the movie) and a flashback sequence that is over thirty minutes long, while the positive critiques make no mention the flashback, which is absent in the version known as "The Dirty Seven." This and the original Italian title make no allusion to Emanuelle. In this form the film is much more linear with only one very brief flashback where Sheila finds the dead body of her sister, thus establishing her motive.

It should also be noted that Gemser is not introduced into "The Dirty Seven" until a substantial amount of time has past, where in the "Queen of the Desert" she appears almost immediately.

I contend that the former is director Bruno Fontana's actual vision and that the "Emanuelle" version was re-edited (by someone other than Fontana) to cash in on Gemser's "Black Emanuelle" status.

While I may be stating the obvious, I wish to appeal to those negative critics and let them know that this film exists in two entities, under two different titles and to think twice before blaming Fontana for "Emanuelle, Queen of the Desert," it's slapped-on title and its shoddy chronology.

The Emanuelle franchise was obviously very popular in Italy during the seventies and eighties; and as a result of that, just about every film that Laura Gemser has been involved in since bears the Emanuelle name, even if the films actually have nothing to do with earlier entries in the series. Emanuelle: Queen of the Desert is yet another example of an annoying Emanuelle cash-in, although to be fair; this film actually isn't all that bad. The plot is rather simple and focuses on a bunch of red blooded soldiers that rape a girl before having her thrown out of the window. They then go on the run in the desert; before running into Gemser's 'Tigress' character who takes revenge on them all. So we've basically just a rape and revenge set in the desert with Laura Gemser starring. The plot is rather well done and the characters are interesting enough to hold the audience's attention for at least a little while. Laura Gemser gets top billing but isn't really the star of the film; despite stealing it once she does arrive. She gets naked a couple of times and her revenge on the soldiers is fun enough. Naturally, the film doesn't give the audience anything to come away with; but it's a decent hour and a half of sex, violence and Laura Gemser and better than most of the other fake Emanuelle films.

„La belva dalle calda pelle" (literally: „The Beast With Hot Skin") is a movie which is marketed to the wrong audience, I'm afraid. At least I have no better explanation for the low average rating here. Having a sex symbol like Laura Gemser at number one of the cast plus stills showing grim mercenaries with machine guns surely appeals to people looking for a „fast food" sex and violence flick, but writer and director Bruno Fontana clearly had ambitions beyond that. In the beginning, we see Sheila (Laura Gemser - not „Emanuelle" here despite the American title) leading one soldier into a trap and kill him. Then she meets 4 of his comrades and sweetly offers to guide them to the border. We don't know which country it is (seemingly African, but actually shot on Cyprus island), who the soldiers fight for or why they are lost. At this point, the movie is an excellent trip into the Heart of Darkness echoing „Apocalypse Now", and it is not far fetched to presume that was an important influence on „La belva dalle calda pelle" which was shot shortly afterwards.

Sheila awakens anger and frustration in those men who try and rape her, or jealously attack each other. She causes adoration slowly turning into fear. „You are a tigress and I am a lion", says the leader of the mercenaries. „We have a lot in common." More than he thinks at the time... Interior monologue and manic close-ups are increasing the tension. After 40 minutes, the metaphysical qualities of the movie are hampered by a long flashback, though, which neatly explains the story: how the mercenaries got there, what Sheila's motivation is, who this guy without a uniform (Gabriele Tinti) is and so on. This certainly is a lack of elegance in the movie way of story telling, maybe because the first-time director was a writer in the first place and thought in chapters rather than a flow of pictures. Composer Paolo Rustichelli (son of the famous Carlo Rustichelli who scored countless movies, too) provides one of his earliest works, a deliberately synthetic soundtrack like it was used in science fiction movies of the 1980s, certainly en vogue at the time, but it adds a sense of weirdness and uneasiness to the movie which obviously isn't SF, but occasionally existentialistic. In my personal view - despite the flaws in the middle - a movie waiting to be rediscovered.

In the 569th case of misleading marketing I've come across, the DVD version of this movie is called "Emanuelle, Queen of the Desert" even though the only thing it has in common with the Emanuelle movies is that Laura Gemser stars, and she gets naked; however she plays a totally different character. There is the germ of an interesting story here - Gemser as a mysterious, almost ghost-like avenger - but the film is too badly made to have much impact. The flashback in the middle serves a purpose - it shows you what pigs some of these characters are and why they deserve what they get - but it shouldn't have gone on for so long (35 minutes). When it's over, the movie has only 10 minutes left! Also, beware of the DVD picture and sound quality, it's pretty poor. (*)