Emanuelle in the Country

I bought this one mainly because there is Gemser in it (is there any other reasons to buy movies like this???), so I didn't expect much of it. In fact, I didn't even know what kind of movie this turns out to be before I viewed it. Well, it turned out to be Italian comedy (some sort of) with sexual content in it. Much of naked ladies, softcore acts and ridiculous plot, which doesn't bother much, because nudity seems to be in a leading role in this one. So, if you like to see Gemser in the shower, in the bed (naked of course) and in various other places without her clothes this one is for you. Not so good as D'amatos Emanuelles, but still watchable.

** out of 5 as a movie, ***½ out of 5 as a Gemser-flick.

I watched this on Woodhaven Entertainment/Soft Touch Video/Intermedia Video Products's DVD, a really cheap affair (and at least I got it out of a cheap bin, where it belonged). Atrocious dubbing, so-so print quality that in some scenes it was noticeably worse.

Laura Gemser is lovely, but I couldn't watch the movie, actually. I watched the first few minutes, hit the fast forward scan button and didn't stop. The movie starts as Laura Gemser plays a doctor arriving in an Italian village. Men in the village are discussing various actresses in the movies that they find attractive, then they see her and are amazed. One man who looks at her has his hair blown out like he stuck his finger in an electrical socket. A lot of the voices are really corny; this may actually be the case with the original Italian dialog.

I can't imagine actually sitting through this movie, except maybe if a better print was used along with the original dialog and English subtitles. Something like a documentary on Italian softcore sex comedies of the 1970s would really help put it in some context as well.

This is the kind of movie that really tends to tick people off because it is greatly misrepresented by its English title. As other reviewers have said, this is NOT a "Black Emanuelle" film but one of a small number of Italian sex comedies "Black Emanuelle"-star Laura Gemser appeared in around that time (probably the most interesting being Jose Larraz's "Malizia Erotica"). Comedy was not really Gemser's forte, but then Italian sex comedies were really nobody's forte. A few actresses like Edwige Fenech had some small degree of comic timing, but for the vast majority, comic timing mostly involved how long it took them to strip down to the skin and how frequently they did it. These movies today are either in Italian only and really stupid, or dubbed into English and really, REALLY stupid. This one falls into the latter category (but tack on a couple more "reallys").

Gemser plays a female doctor from the city who moves into the country with her husband and drives all the country bumpkin stereotypes crazy. This is a pretty sorry portrayal of rural Southern Italy. (If people had seen something like this at the turn of the century, they would have had flotillas and gunboats stationed around Ellis Island to turn back southern Italian immigrants before they implanted their inbred yokel seeds here in America). This movie not only unfunny, it's painfully unfunny. The only good thing about it is Gemser. Naturally, it lacks the depravity of the films she made with Joe D'Amato ("Black Emanuelle" and otherwise), but it has the usual nude scenes, and a long (some would say interminable) softcore sex scene near the end that differs somewhat from the "Black Emanuelle" series where the sex scenes are more truncated. If THAT'S a reason to watch this dreck, have at it, but keep in mind you are going to suffer mightily through a lot of lame, badly-dubbed provincial "comedy" to get there. But then that's why they invented fast-forward buttons.

Emanuelle In The Country features its sultry star Laura Gemser getting naked, taking unnecessary showers and indulging in soft-core hanky panky, just like she does in all of her Black Emanuelle films; the fact is, however, that this film is not a legitimate part of the Black Emanuelle series, despite what its desperate distributors would have you believe with their cheeky title, but rather a totally unrelated sex comedy starring Gemser as a sexy doctor who takes up residence in a rural Italian town, where she immediately becomes the centre of attention for the randy male populace.

The film features plenty of good natured rumpy pumpy, not only from its star, but also from gorgeous blonde Antonella Prati, and a couple of other winsome wenches, but all the steamy sex in the world could not possibly compensate for the dreadfully unsophisticated comedy, which makes the whole affair virtually unbearable (and this is coming from a fan of the Robin Askwith Confessions series). To give an idea of just how puerile the humour in Emanuelle In The Country is, an early comical gem sees smoke coming out of a man's ears when he claps eyes on the town's sexy new MD (oh, and his hair stands on end as well—how hilarious). And it only gets worse from thereon in.

First, let it be known that Laura Gemser's character isn't called Emanuelle in this film; it's Barbara.

Second, the film quality is extremely bad; grain and streaks throughout. The dubbing is atrocious; little effort was made to match the English soundtrack to the Italian actors' speech.

Third, the story is a throw-away about 2 rivals, the current and former mayors of a small Italian village. Gemser arrives at the film's beginning to be the village doctor.

The only reasons to sit through something this bad are the sexual scenes: 4 scenes of nudity; 2 involving fondling; 2 up-skirt; 1 simulated sex scene. Gemser is sickeningly skinny, but the other female lead is sufficiently attractive.

All-in-all, a film to be avoided; not even the cost of a rental or the time it takes to view.