Emmanuelle in Soho

Anybody who thinks the British cinema's absolute nadir was the quota quickies of the thirties has never seen one of our seventies sex comedies; which today look far more dated and technically primitive after forty years than films of the thirties do after nearly ninety.

One of the last gasps of the genre just before Soho was in actuality required to clean up it's act; at least 'Emmanuelle in Soho' boasts a fairly sophisticated sounding title. But despite all the nudity and indiscriminate rutting that was by then permitted by the British Board of Film Censors, the culmination of fifty years of progress was as sexy as a week-old blancmange. The drab clothes and hideous hairstyles (and that's just hero Keith Fraser) are absolutely no match for the figure-hugging dresses and sleek bobs worn by the women in the thirties. And even the bored-looking chorus girls in the cabaret looked as if they were wearing dirty macs.

But at 67 minutes at least it was also as short as an old quota quickie.

EMMANUELLE IN SOHO sounds like one of the sleaziest films ever; just the combination of that character and the setting says it all. But this extremely low budget movie has nothing to do with the official Emmanuelle series or indeed the Black Emmanuelle series either. Instead it's a laughably inept slice of British softcore nonsense, in which Emmanuelle is a supporting character in a hugely uninteresting storyline. The tale sees erotic photographer Paul Benson (Kevin Fraser, with the worst haircut in the world) being ripped off by his sleazy boss (writer John M. East, a truly repugnant character) while his wife tries to make ends meet on the stage in a dodgy striptease production.

It's all very silly, padded out with endless softcore sex sequences that are anything but titillating. The actress playing Emmanuelle, Angie Quick, looks and acts no different to your typical Page 3 model. Julie Lee, a half British/half Oriental beauty, looks better, but ruins the illusion whenever she speaks; her Sheffield accent puts paid to that exotic appeal. Lee was to die in a horrific car accident soon after this production, leaving EMMANUELLE IN SOHO an odd epitaph to her non-existent career.

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.

Emmanuelle in Soho was one of the last theatrically released movies of the British sexploitation era. A big hit when it was first released in UK cinemas in 1981, it is now largely forgotten. The film has never been shown on TV and has only recently been widely available on video cassette.

Today it's definitely worth another look. It's a camp classic for fans of low budget British movies. Neither particularly sexy and certainly only unintentionally funny it still proves to be a revelation for anyone watching!

Whilst Mandy Miller enjoys the title role of Emmanuelle, it is half-Oriental actress Julie Lee who proves to be most watchable in the supporting role as Kate. This was Lee's only big starring role (she died after a horrific car crash in 1983) and you can see why. Frankly, she was a really terrible actress. It's obvious Lee was hired primarily for her stunning looks, but her lacklustre acting skills only make her more endearing to watch.

The plot isn't really worth mentioning, Julie Lee auditions for a part in a tacky nude revue at a seedy theatre and her weedy bisexual husband gets mixed up with the insatiable Emmanuelle and an unscrupulous agent (played by the desperately unfunny John M. East).

However, this movie is a MUST SEE! It harks back to a more innocent era of film-making when naughty little films got a big screen release and punters queued around the block to see them. Emmanuelle in Soho is wonderfully awful and very addictive. Go see it!

Here is a time capsule of Soho in the early eighties.Not particularly edifying it has to be said.John East was a Max Miller impersonator who I saw on stage.Poor Julie Lee who died a horrific death. The climax of this film is rather limp,much like the rest of this film