Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle

Despite the title this has absolutely nothing to do with either the French "Emmanuelle" series with Sylvia Kristel or the "Black Emanuelle" series with Laura Gemser directed by Joe D'Amato. This is another Italian rip-off of the American film "Mandingo". Since it's a low-budget Italian knock-off of a movie that was ALREADY indefensibly trashy, it goes without saying that it's not good. But the more useful thing to do perhaps is compare it to the OTHER main Italian-made "Mandingo" rip-off, which was imaginatively titled "Mandinga".

The "American South" portrayed in this movie is marginally more convincing than the one in "Mandinga" (I didn't see nearly as many palm trees in the background), and the "black" characters SOMEWHAT resemble actual African Americans. The Italians were actually quite good at interracial sex epics (they practically had a whole 1970's subgenre dedicated to it represented by some of the work of Joe D'Amato, the giallo "Tropic of Cancer" and even going all the way back to 1970 with Pier Vivarelli film "Il Dio serpiente"). However, they definitely weren't so good at historical drama, or at portraying the American South. And their "black" actors (like Laura Gemser, for instance) often didn't even look convincingly black, let alone like African American.

The lead here is Malisa Longo. Like Maria Rosario Riuzzi, who played the title character in "Mandinga", Longo was basically just a nice piece of tail. However, you could say the same thing about even the famous cult actresses of the era like Babara Bouchet, Rosalba Neri, or Edwige Fenech. Longo is not on the level of those actresses, but she was a decent second-tier actress kind of in the class of Femi Benussi, Gloria Guida, Lili Karati, or Mariangela Giordano. She is definitely better the Riuzzi is in "Mandinga", and she is occasionally quite effective as a wicked "Southern" plantation lady who takes off all her clothes and bathes in a stream in order to cruelly entice her "black" male slaves.

Of course, if you just don't want to see a Italian rip-off of "Mandingo", you should avoid this. For better or worse, it doesn't really compare to the American model (which was filmed in the real American South with real African American actors). But it's a definite (if marginal) improvement over "Mandinga".

Emmanuelle bianca e nera (1976)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Emmanuelle (Malisa Longo) wants to take over her father's slave plantation after she feels he's going too soft on them for only making them work ten hours a day. She's set to be married to Lawrence (Antonio Gismondo) but his attempted rape of a slave calls off his engagement after the slave forgives him. This sends Emanuelle into more of a rage against the slaves even though she has her own secret desires.

Leave it to the Italians to pick up where America started and try to push it to new levels. MANDINGO was a controversial movie when it was released in America so it makes since for Italy to try and rip it off and why not just throw the Emmanuelle name in there as well? If you're looking for a hard-hitting drama then this probably won't be for you but if you enjoy a bit of trash and exploitation then the film actually delivers a good time.

I should point out that this pre Civil War drama has some pretty campy moments including the melodramatic and preachy ending. I'm not going to ruin it for people but I give the film credit for at least trying to say something positive about how everyone should respect all races. With that said, there's no question that this is an exploitation movie at heart so expect a lot of nudity, a couple rape scenes and of course a lot of violence towards the slaves.

This film obviously wouldn't go over too well today but I doubt many people will be watching it unless they're already an exploitation fan. The film benefits from the setting, which feels authentic and I'd also argue that the violence is effective for what it is. You've got various whippings and they take it a step further by throwing salt on their wounds. The Emmanuelle woman is a deranged psycho here and she's also a nymph, which just adds to the fun.

This film is also known as PLANTATION PASSION, which was the title of the print I watched. That's a pretty fitting title for this exploitation film that manages to keep you entertained throughout its trashy 81-minutes.

This film essentially begins with a Southern belle by the name of "Emanuelle" (Malisa Longo) who is, by her own admission both spoiled and superficial. She is also extremely sadistic with the slaves her father owns and uses every opportunity to abuse them whenever possible. As it so happens, her fiancé "Lawrence" (Antonio Gismondo) also owns slaves but, even though he also has them beaten on occasion, considers them to be valuable property and doesn't want them damaged too badly. That doesn't, however, prevent him from raping some of the young females whenever he feels like it. In any event, Emanuelle is quite possessive and the thought of him spending any time with a black woman is something that she simply cannot tolerate. That said, when he begins to show signs of affection for her black house servant "Judith" (Rita Manna), it enrages Emanuelle to the point that she decides to sleep with one of the black, male slaves named "Elia" (Percy Hogan). Unfortunately, her sadistic nature soon gets the better of her and this causes serious problems for all concerned. Now rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this Italian blaxploitation film was obviously a low-budget production and it suffered as a result. Not only was the acting second-rate but so was the film quality as well. Likewise, a number of the sex scenes seemed a bit too hurried and as a result this served to cheapen the movie even further. Be that as it may, I wasn't very impressed with this film and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

This somewhat turgid "Mandingo" knockoff by the same director who did the other principal Italian one of the era, 'Mandinga," certainly doesn't skimp on the sexploitation. The plantation mistress (Emmanuelle, of course) is your standard racist, spoiled, blonde nymphomaniac who keeps seducing black "studs" then crying "rape!" and having them whipped, tortured and/or killed. This is standard stuff,

Somewhat funnier is the deadly-earnest speechifying of the hero, who starts out as her fiancé, But after a slave girl's herbal remedy saves from from a snake-bite death, he is "born again" as an ex-racist. He and the slave girl (whose middle name happens to be...Emmanuelle) have more of a "love" affair after that point and say ridiculously lofty things about foreseeing a future without prejudice. (That actually seemed more likely to happen back in 1976 than it does now.) Meanwhile the "white Emmanuelle" just continues boning every man in sight. The latter is dubbed by the same voice actress who I swear did the English-language-version dubbing for just about EVERY principal female role in Italian exploitation movie during the 1970s and 80s.

There's some terribly silly dialogue, but despite its fairly busy pace "Passion Plantation" is on the whole too pedestrian in concept and execution to be hilariously bad. I did laugh out loud a few times, however, particularly during an incongruous quote from the lyrics of "Ol' Man River." There's quite a bit of nudity; the actors are pretty attractive and were in several cases probably cast mostly for their impressive physiques. Production values are adequate for this sort of mid- 70s Italian exploitation movie, which was shot in widescreen.

The Something Weird transfer has some problems toward the beginning (for a while the framing is off, so the bottom of the screen spills onto the top), but you're surely not going to find a better print. I thought the movie was considerably longer than IMDb has it listed as, but it turned out that in fact the SW DVD is two hours long only because there's a couple 8mm late 60s/early 70s nudie loops at the end, "Tbe Interlude" (capturing strip acts at the titular San Francisco nightclub) and "Naked Party" (about three blonde stewardesses frolicking in a hotel room).