Voluptueuse Laura

First off, yes, Eva (Laura Gemser) is absolutely beautiful. Whether clothed or unclothed she's breathtaking. That said, she's just not that interesting as a character. Ms. Gemser's performance in EVA NEGRA (aka: BLACK COBRA WOMAN) is every bit as languid as her other Emmanuelle outings.

Presented as an "erotic thriller", this movie is obviously just another excuse for Ms. Gemser to get naked every 15 minutes. On that score, even the steamy scenes get tiresome. Without a real plot or direction, there's really nowhere to go with this.

Oh, there are some poisonous snakes thrown in as well.

One highlight is Jack Palance's perverted performance as the Eva-obsessed Judas. Gabriele Tinti is also memorable as his unhinged, even more Eva-obsessed brother Jules.

Black Cobra is directed by filth king Joe D'amato, edited by fellow trashmeister Bruno Mattei, stars gorgeous Asian sexpot Laura Gemser, and even features future Oscar winner Jack Palance in a key role, and yet despite this massive potential (particularly for deviancy), the film blows it by being thoroughly bland for most of its running time. With a story revolving around poisonous snakes, erotic dancing, and revenge, this could and should have been so much more sleazy.

Naturally, the frequent full frontal nudity from Gemser prevented me from switching off in disgust (or rather, lack of disgust), but the soft-core action soon became rather tedious, with Gemser delivering loads of the self gratification and girl on girl action that we can always rely on, but nothing out of the ordinary (I find it hard to believe I'm saying this, but the copious bare flesh actually got boring).

Admittedly, there are a couple of scenes that manage to register slightly on the sleazeometer—a rather amusing strip scene in a lesbian bar that gets the clientele frisky, and a live snake being chopped up and fried for lunch—but most of the action falls way short of what I have come to expect from my Italian trash. The biggest cop-out is the finale—Gemser's revenge on the man who killed her lover—that involves the insertion of a cobra up the jacksy, but which is satisfied to simply suggest the nastiness.

Strangely, the film is also known as Emanuelle Goes Japanese, despite no character of that name going anywhere near Japan (Gemser's character is called Eva and the film is set entirely in Hong Kong).

Eva Nera (AKA Black Cobra) is my favorite entry in Joe D'Amato's infamous "Black Emanuelle" series. Also known as "Emanuelle Goes Japanese", this film features no characters named Emanuelle, and doesn't take place in (or in any way allude to) the country of Japan. Other than these minor details, Eva Nera exhibits every other trait of a Black Emanuelle movie, including of course Laura Gemser as the main character, and the ever-present douche-bag Gabriele Tinti lurking somewhere in the cast. And though this movie lacks some of the overt acts of depravity that other Emanuelle flicks are known for, it offers three times that in the form of a more subtle weirdness.

The movie begins with Eva's arrival in Hong Kong. Played by the beautifully boring Laura Gemser, Eva's character is essentially the same as Black Emanuelle: a frigid, vapid, nonchalantly nymphomaniacal bisexual nudist mannequin-like temptress. Unlike Emanuelle, who is a reporter, Eva is a snake dancer. Here we use the term "dancer" loosely to mean standing around naked and arrhythmically flailing your arms while holding a live snake.

As you would expect from Joe D'Amato, the story that follows is totally nondescript and irrational, and mostly serves as a vehicle for him to express his most banal ideas of what constitutes eroticism. The remarkable thing is that, unlike other of his creations, like say Emanuelle and The Last Cannibals, here D'Amato tries to exercise restraint, which results in a bizarre, watered-down version of the typical D'Amato fetishes. Included are the mandatory nudism, lesbianism, morbidness, and the gawking fascination with all things foreign and Exotic that characterizes D'Amato's work, minus the ultra-violent sadism that he's also famous for. Along the way, D'Amato's camera still manages to objectify and diminish every single living and non-living thing it gazes upon, whether it be the bland characters, the city of Hong Kong, those oh-so-dangerous snakes, or deeper aspects of human experience such as love and death.

None of this would stand out much were it not for two key elements that make Eva Nera exceptional: the haunting euro-soundtrack and the mind-blowingly strange performance by Jack Palance, whose character is so freakin' weird it defies description. Highly recommended.

If you're like me, you grew up watching late nite softies on Cinemax every Friday nite. If this is the case, then you have definitely heard and probably seen quite a bit of the lovely Laura Gemser. After seeing "BLACK EMANUELLE" many, many moons ago, I became an instant fan and have since viewed several of her films.

This particular gem qualifies as one of her lesser known films. Essentially, this is a variation on her Emanuelle role with Jack Palance and a whole lot of snakin' goin' on! Fun stuff most likely, if you are a fan of Gemser.

Gemser plays an exotic dancer named Eva. Performing with snakes is her specialty. No, not those kind! Now, you're getting ahead of me!

Anywayz... Gemser's real-life husband, Gabrielle Tinti, portrays Jules Carmichael. Jules is an executive of some sort, who persuades his brother Judas (Palance) to visit a nightclub with him to watch one of Eva's nightly performances.

Judas loves snakes (No, not those kind!) and his apartment is filled with them. So, along with her beauty, it's natural that Judas would fall for a gal like Eva. He soon arranges to meet and introduce her to his snakey friends. Judas hires Eva to take care of his pets while he is away on business. From here on out, you know the drill... While the cat's away, the mice will play... and dance around naked with the cat's snakes.

We soon learn that Eva really digs the lady-lovin' which overrides her tendencies to charm any snake other than the reptile kind. Several nude scenes later, Eva's girlfriend is killed mysteriously and Eva must find out who killed her and why. This is a common filmmaking trait known as a "mild plot motivator". I guess they need to keep things moving along but I, for one, wasn't complaining. I thought the pacing was just fine. Do what you gotta do, Eva. I'm all for it.

These are all the details I gathered. Aside from Gemser and the fact that this was one of those "Palance earns a week's pay" performances, I deemed all other plot elements unnecessary and naturally focused on the good parts, of which there are plenty.

You cannot go wrong with any film featuring a topless Gemser within the first five minutes, and fully nude around the eight minute mark. It's just a damn fact. Why can't more filmmakers hint on this?

"BLACK COBRA" was directed by the masterful eye of Joe D'Amato (Aristide Massaccesi), who would later collaborate on several films with Gemser and eventually go on to a successful career directing real pornos with an entirely different breed of snake.

Sadly, Gemser has pretty much left the filmmaking scene and her films no longer play on Cinemax. Most of them have since gone out of print on video here in the States, making them nearly impossible to find.

A quick program note: This is a long, long movie! Over four hours in length! Actually, it only clocks in at around 90 minutes, but if you find yourself using the slow-motion and pause feature on your VCR as much as I did, expect to gain an additional 2 1/2 hours of screening time.

In closing, I highly recommend this film. A truly uplifting experience! Teachers, show it to your classes today. They'll thank you for it! Trust me.

Later kids! -NM.

Black Cobra (1976)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Joe D'Amato directed film about a shy, lonely man (Jack Palance) living in Hong Kong where his only friends are his pet snakes. One night his brother takes him to a strip joint where he sees a beautiful woman (Laura Gemser) putting on a dance with a snake. He moves the woman in but soon someone starts killing off her lesbian friends. The killer doesn't know the woman is a Goddess to snakes. Like many other D'Amato/Gemser films, this one here basically leaves the plot behind in favor of the beautiful actress walking around in the nude and carrying out various lesbian scenes. Gemser is also fun to watch (when she's naked) but the story here is pretty dull and lifeless. Palance must have really been down on his luck at the time.