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.

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.

When exactly did the Black Emanuelle movies turn into a comedy-series? As an ambitious and free-spirited journalist, this gorgeous woman battled against women's oppression, snuff-networks, prostitution, slavery and even freaking cannibals! So what the hell is she doing now as the sexy doctor in a small community full of sleazy rednecks? Well, it can all be explained in one simply sentence. It's NOT a Black Emanuelle film at all and hasn't got anything to do with either "Emanuelle in Bangkok", "Emanuelle in America" and "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals". This is just a very simple-minded and forgettable sex comedy in which Laura Gemser's character is actually named Selena, only the distributors assumed it'd be much more profitable to put the name Emanuelle on the DVD-cover. Can you blame them for wanting to make more money? Well, either way it's a really lame film that is only funny when it tries to be serious and vice versa. It has no actual story to tell, as it simply introduces random male characters that try to end up in Gemser's bed (some succeed) and random female characters that get jealous of the new babe in town and use their naked bodies to win the men back. Again, some succeed. The acting and directing are terrible, the use of music is overly lurid and the sex jokes are embarrassingly anti-funny. The things we have to endure to catch a glimpse of Laura's perplexing naked body!

The first thing you'll notice when watching Emanuelle in the Country is that is, in fact, not a part of the Black Emanuelle series at all but just a sex comedy starring Laura Gemser with the 'Emanuelle' name tacked on! I don't have a problem with that in theory; Italian cinema is literally infested with filmmakers doing things like this to sell their films, and the prospect of a sex comedy starring Laura Gemser was very welcome indeed; but unfortunately, the rip-off of Gemser's most popular and well known character is not justified as this is a poor sex comedy by anyone's standards. The title suggests that we will get to see the beautiful Emanuelle (or in this case, a doctor named Selina) in the country and that is exactly what we do get. Gemser is the new doctor in town and it's not long after getting there that she's attracting attention from all corners of the local population. The men are interested in getting her into bed, while the women are interested in the fact that all the men want to get her into bed and so set out to regain their attentions...

The version of the film that I saw was only seventy five minutes long, which means there's a good chance it's the cut version. I guess there's a chance that means that all the interesting stuff got cut out; although I somehow doubt it and think it's much more likely that this film didn't have anything much interesting about it to start with. Naturally, Laura Gemser is by far and away the best thing about the film; although her performance is not up to much. Still, as ever her body is great to look at and she does manage to just about make the film bearable. The country village she finds herself in is completely populated by fools and it's their antics that provide most of the 'laughs', although I doubt anyone will find this film funny. Maybe it's only meant to appeal to Italians, I don't know, but I didn't find anything to laugh at. It soon becomes apparent that the film isn't going to go anywhere and since it's not funny either; I did start to wonder exactly why I was watching it, until I remember that Laura Gemser is the star. Anyway, this isn't the only bad Black Emanuelle film; but it's one of them and I can't say it's worth tracking down.