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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade DVD Review by 42nd St Pete

Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade 1978 Directed by Joe D’Amato Starring Laura Gemser, Gabriele Tinti and Ely Galleani DVD released by Severin Films.


I always said that Joe D’Amato was one of the best when it came to erotic films , either hard or softcore. Joe was a master at this genre, yet totally sleazy with other genres. Joe had a long collaboration with Laura Gemser, one of the most sensual women in the history of exploitation and grindhouse. Gemser’s exotic looks and smoldering sensuality gave all us 70’s grindhouse junkies fantasies. She made the character she played, Emanuelle, an extension of her personality.


This was their last Emanuelle film together. The film starts out in Africa as Emanulle and her assistant are looking to expose a mobster who is hiding out. She arranges for her and her assistant to be introduced to the gentleman. She has a camera hidden in her zippo lighter. Lots of very hot sex scenes occur before the job is done.


She catches wind of a prostitution ring run by her real life husband, Gabriele Tinti. We see an auction in New York as young girls, with hairy armpits, are auctioned off. One girl, who is supposed to be a “16 year old virgin” has more hair under her arms than I have left on my head. Just think of brillo pads. The girls parade in and do a strip before the potential buyers. They are very calm for girls being sold as sex slaves.


Anyway after a lot more sex, Emanuelle agrees to work in a high end brothel in San Diego. She befriends a cross dresser and they plan an escape. They are cornered by thugs and we are treated to a tranny kung fu fight until he/she gets killed and Emanuelle has sex with multiple men at once. The ring is exposed, Emanuelle gets her story and this film got lost for a good many years.



Grainy 10th generation bootlegs made the rounds of the convention circuits until Severin Films got a complete print from a private European collector. It most likely came from one of my customers on Ebay. Anyway this print is beautiful, a must for any D’Amato/ Gemser fan. It showcases Joe’s strengths as a director of erotica and Laura Gemser clothed or naked is breathtaking. If it’s skin you’re looking for, it’s all right here, three ways, girl on girl, the afore mentioned multiple partner love making session, and hot, & hairy Euro chics. The ‘plot” is just a framing device to showcase Laura. There were many hot women in grindhouse films in the 70’s. You had Pam Grier, Angel Thompkins, Christina Lindberg, Tiffany Bolling, Cheryl Rainbeaux Smith, and others, but to a lot of us, Laura Gemser was our Queen of Exploitation Cinema. Kudos to Severin Films for unearthing this lost gem.


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