“E-‘MAY’-NUELLE”
FORMAT: BLU-RAY
Christina (Jenny Tamburi) is a bored, unfulfilled wife who is seduced by her husband’s suave friend. Later in their relationship, he even goes so far as to turn her into a prostitute, which she winds up loving almost immediately. It turns out not to be too big of a deal since Christina’s husband likes to watch it all go down and as it turns out, he’s even going so far as paying for her sexual education!
Scandalous Emanuelle is a rather slow-moving romantic period melodrama, but it still has a few flourishes that only a madman like Joe D’Amato can bring to a movie. I’m thinking specifically of the scene where the husband gets turned on while watching his wife use a bidet. However, the drama is surprisingly inert, mostly because everyone seems pretty cool about all the fornicating going on. Because of that, there’s no real tension between the characters. This perhaps would be a non-issue had the softcore action been steamy, but it winds up feeling rather tame, especially by D’Amato’s standards. Having said that, there is still a LOT of skin and plenty of boinking going on. Because of that, it certainly isn’t boring.
In true fake Emanuelle movie fashion, no one is named Emanuelle. Not even Black Emanuelle herself, Laura Gemser is named Emanuelle. Instead, she appears in a supporting role as a lesbian named Jo who yearns to get into Christina’s panties. Sadly, if you’re watching it for Gemser (and you probably are if you’re anything like me), you may be a little disappointed as she doesn’t get in on the action till the third act. While Tamburi fares decently enough in the lead, I can only imagine how much better the film would’ve been if Gemser had more to do.
Overall, Scandalous Emanuelle isn’t bad. It just never seems all that… well… scandalous, if you ask me. Especially for a Joe D’Amato movie.
AKA: Midnight Gigolo. AKA: Christina. AKA: Peepshow.
Well, folks. That does it for “E-‘May’-Nuelle”. I’m still running behind on posting Let’s Get Physical reviews, but I hope to get caught up hopefully before summertime gets into full swing.
I remember seeing this on Showtime back in the 1980s, but it was titled "Peep Show". For years I tried to find it on DVD, unsuccessfully, until I realized it had been renamed "Christina" and later "Scandalous Emanuelle", then - voila!
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