Emanuelle in Bangkok (1977)

The first thing that struck me about EMANUELLE IN BANGKOK was Nico Fidenco's music score, a whistling, happy, bumbling little ditty that would be right at home on a YouTube video compilation of Tourette's Guy clips. Or maybe a toothpaste commercial, its stuck in my head now and fortunately for my sanity, its not bad. I'd whistle it for you if I could, and can't help but wonder if that's Alessandro Alessandroni doing his trademark thing there. He's the guy whistling on the old spaghetti western soundtracks, proof once again that while often derivative the Italians managed to create some new forms. The movies may often be cheap & boring, but they almost always have great musical scores.I would paint this one into the same category. It looks pretty much like Joe D'amato took a sprawling vacation with some of his favorite stock players (Laura Gemser, her husband Gabrielle Tinti), a couple of Italian genre cinema leading males he maybe owed a favor to (Ivan Rassimov & my hero Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) and a few sexy Euro body babes with no problems with nudity, group groping and the occasional half naked lesbian make-out with Ms. Gemser (Ely Galleani, Debra Berger, Gaby Bourgois). He brought along a camera, maybe a mistress to hold the scripts while somebody made sure there was enough light, and went about their touristy ways while filming a scene or two here & there as they traveled about.Two scenes sort of spoil the fun, first another barbaric episode of Italian filmmakers using animal violence to fill some screen time, then an inexplicable sequence where Ms. Gemser is sexually assaulted by a mob of greaseballs who make a point to humiliate her while getting their jollies off. Inexplicable because afterward she seems quite at ease with herself and chats pleasantly with her attackers as if they had just met at a diner. Then again its all just a silly phallocentric fantasy really, about guys with unlimited means traveling exotic lands in the company of attractive women in their 20s whom they have random sex with, often playing erotic group games for grown ups & swapping partners, though the version I saw was strictly a softcore engagement. The most arousing display being a scene where the girls all get up, strip down to their panties and dance like a harem for an Arabian prince.Or something like that, to tell the truth I was hardly paying attention to the story and frankly couldn't care less. Like a spaghetti western you watch stuff like this for the individual moments rather than the cumulative effect, and most of it passed quite pleasantly with the occasional raised eyebrow. Like the scene were Emanuelle entertains a crowd in a private club by dripping hot candle wax all over her magnificent, nude body. For all we know and given the way Joe D'amato worked, the whole film might have been just an excuse to put that up on the screen. It may not pass as entertainment for some, but for those two minutes this movie was the only thing I was thinking about.4/10

To say that this movie is disappointing would be the understatement of the year. It is truly one of the most unenjoyable movies I have ever seen, and I'm a big Laura Gemser fan. I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane or Apocalypse Now...1. This movie lacks coherence, which I blame on the producers and the editors. It jumps all around and doesn't make much sense. For example, Emmanuelle is having sex with the prince after having smoked some opium (God, I wish it was that easy...) and then they cut to her going to take pictures of some mongoose cobra fight, which has no purpose other than gratuitous violence as the mongoose rips the eyes out of the cobra with his teeth. After this, she is back in her room, taking off her top with no continuity, no explanation. It's like they had this footage of the animal fight and they had to stick it in somewhere. It just doesn't add anything to the movie. It comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere.2. The MUSIC IS HORRIBLE! It isn't just bad, annoying, and totally incongruous, it's totally WRONG beyond wrong. It's the kind of music they would play in the 60's or 70's while a mime and a clown interact on the streets of Paris. The only problem is this movie isn't set in Europe, it's set in exotic Asia featuring exotic looking Laura Gemser. The music is unforgivable.3. THE MOVIE IS NOT EROTIC!! When I watch an Emmanuelle film, I want to see gorgeous Laura naked and having sex long enough so that my eyes can focus on the action. The sex scenes here are a jumbled mess with too many cut aways from the good stuff. There's no flow and these scenes are very short. By the time I see Laura's beautiful naked breasts, they've already cut away to some guy's face or a trip to take some pictures. The strip sequence in the Bedouin tent is a perfect example.I think the thing that angers me the most about this film is the lost potential. They had a great asset in Laura Gemser and totally frittered it away. I've been watching all of Laura's films chronologically, and this has been the worst so far.

In the summer of 1995, Showtime aired this movie almost every night, after "Red Shoe Diaries" and usually around 1 AM. I thought then this was the strangest soft-core thing I've ever seen. Over the years, I've seen far more bizarre, but this one still remains memorable to me after all these years.First off, the music. Bad '70s porno music meets Asian karaoke. Seriously. There are really only 2 songs here, and I don't know the names of them, so I'll give them names: "Like A Sailing Ship," which has a ship horn in its chorus ("TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!"), and "I Wander Safe At Night," which is played most prominently during the big group drug/orgasm scene, perhaps the standout scene in this film: a bunch of people smoke pot (or some mind-altering drug), then get horny and get freaky. All to the strains of a bad guitar solo. This should be a requirement for all soft-core porn.Laura Gemser is pretty hot, she could easily still stand out even today. Come to think of it, all the women here are not bad-looking at all. If you can stand the fact that a lot of George W.'s last name is in full force here (personal grooming wasn't in in 1976, kids), you might like the ladies."Emanuelle in Bangkok," a standout film from my lonely teenager years. I don't even remember the plot, and I don't care. Seeing this now brings back memories of me with Cool Ranch Doritos and a bottle of Pepsi, keeping the volume low so my parents wouldn't hear it, settling back to Showtime's late-night lineup, which included this film and "Red Shoe Diaries." Those were the days...

This is a suprisingly good film. The photography is good, it seems to have some decent production values, the score is excellent, and the editing is slick. It outclasses many of D'Amato's hardcore films and the erotic scenes are more hot than anything you can see late night on cinemax. An overlooked D'Amato/Gemser classic I say.