Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade
| Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Italian | La Via della Prostituzione |
| Directed by | Joe D'Amato |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Joe D'Amato |
| Produced by | Gianfranco Couyoumdjian |
| Starring | Laura Gemser |
| Cinematography | Joe D'Amato |
| Music by | Nico Fidenco |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Variety Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (Italian: La via della prostituzione, lit. 'The path of prostitution')[1] is an Italian sexploitation film from 1978 directed by Joe D'Amato as his last Black Emanuelle film.[2] It was also known as Emanuelle and the Girls of Madame Claude.[3]
Plot
Emanuelle is in Kenya to arrange an interview with the Italian American gangster George Lagnetti ("Giorgio Rivetti" in the English dub). She succeeds in meeting him with help from her friend Susan Towers and Prince Aurozanni but is intrigued by other events, leading her to meet the white slave trader Francis Harley, and setting her up for a dangerous undercover operation at the San Diego mansion of Madame Claude, which functions as a brothel for top-level dignitaries and civil servants.
Cast
- Laura Gemser as Emanuelle
- Ely Galleani as Susan Towers
- Gabriele Tinti as Francis Harley
- Venantino Venantini as Giorgio Rivetti
- Pierre Marfurt as Prince Arausani
- Gota Gobert as Madame Claude
- Nicola D'Eramo as Stefan
- Bryan Rostron as Jim Barnes
Background
Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade features the investigative journalist character known to her readers as 'Emanuelle' (Laura Gemser). Like most films directed or produced by Joe D'Amato, it is an attempt to capitalise on the commercial success of another film - in this case the 1977 film The French Woman (French: Madame Claude).[4]
Release
Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade was released in Italy on 20 April 1978.[5] The film was heavily censored, with eight minutes cut in the theatrical release.[4]
Reception
John Pym of the Monthly Film Bulletin wrote it is "a flimsy, though surprisingly unsensational, yarn supposedly concerned with the horrors of 'white slavery'; the dismal artifice of the whole severely tests the viewer's patience."[6]
Film critic Erik Sulev opined the movie "is a true treasure ... it is more goofy than lurid in spite of the title; without a doubt, this is vintage D'Amato — Why? — because it's the typical 'kitchen sink' styled movie that D’Amato enthusiasts will eat up, absurdities and all; everyone else will cringe at the results, but it's their loss; after thirty minutes into the movie, Emanuelle actually does end up on the trail of a white slavery ring based in San Diego."[7]
Author Danny Shipka observed that "looking at the treatment of Emanuelle in her films, it's clear that most of the violence is directly aimed at her, and because most of her films have a mondo film to them, the violence is magnified; disturbingly, though, violence doesn't seem to be used as the aphrodisiac to get one in the mood, but to actually get one off."[8]
See also
- Cinema of Italy
- Black Emanuelle series
- List of Italian films of 1978
- List of LGBTQ-related films of 1978
References
- ^ Paul, Louis (2005). Italian Horror Film Directors. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company. p. 209. ISBN 0-7864-1834-6.
- ^ "Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2015. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015.
- ^ Amador, María Luisa; Blanco, Jorge Ayala (2006). Cartelera cinematográfica, 1980-1989 (in Spanish). Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. p. 137. ISBN 978-970-32-3605-3. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
- ^ a b Giusti, Marco (2004). Stracult. Dizionario dei film italiani (in Italian). Frassinelli. pp. 274–275. ISBN 88-7684-813-4.
- ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Via Della Prostituzione". AllMovie. Archived from the original on 6 June 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
- ^ Pym, John (1979). "Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 46, no. 540. British Film Institute. p. 130.
- ^ Sulev, Erik (1994). Ledbetter, Craig (ed.). "My Baby Was Black Emanuelle". European Trash Cinema. Vol. 2, no. 10. pp. 34–35.
- ^ Shipka, Danny (25 July 2011). Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960-1980. McFarland & Company. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7864-8609-0.
Further reading
- Kerekes, David; Slater, David (2016). Killing for Culture: From Edison to ISIS: A New History of Death on Film. Headpress. ISBN 978-1-909394-35-3.
- Mathijs, Ernest; Mendik, Xavier (2004). Alternative Europe: Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945. Wallflower Press. ISBN 978-1-903364-93-2.
- Piselli, Stefano; Morocchi, Riccardo (2003). Sexy Eroine: Erotic Heroines in Movies (in Italian). Glittering Images. ISBN 978-88-8275-043-5.
- Ruétalo, Victori; Tierney, Dolores, eds. (2009). Latsploitation, Exploitation Cinema, and Latin America. New York: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-99386-9.