Emmanuelle: Queen of Sados (1980)

Very Cool!!!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Laura Gemser stars in this story-driven melodrama, as a woman who gets revenge on her abusive husband, by hiring a hit-man to kill him. This is an unofficial entry of the "Emanuelle" series, but definitely one of the better ones, and a good film in it's own right. Gemser is still Emanuelle in this, but she is no longer the photo Journalist, but rather a much abused wife of a very wealthy industrialist. The title suggests that Emanuelle is cruel or evil, but in fact the husband did deserve to die, as he was brutally raping and torturing his wife, and most likely would eventually have killed her. She is left to care for her 14 year-old daughter, who has inherited her fathers fortune. Too young to care for her estate, Emanuelle is assigned her guardian. Of course things go wrong when Mario the hit-man turns up to blackmail Emanuelle, who really seems to care for her daughter Livia. Meanwhile Livia meets Mike, a boy a couple years her senior, and the two begin a very sweet and innocent affair. Mike, played by the beautiful Vagelis Varten, seems also to love the young girl, but neither he nor Emanuelle can protect her from the corruption that surrounds her. Livia eventually loses her innocence to Mario, when the man brutally rapes her. To be sure this is entertaining drama, and a tale filled with lurid suspense, but one problem is that the film is too ambitious for it's own good, and introduces too many characters to be able to develop any one to any great length. And this is one case where the sex scenes were actually too frequent, and slowed down the story as it unfolded. But this is an "Emanuelle" film, and this is to be expected. i had hoped for a little more time to be spent on Livia's and Mike's blossoming love, as it was the sweetest part of the film, and Vagelis Varten should have been given more screen time. But it is always a pleasure to see Laura Gemser in romantic scenes with her real-life husband Gabriele Tinti. She is noticeably more comfortable doing erotic scenes when they are with him. 'Emanuelle-Queen of Sados' must surely be controversial, as the girl who plays Livia couldn't be a minute over 14 years old, and yet she appears totally nude throughout the film, and is featured in the disturbing rape at the climax. I could imagine this film being banned in certain parts of the world! The music score is nice enough, fitting the beautiful Cypress locale, but Nico fidenco's score is missed here. I have a Greek DVD, which seems to be uncut, although there is one short scene of a woman masturbating by the pool, that is optically blurred. This is a must for fans of Laura Gemser, as she is given a lot of room to act here, and is the main player. A fun, trashy film, recommended!

The Emanuelle series is basically made up of two types of film; 'official' entries (as official as an Italian rip-off of a French porn series can be) and random Laura Gemser films that were re-titled 'Emanuelle' to help them sell. Emanuelle: Queen of Sados, is one of the latter. The film is something of a crime-drama...although it could be better described as 'wall to wall sex scenes', as that's mostly what it is. Anyway, the plot basically hinges on a woman whose plan to hire a killer to murder her husband backfires when the killer begins blackmailing her. In the version I saw, Laura Gemser's character was called 'Emmanouella', although despite a similar name; she has no relation to the journalist character seen in the official entries. The title is interesting...and I really have no idea where the 'Queen of Sados' part comes from. Perhaps it was an attempt to fool audiences into thinking that the film has something to do with sadomasochism? Anyway...I really can't say that this film is all that interesting. The sex scenes are not bad, but do become monotonous after a while; and the cinematography isn't great either so it doesn't benefit from good looking scenes like the earlier Black Emanuelle, White Emanuelle did. I'm not sure what fans of the series would make of this film; but Laura Gemser is in it (and looks great as usual) so that's something at least. Overall, I'd put this in the mid-range of Emanuelle films and only fans of the series need apply.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Goddess Gemser is beautiful.This is typical of the films she had been doing. Rich, greedy people trying to put one over on each other. Said people have weird ideas about love too.She starts by fiddling with a guy in order to get him to kill another guy by pouring sand into his airplane gas. She succeeds, then takes over a young woman's life.She plays out of type here though. She's meant to be seen as evil. Her actions were those of a real harpy.The scenery was lush and the nudity was rampant but the story was a bit old. Fans of Goddess Gemser (ME ME ME) will enjoy it for sure.

`That girl' Laura Gemser was permanently plastered across adult cinema screens in the 70s. Hardly a great actress but an absolute stunner, the Javanese-born former model came to international attention in the 1975 smash Black Emanuelle (that's one M to avoid prosecution). She also guested with Sylvia Krystal the same year in Emmanelle 2 as a masseuse, then made five more `official' Black Emanuelle sequels for the notorious `Joe D'Amato'/Aristide Massaccesi, including the gut-munching sleaze of Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals. Countless other titles in Gemser's 50-plus filmography have been retitled to cash in on her fame. Emanuelle's Daughter started out as `Sexy Moon', certainly not one of Gemser's best - my pick is Divine Emanuelle (aka Love Camp, 1980), a ludicrous Jonestown-style musical (!). An often turgid softcore soap opera and travelogue, it was filmed in Cyprus at the height of the Euro-disco craze (you can see the Village People perform `YMCA' on a TV set!). A rich industrialist dies under mysterious circumstances, and his widow ‘Emanuelle' returns to his estate in control of his fortune and his young rebellious daughter. It appears Emanuelle was subject to her husband's perverted whims, and now seeks revenge on his partners-in-crime with the help of the vicious womanizing disco king Mario (Gemser's long-time husband Gabriele Tinti). The film explores the daughter's budding sexuality; Cyprus must have a lower age of consent, as she looks about 14 with her gear off. Familiar face Gordon Mitchell, former muscleman and star of countless westerns and Hercules films, plays one of the husband's cronies, and is dubbed by the voice of Bud Spencer - I keep expecting him to down 14 hotdogs and clock Gemser on the nut! Passable disco tail-waver.