Perhaps it's time to reconsider my policy of watching every crappy 70's Euroflick with the name "Emanuelle" in the title. Like many of these films, this has nothing to do with either the arty French "Emmanuelle" films or the more exploitative "Black Emanuelle" series associated with director Joe D'Amato and actress Laura Gemser. With its Egyptian setting and occasional forays into Middle East mysticism, this does somewhat resemble the Laura Gemser film "Velluto Nero" (aka "Emanuelle in Egypt"), but while that was a serious film (laughable at times, but serious), this is a very goofy sex comedy that more than anything resembles the director's previous film "My Mother's Friend" and it features two of the same actors, Roberto Cenci and Carmen Villani.
Cenci,a goofy-looking young actor (who may actually be the fifth Monkeee), plays a very similar role to the one he played in "My Mother's Friend"--a hopeless sap in love with a married woman (Carmen Villani), who teases him and generally walks all over him (the only difference being this time that they are both in Egypt for some reason). She convinces him to let a female friend of one of her other male admirers stay at his villa (owned by his ever-absent mother). The visiting woman, "Emanuelle", is a professor and a hypnotist(?) who has had some kind of mental breakdown. She's played by Nadia Cassini (basically taking the same role Barbara Bouchet had in "My Mother's Friend") So which of these beauties is he going to score with? Perhaps both? Hmmmm.
The dubbed dialogue is VERY annoying (I liked the previous film better simply because it was in Italian), and the story obviously is pretty stupid. This has its good points though. The music is excellent, as another reviewer said, and really deserves to be in a better movie. I also enjoyed the Egyptian scenery and local color. I was especially happy to see the camel wrestling scene (this is supposedly a national sport in Turkey, but I never saw any in the two years I lived there--nor for that matter did I ever even see a camel). This looks like an interesting sport (and not to be confused with dog or cockfighting--it's not to the death). Finally, there's Carmen Villani and Nadia Cassini. Villani was a stunning singer-turned-actress, who was quite good in these ball-busting tease roles. Nadia Cassini is unfortunately saddled with a beach blonde pixie haircut, perhaps modeled after Annie Belle the co-star of "Velutto Nero". But while Belle had a kind of petite pouting adolescent look, Cassini looked like an Amazonian ballerina and this look just doesn't suit her. Both Villani and Cassini are better than average actress (and both do get nice and naked several times). Although they both were very popular in Italian sex comedies, this is one of the few English-dubbed films to feature Cassini and the only one I've seen to feature Villani.
I certainly wouldn't generally recommend this dimwitted movie, but "Emanuelle" completists and people interested in 70's Italian sex comedy actresses (and camel wrestling) might possibly find something of interest here.
