Leofwine_draca A simple grade C Italian thriller with sex and violence becomes an A-picture thanks to an excellent script, strong acting and fine direction by Bruno Fontana, who also wrote the novel on which the film is based. At first glance the plot seems to be nothing new and the presence of Laura Gemser seems to indicate another EMMANUELLE-type adventure, set this time in the desert. Fans looking for cheap exploitation will find themselves with a whole lot more, as this gripping psychological study of the mental deterioration of a group of stranded soldiers is an excellent little movie and one of the best of its type I've seen. In fact it owes more to the gruelling Italian war epics of the '60s such as THE RED BERETS than the sleazy sexploitation drama into which it has been slotted. Despite lacking a budget, any stars (aside from Gemser in a relatively small role), gore, or special effects, this is a uniquely-crafted and utterly engrossing story of the lowest depths to which mankind will fall.Things begin rather predictably with a team of soldiers infiltrating an enemy base and shooting dead a wanted man. Unfortunately they are double-crossed by their contact and their captain is fatally wounded. Lost in a country they have no knowledge of and worn down by a lack of provisions and the searing heat of the desert, the group quickly descends into mindless bickering, and power struggles for the leadership emerge when the captain dies. Along their journey they pick up a mysterious guide known as Bony and rest at a remote house. At this point the film hits us with a nasty gang-rape sequence which is pretty brutal and nihilistic, seeing as the girl commits bloody suicide as a result of the violation. After this nothing stays the same and one realises that this will be an intense, downbeat, and definitely adult film.As more members of the party die and spirits dwindle, into the picture steps Laura Gemser as a mysterious sexual traveller who lures one man to his doom. What follows is a chronicle of sexual jealousy, leadership rivalry, and lots of violent murder as the remaining soldiers struggle to contain their feelings and eventually lose the remnants of their consciences. The outcome is predictable but oddly unmissable and its difficult to turn the film off once you've started watching. One thing it has in spades is atmosphere, with the sweaty Cyprus locations adding to the strong realism of the production and a lack of noticeable music/directorial flourishes adding to the feel of the film, making it seem almost documentary-like.The acting is very good from just about the entire cast; of course the strongest and most interesting characters last the longest. Angelo Infanti (a George Eastman lookalike) is particularly good as the hateful brutish rapist who takes over leading the soldiers when the rightful captain dies. Giovanni Brusadori also excels as the innocent soldier who struggles to cope when his companions turn to rape and violent murder and who eventually descends into madness. Genre regular Gabriele Tinti deserves mention as the cool, mysterious "Bony" character, whilst Laura Gemser has a great role and gets to act for a change as well as shedding all of her clothes when necessary. The action sequences are well-staged and generally exciting but it's the human drama which makes this so watchable. Despite an element of predictably to the narrative (you can see pretty much from the start where its going) this remains a strong, challenging and important little movie and surprisingly better than you would imagine.

The_Void The Emanuelle franchise was obviously very popular in Italy during the seventies and eighties; and as a result of that, just about every film that Laura Gemser has been involved in since bears the Emanuelle name, even if the films actually have nothing to do with earlier entries in the series. Emanuelle: Queen of the Desert is yet another example of an annoying Emanuelle cash-in, although to be fair; this film actually isn't all that bad. The plot is rather simple and focuses on a bunch of red blooded soldiers that rape a girl before having her thrown out of the window. They then go on the run in the desert; before running into Gemser's 'Tigress' character who takes revenge on them all. So we've basically just a rape and revenge set in the desert with Laura Gemser starring. The plot is rather well done and the characters are interesting enough to hold the audience's attention for at least a little while. Laura Gemser gets top billing but isn't really the star of the film; despite stealing it once she does arrive. She gets naked a couple of times and her revenge on the soldiers is fun enough. Naturally, the film doesn't give the audience anything to come away with; but it's a decent hour and a half of sex, violence and Laura Gemser and better than most of the other fake Emanuelle films.

unbrokenmetal „La belva dalle calda pelle" (literally: „The Beast With Hot Skin") is a movie which is marketed to the wrong audience, I'm afraid. At least I have no better explanation for the low average rating here. Having a sex symbol like Laura Gemser at number one of the cast plus stills showing grim mercenaries with machine guns surely appeals to people looking for a „fast food" sex and violence flick, but writer and director Bruno Fontana clearly had ambitions beyond that. In the beginning, we see Sheila (Laura Gemser - not „Emanuelle" here despite the American title) leading one soldier into a trap and kill him. Then she meets 4 of his comrades and sweetly offers to guide them to the border. We don't know which country it is (seemingly African, but actually shot on Cyprus island), who the soldiers fight for or why they are lost. At this point, the movie is an excellent trip into the Heart of Darkness echoing „Apocalypse Now", and it is not far fetched to presume that was an important influence on „La belva dalle calda pelle" which was shot shortly afterwards.Sheila awakens anger and frustration in those men who try and rape her, or jealously attack each other. She causes adoration slowly turning into fear. „You are a tigress and I am a lion", says the leader of the mercenaries. „We have a lot in common." More than he thinks at the time... Interior monologue and manic close-ups are increasing the tension. After 40 minutes, the metaphysical qualities of the movie are hampered by a long flashback, though, which neatly explains the story: how the mercenaries got there, what Sheila's motivation is, who this guy without a uniform (Gabriele Tinti) is and so on. This certainly is a lack of elegance in the movie way of story telling, maybe because the first-time director was a writer in the first place and thought in chapters rather than a flow of pictures. Composer Paolo Rustichelli (son of the famous Carlo Rustichelli who scored countless movies, too) provides one of his earliest works, a deliberately synthetic soundtrack like it was used in science fiction movies of the 1980s, certainly en vogue at the time, but it adds a sense of weirdness and uneasiness to the movie which obviously isn't SF, but occasionally existentialistic. In my personal view - despite the flaws in the middle - a movie waiting to be rediscovered.

gridoon In the 569th case of misleading marketing I've come across, the DVD version of this movie is called "Emanuelle, Queen of the Desert" even though the only thing it has in common with the Emanuelle movies is that Laura Gemser stars, and she gets naked; however she plays a totally different character. There is the germ of an interesting story here - Gemser as a mysterious, almost ghost-like avenger - but the film is too badly made to have much impact. The flashback in the middle serves a purpose - it shows you what pigs some of these characters are and why they deserve what they get - but it shouldn't have gone on for so long (35 minutes). When it's over, the movie has only 10 minutes left! Also, beware of the DVD picture and sound quality, it's pretty poor. (*)