`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.
