BA_Harrison Whilst in Nairobi to interview reclusive gangster Giorgio Rivetti (Venantino Venantini), feisty photographer and reporter Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) stumbles upon the existence of a powerful prostitution and white slave trade racket operating out of the US.After banging Rivetti, rolling in the sack with a prince (Pierre Marfurt) and showering with her best friend Susan Towers (the gorgeous Ely Galleani), Emanuelle returns to NY to go undercover as a poor woman willing to sell herself for sex. Infiltrating a high class brothel, she sets about the dangerous task of exposing the unscrupulous organisation.The last of the Emanuelle films to be helmed by trash king Joe D'amato, White Slave Traders is a surprisingly tame affair in comparison to the director's other entries in the series: Emanuelle in America, Emanuelle and the Last cannibals, and Emanuelle Around the World. Where those films relied on scenes of hardcore sex and extreme gore to shock their audiences, this one sees old Joe content to present the usual smörgåsbord of soft-core sex acts and lightweight sleaze that typify the character's non-D'amato adventures.Fortunately, the story is actually half-decent for a change (well, by Emanuelle standards) and there is just enough gratuitous nudity and outrageous silliness still make it worth a watch: during the course of the film, Gemser rubs one out whilst watching Susan shag a mechanic, partakes in a drug-fuelled menage-a-trois, runs naked through the African bush, satisfies an ageing senator, humps kung-fu transvestite Stefan (Nicola D'Eramo), and is rogered by a gang of thugs in a bowling alley. You'd think that by the end of the film she would be exhausted, but in a fittingly trashy finale, the game girl offers herself to a group of fishermen in exchange for a lift back to the city on their boat.I think they call that 'working your passage'.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

jaibo The final Black Emanuelle collaboration between director D'Amato and actress Laura Gemser is perhaps the most conventional, structurally, of their films together. It still flits madly between genres, like some crazed canary battering its wings against its cage, but it does keep Emanuelle as a central protagonist in a recognisable three act structure, with a single plot going all the way through.The first half hour takes place in Nairobi, giving D'Amato the chance for some Mondo-like shots of wildlife and tribal ritual. Emanuelle is trying to secure an interview with a European businessman who lives the life of a baron in the country, and we see her infiltrate his defences through cunning guiles and seductions. This first half hour includes a typical soft-core encounter, as Emanuelle's friend and guide gets laid by her garage mechanic in his pit, plus a couple of nifty sexual montages, one interspersing lovemaking with tribal ritual, the other filming a love scene from behind columns, the camera tracking round and the screen going black as it glides behind a post; these two scenes bring into play the usual soft-core soft-soap of sex being associated with primitivism and loss of consciousness. But as usual, D'Amato has bitterer fish to fry, and the first half hour also has Emanuelle witnessing what looks like the trafficking of a woman against her will.Back in New York, after rekindling her affair with a fashion photographer, Emanuelle does a James Bond and goes undercover into the world of the white slave trade. A striking sequence in a plush hotel has her peaking in on an auction in which young girls are bought like cattle (we share her hidden POV); she then pretends to be a poor girl and is taken up by a trader, put on a sex farm and told to please the rich, powerful old men who go there. The owner, one Madam Claude (a reference presumably to Just Jaeckin's 1977 film of that name), keeps a tight house, forbidding her workers to stray outside of their allotted apartments on her ranch. Of course, Emanuelle strays and discovers that Madam is trafficking very young girls from the ranch to foreign climes. This discovery puts Emanuelle in considerable danger, a danger nicely prefigures by the nervy POV walk we do with her on arriving at the airport to depart for the San Fransico-based farm.The most intriguing character in the film is Stefan, the burly transvestite duenna at Madam Claude's. Always in drag, he bosses the girls around and seems like Madam's best arm, but despite being cast as a eunuch at a harem, he falls for Emanuelle's charms and sleeps with her. This makes him vulnerable, as when he catches her taking pictures for evidence he decides to help her – but that brings down the wrath of Claude's thugs onto his head, and despite putting up a spirited kung fu fight, he is violently murdered. Stefan operates in a strange position in the sexual politics of the film – he works for what is ultimately patriarchal power, farming girls like cattle for old men, but his emotions and his low position in the food chain feminize him as much as his dress. It is no surprise that a man who doesn't play the male role "properly" finds himself as disposable as the women seem to be in this world.Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade, like its predecessors Emanuelle in America and Emanuelle Around the World, uses the soft-core genre to ask some hard questions about the darkness sexuality can encompass as well as the commoditisation of women in a patriarchal system. It isn't as gobsmackingly out there as either of those films, but it does move at a steady pace as well as taking its audience into uncomfortable areas around the exploitation of women. It is no surprise that D'Amato made no Emanuelle film after this (except a cynical compilation) as he was beginning to repeat himself, and had darker areas to explore than could be borne by the soft-core genre which he'd taken to its limits.

The_Void The Black Emanuelle series has some gems; but overall it's very hit and miss, and unfortunately Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade is one of the misses. The plot once against focuses on Emanuelle as she heads out to get an interview with some Italian criminal; but by chance actually happens upon someone that is into the white slave trade, and decides to investigate that instead. The film is directed by Joe D'Amato so as you would expect, there's plenty of sleaze and sex scenes; but actually this entry is somewhat more tame than some of the other Emanuelle flicks. The film actually appears to be going for a more softcore erotic feel; and although to be honest I generally prefer that to the hardcore style that most of these films feature; there's not enough in this film to really hold it together and the result is, unfortunately, rather boring. There are a few standout scenes, however; one that sees Emanuelle and another woman in the shower is worth mentioning, but you can get all this stuff in other, better, films. As always, the film stars the lovely Laura Gemser and once again she's very nice to look at and is definitely the best thing about the film. Overall, however, this is a rather dull entry in the series and thus is not recommended to anyone except hardcore Emanuelle fans!

Michael_Elliott Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (1978) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Reporter Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) is doing a story on the white slave trade and tracks everything to a gangster living in Africa. Not happy stopping there, Emanuelle comes back to America and begins working undercover. This is probably the best of the D'Amato/Gemser Emanuelle movies but that's not saying too much. Unlike the other films in the series this one here at least manages to be entertaining without having to have a woman jerk off a horse as was seen in Emanuelle in America. This film here has a pretty interesting story and it moves along without too many boring spots. Needless to say there's a lot of sex scenes with Gemser taking on various men and women and these here are without a doubt the best scenes. D'Amato makes most of these very erotic, which is another thing missing from others in the series. I wouldn't say Gemser gives a good performance but she is comfortable in the role and you can't complain about seeing her naked throughout the film. The scenes in Africa are well shot and it's nice seeing some of the wildlife. Some of the American scenes were lifted from Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals but this just adds to some of the cheap fun. Original title: Via della prostituzione, La.