Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 1, 2018

Joe D'Amato's "Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra" (1976) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Code Red. The supplemental features on the release include an audio commentary by genre expert Mirek Lipinski and trailers for other titles from the label's catalog. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

A beautiful gift for a beautiful girl

In English-speaking territories Joe D’Amato’s film has appeared under a number of different aliases: Emmanuelle and The Deadly Black Cobra, Black Cobra Woman, and Erotic Eva. There are probably a few more, but these were the most popular ones and they were all used to promote and sell the same 1976 film.

The sexy dancer Eva (Laura Gemser) lands in Hong Kong and soon after catches the eye of the aging bachelor Judas (Jack Palance) while performing with a giant python. The old-timer uses his connections to get her phone number and a day later invites her to have lunch with him at her favorite restaurant. Then he convinces her to come to his posh villa on the hills where he shows her his best friends – a large collection of deadly snakes. The girl is impressed but also scared and quickly ends their date.

But Judas does not give up on Eva and after they meet again he invites her to come live with him – without preconditions. He just feels lonely and as long as she is around him she can have anything she wants. She can also leave at any time, and without justifying her decision to do so before him.

For a while the arrangement seems to work perfectly. But when Eva befriends Gerri (Michele Starck) and the two girls begin exploring Hong Kong, Judas once again becomes lonely. A tragic incident further complicates his relationship with Eva and his brother, Jules (Gabriele Tinti), indirectly suggests that perhaps she is not the right girl for him.

Old reviews arguing that Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra is neither a good erotic drama nor a quality crime thriller and therefore is a poor film are missing the obvious – it was never meant to be the former or the latter. D’Amato conceived and shot it as an exotic film. It may not have been a brilliant exotic film, but it sure isn’t the softcore/crime thriller disaster that some folks have insisted it is. (‘Softcore’ is actually a very misleading label that over the years has been used to tarnish a wide variety of European genre films by clueless critics who were convinced that as long as clothes were coming off before the camera the likes of D’Amato, Salvatore Samperi, Ernst Hofbauer, and Max Pecas were all shooting the exact same nudie films).

Together with the rest of the Emanuelle films that D’Amato made with Gemser during the 1970s Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra is an exotic cocktail of thrills and visuals that were meant primarily for folks in Europe and America craving something different -- not necessarily action, drama or erotica, just ‘foreign’ material that wasn’t easy to discover in mainstream films. Hong Kong, which at the time had the reputation of a dream exotic location, was a great setting for this type of a film while Gemser was the perfect actress for it.

Not surprisingly, from the opening credits where the planes are seen landing on the defunct Kai Tak Airport until the very last trip to the secluded island, the film essentially sells attractive images of fascinating foreign locations and tries to convince that in this part of the world people do a lot of unusual things to entertain each other. This is precisely the reason why that street vendor that skins the snake and then cooks it for the two girls actually has a prominent spot in the film. It is normal business here.

All in all, this film is quite the wonderful time capsule, and on top of this it comes with an absolutely brilliant score from the great maestro Piero Umiliani.

Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Joe D'Amato's Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Code Red.

The release is sourced from a very nice recent remaster. I actually have an older DVD release of this film and the difference in quality between it and the Blu-ray release is pretty striking. Depth, in particular, is so much better that even on a TV set it is very easy to see that there are substantial improvements in every single frame. Ideally density should be even better and some of the light black crush that sneaks in could have been eliminated, but I am very pleased with the current quality. Some encoding optimizations could have been performed to ensure an even more impressive end result as well, but the lack of compromising digital tinkering is more important to me because the film has a very solid organic appearance. The color grading is also convincing, though in this area there is also room for some minor improvements. I noticed one vertical line and a couple of flecks, but there are no large debris, damage marks, or warped frames to report. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided for the main feature.

The film was clearly overdubbed in English, but this was the norm for these type of genre projects at the time. Naturally, some unevenness is present, though clarity and dynamic balance are good. However, there are a couple of areas with very light pops and background hiss. They are not distracting, but ideally they should have been removed with digital tools. Piero Umiliani's soundtrack is always clean and sounds great. My score is 3.75/5.00.

Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary - genre expert Mirek Lipinski from The Latarnia Forums offers a lovely commentary with great information about the shooting of different sections of the film in Rome and Hong Kong; some of the more interesting rituals that are seen in the film; Laura Gemser's career and her relationship with Gabriele Tinti; Joe D'Amato's work and legacy and the European film scene during the '70s; some of the lensing choices that D'Amato made, etc.

• Trailers - trailers for other releases from Code Red's catalog.

Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Anyone expecting straightforward erotic entertainment from Joe D'Amato's Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra will be seriously disappointed because it was not conceived to be that kind of a genre film. It is actually an exotic film that offers different 'foreign' thrills and attractive visuals wrapped up in a sublime period score by the great maestro Piero Umiliani. I really enjoy this film and own it on DVD, and I am very happy to report that this recent Blu-ray release from Code Red represents a very solid upgrade in quality. Let's hope that Code Red will soon deliver the promised Blu-ray release of Erotic Nights of the Living Dead and that it will look just as good as Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.