Although Black Cobra (AKA Black Cobra Woman AKA Eva Negra) is a Joe d’Amato movie starring Laura Gemser and although it has been marketed in the US as Emmanuelle and the Deadly Black Cobra this is not a Black Emanuelle movie. This is more of an erotic thriller.
Laura Gemser plays Eva and she’s introduced in a memorable fashion. She’s a night-club dancer. She does an erotic dance with a snake. Then we see her in a restaurant with a woman. There’s some heavy flirtation going on, although in fact it goes a bit further than that. Eva then goes home and has a sexual fantasy about the woman, intercut with a sexual fantasy about dancing with the snake. It’s a nice opening. We don’t know very much about Eva at this stage but there are enough hints to be intriguing.
She may be a lesbian, or bisexual, or a straight woman with a rich sexual fantasy life. Whichever category she falls into her sexuality has overtones of perversity, of a fascination with danger and death.
We are also introduced to Judas Carmichael (Jack Palance) and here also we learn just enough to get us interested. He is a very rich man with an obsession with snakes. He has a large collection of the reptiles. He is interested in the subject of fear. He manages to persuade Eva to visit him at home. She becomes frightened, for no obvious reason. Eva prides herself on knowing no fear. So we have two people who are interested in fear and courage. Judas in fact behaves like a perfect gentleman. He does not even attempt to kiss Eva. He does seem just a little odd – as if he is not quite comfortable with women. They are after all much more dangerous than snakes.
He makes Eva an offer. It amounts to buying her. Not for an hour or an evening, but buying her outright. She accepts, although we have already found out that she is already owned by a rich Chinese man. Judas apparently has made her a better offer. It’s an interestingly ambiguous offer. We never find out if they ever sleep together. Perhaps Judas has simply added her to his collection of beautiful deadly pets.
And Eva gets herself a girlfriend. She begins an intense affair with Gerri (Michele Starck). She does admit that she loves Judas, in her own way. And she probably does, in her own way.
There’s plenty of potential here for betrayals and jealousies and sexual and emotional dramas.
There is of course the snake symbolism. We guess that one of these people will turn out to be a deadly serpent. Of course there are many venomous human serpents, so it could get more complicated.
I’ve never been a great admirer of Jack Palance as an actor but no-one could ever accuse him of being boring. In eurotrash movies he tended to be lots of fun and he could always be relied on to add a touch of menace, danger or craziness. In this movie he’s surprisingly good and surprisingly subtle. We have absolutely no idea if he’s going to be the hero, the victim or the villain and Palance keeps us in doubt.
Now let’s be honest. Laura Gemser was not cast in movies like this for her acting ability, which was somewhat limited. She was cast because what was wanted was firstly an exotic beauty who was totally uninhibited about taking her clothes off. Secondly, she had to be able to ooze steamy sexuality. And thirdly, since she was usually the heroine she had to be likeable. Miss Gemser qualified on all counts. As a bonus she is also a very elegant woman. This is a role that falls within her acting range and she’s fine.
D’Amato never forgets that he’s making an exploitation movie. An essential ingredient here is copious quantities of naked female flesh and that’s what he gives us. There’s a lot of female frontal nudity. If you’re going to have lots of nude scenes you might as well shoot them with a certain amount of style and that’s what D’Amato does. D’Amato started his career as a very respected cinematographer and he handles that role here as well as directing. It’s a good-looking movie. The exotic locations (and Hong Kong was definitely considered exotic at the time) were one of the film’s major selling points.
D’Amato obviously figured that if he was going to do an erotic thriller he might as well try to make it a well-crafted interesting one and he succeeds. This is a true erotic thriller, with the thriller plot driven entirely by erotic desires and obsessions. D’Amato wrote the screenplay and it’s effectively twisted with nicely ambiguous character motivations.
Some people hate the ending. I think it’s crazy but I like it. This is a European movie so don’t expect a Hollywood ending.
Black Cobra achieves everything it sets out to achieve. Exotic locations, kinky eroticism, murder driven by lust and jealousy. Jack Palance and Laura Gemser are fun to watch. Enjoyable movie, highly recommended.
The Spanish Blu-Ray offers an excellent transfer.