BLACK COBRA WOMAN (DVD) DVD

Black Cobra Woman
Aristide Massaccesi (aka Joe D'Amato) directed this strange sexploitation item starring Jack Palance as Judas, a hermit-like millionaire who keeps poisonous snakes. Judas falls for an exotic snake-dancer named Eva (Laura Gemser from the Black Emmanuelle movies) and pays her to come live with him. Judas' crazy brother Jules (Gabriele Tinti) is there, too, and tries to get his hands on his sibling's loot by freeing a deadly green mamba to kill all of Eva's friends. Eva gets her gruesome revenge by taking Jules to her home island and watching as the natives ram an eight-foot black cobra up his behind. Needless to say, this film is not for all tastes, but Palance turns in a nicely odd performance and fans of the genre should be amused. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Cast n/a

Crew Joe D'Amato - Director Piero Umiliani - Composer (Music Score) Joe D'Amato - Cinematographer Joe D'Amato - Screenwriter

Black Cobra Woman
This bizarre curio from veteran European exploitation filmmaker Joe D'Amato is unexpectedly high on style and depressingly low on substance. Black Cobra seems pretty slick on the surface: the cinematography has a gauzy glossiness worthy of an Emmanuelle film and Piero Umiliani's exotica-flavored musical score, mostly lifted from his previous soundtracks, is sexy and sophisticated all at once. However, Black Cobra falls apart on a story level: the plot has a few surprises to offer (the villain's comeuppance must be seen to be believed) but the threadbare script fails to use its novel plot devices to their full potential and never builds interesting or believable characters. D'Amato doesn't help things with his lackluster direction, which never establishes a comfortable pace and pads the film with momentum-killing travelogue footage of Hong Kong. In terms of performances, the actors have little to work with but Gemser makes an attractive lead and Palance turns in some amusingly eccentric work as the hermetic Judas. All in all, Black Cobra has enough kink to please the exploitation film completist but is likely to confound most other viewers. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
 

(no awards)

General Specifications: Language Options: Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: DD: Generic Dolby Digital (unspecified format) Additional Features: Feature program Interactive menus Scene access MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: Content Length: 95 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. The Family Business [13:27] 2. Distant Admirer [11:30] 3. Your Own Key [11:19] 4. Take Five [13:08] 5. Table for Two [11:01] 6. So Brave [14:30] 7. Parting Gift [14:58] 8. Too Risky [6:18]