Death of a Snowman [a.k.a. Soul Patrol] (1976)

Starring:

• Ken Gampu
• Nigel Davenport
• Peter Dyneley
• Madala Mphahlele
• Bima Stagg
• Morrison Gampu
• Joe Lopes
• Miriam Mthlose
• Moira Downie

Storyline
Master criminals meet violent death in Johannesburg, South Africa, a city wrought with organized crime. Steve Chaka (Ken Gampu), an ambitious news reporter,learns that these deaths are from the hands of an all-black vigilante group known only as "War on Crime." Teaming up with Lt. Ben Deel (Nigel Davenport) of the local police department, Chaka investigates anonymous tips regarding future "hits"and ends up fighting for his life to uncover the truth behind the vigilante killings.

Embassy (1972)

Starring:

• Richard Roundtree
• Chuck Connors
• Marie-José Nat

IMDB.com
It looks as if this cinematic essay in crime n' politics is quite rare. It is equipped with a cast that includes Max von Sydow, Ray Milland and Broderick Crawford and has a story with potential: A Russian working in the Ministry of Defense wants political asylum after his son is taken to the Gulag. He enters the US embassy in Beirut, only to be perpetrated by brute force killer Chuck Connors. Doesn't sound so bad, really; but it all is done in the manner of a TV movie. There are moments of thrill, but then again, no less moments of cheesy dialogue and bad cinematography. Among the actors, Connors stands out as sort of the personification of evil, but the script doesn't allow him to display all traits of his character. In essence, this film – if you can find it, since it has quite a few alternative titles – is fun to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but doesn't fit for repeated viewing.

Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle [a.k.a Velluto nero] (1976)

Starring:

• Laura Gemser
• Annie Belle
• Al Cliver

IMDB.com
What we have here is yet another Laura Gemser film being passed off as a part of the popular Emanuelle series. The film has nothing to do with the Emanuelle character and in fact Laura Gemser is simply called Laura in this. The Italian title literally translates as 'Black Velvet', but even that title has little to do with this film. It's also known as Emanuelle in Egypt and Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle (which is the title I saw it under) and to be honest I'm not really surprised that none of the titles really define it - as this is a very hard one to give a meaningful title to. The film takes place in Egypt and basically just follows a bunch of characters. There's no real narrative to the film so it basically just does whatever it likes for ninety minutes or so. We do have a mother character with two daughters and a servant she likes to seduce, along with a chauvinistic photographer and his girlfriend, who he treats badly; by making her pose with a load of corpses, for example. The characters then have sex in various combinations.

The best thing about Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle is undoubtedly the setting and cinematography as the film really does look great and actually it's a shame that the story wasn't better. The beautiful scenery is matched by some beautiful female talent - Laura Gemser obviously takes part although she shares her screen time with other beauties such as Annie Belle, Ziggy Zanger and Susan Scott. The two male stars are Al Cliver and Gabriele Tinti - which lead me to believe that this film may have been the result of the cast wanting to have some fun in the desert, seeing as the two were at the time going out with Annie Belle and Laura Gemser respectively. Curiously, director Brunello Rondi; who I just assumed was a hack, did collaborate with Federico Fellini on two of his most praised films - 8½ and La Dolce Vita. Whether or not you like this film will really come down to whether you value style over substance - there is none of the latter, but the film does look very nice and there are least some memorable scenes. I do have to say I rather enjoyed this film - although I'd have preferred it with some sort of plot.