Alcove

The Alcove (1984)

Director Joe D'Amato returns again with another soft-core Italian skin flick. This time he has assembled an all-star cast of Al Cliver and Laura Gemser to head up the cast that spends most of their time rolling around in various stages of undress. Well the ladies at least.

The movie opens with Alessandra, the insatiable wife of a soldier named Elio who has been gone at war for a while. In his absence she has taken up with another woman named Wilma, who was hired to be the family’s secretary. Of course Alessandra continues the affair even after Elio comes home. Things are further complicated when he also brings the daughter of a tribal chief back with him as a war prize and slave. This would be Zerbal, who is played by Laura Gemser. After much naughty activity, and I do mean much (husband and wife, wife and secretary, husband and wife again, wife and secretary, wife and slave, wife and slave again, the man’s son and the secretary, wife and slave, and finally for even more fun the wife, slave, and secretary)! If this isn’t enough the movie also boasts some “vintage” porn that I found really disturbing, a questionable ritual when Zerbal’s ownership is transferred from husband to wife, and finally a rape as revenge thing where the gardener finally gets some action. The whole movie ends up with a strange twist where the one character that was sort of sympathetic is killed.

And that is a perfect ending for a movie that I found distasteful and unpleasant for most of it’s runtime. First of all let me say that I’m not a prude and I’ve seen a ton of these kinds of movies. In fact I would have to say that of all the liked themed flicks, like the Emmanuel series this movie does have a pretty decent plot. Many times in movies that are really focused on showing some skin the plot is a very loose and exists only to tie the sex scenes together. I guess much like a straight porn movie would be today. Here there is actually a story and some character development. You have the Zerbal character slowly manipulating her “owners” until she ends up running the house and calling the shots. She gets revenge on all of those who had used her and caused her pain. I mean of all the movies that I’ve seen Gemser in this is the first time she actually plays a character that is interesting beyond how she looks stark naked. But this is a double-edged sword. There is a lot of nasty racial stuff here that is pretty uncomfortable and excessive. Now when done correctly this can be really powerful and interesting. But here it just feels like it is exploitive and just mean. The movie also sends a really confusing message when the Zerbal character starts to turn from an innocent victim into the nasty savage that they have been calling her all along. Toss in a completely brutal rape scene towards the end that Zerbal helps mastermind and you can see where I’m coming from. Spoiler: Hell the movie ends with all her “victims” standing around watching her burn to death with smug looks on their faces!

Now I’ll admit if you dig this kind of movie or are a Joe D'Amato fan you are going to want to pick up The Alcove. As much as the plot doesn’t appeal to me and in fact obviously bugged me the movie is pretty memorable. I mean I couldn’t tell you the plot to an Emmanuel or Jess Franco flick 30 minutes after watching them, but the Alcove is going to stick with me for a while. So while I wasn’t personally thrilled with the movie I will give it it’s due. Though I can’t really recommend it.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer