The Arena

Nothing like seeing washed-up blaxploitation actresses further their careers with such shimmering nuggets of bile as this. She has since gone on to bigger and better things, but this film is noticeably absent from her resume.. Hmmm... I wonder why? This is just another mindless t&a flick with some dumb cat fights and forgettable characters. Except for maybe Priscium, a drag queen Roman praetor portrayed masterfully by Sid Lawrence. And some big goofy bald guy who was sort of reminded me of Tor Johnson, one of Ed Wood's old spooks. If you absolutely must know what this garbage is about.. I'll enlighten you. Roman soldiers recruit "beautiful" (read: laundromat recruits) women to be love slaves for the hedonist government officials. When two of the girls, Pam Grier and some blonde chick, start a particularly brutal food fight, those ever-crafty Romans devise a new plan to keep the proles entertained: we'll make these girls fight! So, they make 'em be gladiators. I would've thought that Pam Grier would've used this film to showcase her awesome whupa$$ skills, but.. she didn't. She was suprisingly subdued, actually. Especially for being a Nubian warrior woman. Anyway, after several boring battles, unsaved even by copious amounts of jiggling flesh, the girl gladiators start a revolt and overthrow the government, allowing Pam Grier and blonde chick to escape.

If you're looking for bad movies, this is merely average. There are so many better ones out there, but it is nice to see Pam Grier again. I bet she looks back on this one as a crowning achievement.

After being captured by Roman soldiers, a group of women are sold off as slaves. After a continuous poor showing with the men gladiators. Soon enough, these women servants become the showpieces and now they're fighting each other to the death in front of the bloodthirsty Rome crowd and its powerful oppressors. But these ladies don't plan on living like that and do their best to organise an all-out revolt.

What we get from this Corman production is a boldly, sound drive-in exploitation that follows quite a straightforward formula, which seems to work all the time. On this occasion, chuck in a bunch of female beauties in skimpy outfits in a Colosseum backdrop and watch them go toe-to-toe! It's basically a WIP story within a different era. When you got the likes of the fierily titillating Pam Grier and the ravishingly magnetic Margaret Markov sporting it out. You know you're in for a fulfilling appetizer!

This gladiatorial stout supplies plenty of fleshy impulses and gets its hands dirty to invoke the gritty thrills and slimly sleaze. The barbaric attitude within the story superbly captures the gropingly seedy underbelly of the Roman Empire and that viscous instinct for survival to get on top. Simply what you see here is what you get. The women are the main centrepieces and director Steve Carver knew that by exploiting every opportunity. It does have its moments when some ponderous stretches creep in, but when the ladies get their gear on, it finally kicks into gear. The script is extremely leaden (with some corn riddled hokum) and there's not much in the way of character progression, while the performances on the other-hand go down rather well and trump in with a crackling rapport. The very capable Rosalba Neri pops in as the tantalizing ice-queen Cordelia. Lucretia Love and Paul Muller chip in with enjoyably campy performances.

The glorious cycle of action is very well organised in some frenetic spurts and spanking scenes. The kinetically compact cinematography and a triumphantly heart-pounding music score demonstrated this energy. The atmosphere is paved on very convincingly and truly bait's the audience.

You can't take any of it very seriously, as it can get rather goofy. Although for what it is, it's a well-made and acted piece that entertains.

On paper, 'The Arena' looks like exploitation gold. You're got the sexy and super cool Pam Grier and Margaret Markov teamed up again after their success in Eddie Romero's 'Black Mama, White Mama'. A script by the Corringtons, fresh from the success of 'The Omega Man'. Plus two directors, prolific king of sleaze Joe D'Amato ('Antropophagus'), and Steve Carver of 'Big Bad Mama' and 'Drum' fame. Unfortunately, the movie never really kick starts into high gear, and while entertaining enough, is a bit of a let down after the classic 'Black Mama, White Mama'. Grier and Markov play slaves forced to serve the decadent Romans who make up the jaded audience of the local gladiator battles. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess that before too long the women will have to fight in the arena themselves, initially against male gladiators, but eventually their fellow female slaves. Will their individual will to survive win out over their burgeoning proto-feminist consciousness? I'll leave you to find that out... This is an above average 1970s drive in movie helped tremendously by the presence of Markov, and especially blaxploitation legend Grier, who is tough and sexy and shows quite a bit of flesh. The spirited cast also includes Jess Franco favourite Paul Muller ('Vampyros Lesbos', 'A Virgin Among The Living Dead', Caiano's underrated 'Night Of The Doomed'). A fun movie if you don't expect too much.

I wish there were more actresses out there like Pam Grier. A very pretty face, a wonderful body, a tough attitude and surprisingly mature acting for a woman who was, when this "Arena" was made, only 24 years old. And Margaret Markov, her co-star here, is not far behind in any of those categories. The biggest virtue of this film are those two characters - strong, well-defined, acted with conviction. Others have compared the "Arena" with Roger Corman's WIP flicks, but the treatment of the subjects here is much more thoughtful and non-exploitative. As for the actual fight scenes, considering that most of these women probably had not touched a sword before in their lives, they did a fairly good job. Too bad the DVD is full-screen, which damages the compositions severely. (**1/2)

This is called the first women in prison flick ever made, so only for that alone it's a reason to watch it to see where it all started. But for the geeks in horror genre there's more. It was a co-production between the USA and Italie and it showed. Roger Corman was producer. The cinematography was done by Joe D'amato en the editing was in the hands of Joe Dante. All of them becoming notorious for their flicks. And if you look at the thespians, it had Pam Grier in it just coming out of Coffy (1973).

With all those famous names it should have been a fantastic flick but it's all done before their heydays and it shows even as it do has a few potentials. The story is simple but believable and of course due some catfight in the kitchen it's decided that all women who are slaves should become gladiators. Being raped and humiliated by Romans they all work together to destroy the Romans.

Don't expect big effects, there aren't any, and when stabbing takes place it's all done off-camera. Being an exploitation flick it also has a bit of nudity full frontal from the slaves. It was so typical back then around those years because porn was the big thing so nudity was a must in most of the flicks made early seventies to compete with the porn business.

Clocking in under 90 minutes makes it watchable. And it do show the use of the typical zooming in on faces or action seen in spaghetti westerns made then and Italian horrors.

If you aren't into WIP flicks then forget this but if you want to see the start of a few famous horror directors and producers then you must pick it up. It's not a good flick as I wrote earlier but a perfect example of early seventies exploitation.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5