Duel au couteau

"I Coltelli Del Vendicatore" aka. "Knives of the Avenger" (1966) is a somewhat cheesy, but doubtlessly fun 'Sword and Sandal' flick by the arguably greatest Horror director of all-time, the brilliant Mario Bava. I may be slightly biased. If I was to select one all-time favorite director of mine it would quite possibly be Mario Bava, as no other director has ever been capable of combining beauty and terror and creating a haunting and overwhelming atmosphere as it was the case with the supreme master of Gothic Horror and inventor of the Giallo. The man's repertoire includes more masterpiece than that of any other Horror director. His ultimate masterpiece, "La Maschera Del Demonio" (aka. "Black Sunday", 1960) is doubtlessly one of the greatest Horror films of all-time, and his filmography includes so many brilliant that it is hard to pick favorites: Gothic tales like "La Frusta E Il Corpo"(The Whip and the Body", 1963), "I Tre Volti Della Paura" ("Black Sabbath", 1963) and "Operazione Paura" ("Kill Baby Kill", 1966), the Giallo-milestone "Sei Donne Per L'Assassino" ("Blood And Black Lace", 1964) or the ingenious Crime-Thriller "Cani Arrabiati" ("Rabid Dogs", 1974) are only some of the many brilliant films this man has made, and I could probably go on praising Bava forever. This being said, "Knives of the Avenger" certainly isn't a masterpiece or must-see, and definitely ranges among the lesser films in Bava's impressive filmography. While anybody unfamiliar with this great director's work should definitely start their journey into the fascinating world of Mario Bava with another film, this one is yet a fun little film that is recommendable to my fellow fans of the man.

"Knives of the Avenger" is a vengeance-themed Sword and Sandal film that was made in 1966, several years after the genre's heyday in the 50s and early 60s. Cameron Mitchell stars as Rurik, a Barbarian (Viking?) warrior, who saves the young beauty Karin (Elissa Pichelli) and her son from the clutches of an evil warlord (Fausto Tozzi)... I do not want to give any parts of the story away, but I can say that it is pretty random classic stuff. Bava, as always, succeeds in giving his film a great look and nice atmosphere. For its time and genre the film also has quite a bunch of violent and somewhat gory moments, and the hero is quite dark and vengeful. This one's cast includes the leading men from two of Bava's greatest achievements, Cameron Mitchell (who starred in "Blood and Black Lace"), and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (who starred in "Kill Baby... Kill!" and who is credited as "Jack Stuart" here). Mitchell, who is the leading man here, is a very good actor; while this role doesn't need great acting skills, he has what it takes - a grim look. The revenge-story isn't exactly unique, but it's entertaining enough and well-executed by Bava's skillful direction. The film is nicely shot and supported by a cool, genre-typically heroic score. This is a cheesy film, of course, and by no means a masterpiece. It certainly ranges among the least important films Bava has ever made and doesn't nearly play in the same league as any of his Horror films (including the director's personal least favorite of his films, the somewhat weird "Five Dolls For An August Moon"). Yet it is fun enough and warmly recommended to my fellow Bava fans who have seen most of the man's many masterpieces.

This is a good film, Bava & Cameron Mitchell both do good work imo, the soundtrack is excellent & there are a couple real gems in this film regarding Bava's visual strengths. One such scene shows the bad guy galloping off linearly away from the screen zig zagging through hills descending into a valley as the soundtrack thunders & his descent has a strange visual extrapolation to it that I'm still not sure how Bava achieved, you have to see it.

Another such scene is when Mitchell reveals his face from under his helmet with the burning village surrounding him, very impressive visuals! Again, the music & Bava's commanding sense of visual style come together for a moment of perfection.

This is really Shane redone as a Viking film & it's actually quite good. I recommend it however not to neophytes of Bava, there are other obviously more well known titles in his filmography that one should start with.

At some point every Bava fan should see this film. I need to see Eric the Conqueror, that one I still have not seen, I think Bava did 3 Viking themed films. BTW he was the special effects director for Steve Reeves original 'Hercules' film!

Yours truly hasn't got any affection with the Sword & Sandal whatsoever, but hey, since it's a Mario Bava film, and since I consider him the greatest director of all times, "Knives of the Avenger" somehow became a must-see after all. I stand corrected, though, as this wasn't initially meant to be a Bava-film. It became a Bava-film when the production badly ran into trouble, and he was needed for re-writes and a timely delivery. The fact that one man was capable or replacing a fired director, alter an entire script and finish a reasonably okay film in less than a week proves once more that Mario Bava was the ultimate cinematic genius.

The plot and set-up are extremely simple, but fairly efficient. A mysterious, blond-haired warrior protects a fugitive mother and her son from a merciless gang of outlaws led by the cruel Hagen. The story is supposedly set in the Viking era, but I didn't spot anything (costumes, ships, Northern locations) to emphasize this. Bava worked with what he had available, clearly, namely a fairly good cast (with adequate performances from Cameron Mitchell and Fausto Tozzi) and violent battle sequences. Unless you have - like me - a specific interest in the work of the director, "Knives of the Avenger" is a dull and unmemorable period piece, NOT worth tracking down.

Rating: ** (max. ****)

Poorly paced Viking epic about Mitchell, who comes to protect the wife of a dead king from an usurper, unaware that she has reason to exact vengeance on him. Storyline is unusually complex but going-ons seem stretched out unnecessarily. Some consider this a western - well, if it wasn't for that setting they may be right. Score, photography, acting is quite nice, but, to reiterate, sluggish story-telling diminishes the effect. For Bava completists. Stick with OPERAZIONE PAURA, LISA E IL DIAVOLO, CANI ARRABBIATI or CINQUE BAMBOLE...

Afterword:

In the liner notes, Bava historian Tim Lucas considers this film "the genre's last hurrah" and sees it as a "distinct forerunner of the sword and sorcery genre". A "hurrah" it ain't, and Schwarzenegger's CONAN was inspired by HERCULES (Bava was involved!). For more Bava reviews, please visit my homepage.

Cameron Mitchell stars in this Viking film that essentially is a traditional western plot but set in the Middle Ages. Mitchell plays the hero--a guy who comes to town and finds that a local baddie is tormenting folks. So, being a noble sort of guy, he comes to the aid of a woman and her son--not realizing that she is a queen living in hiding. While all this sounds pretty exciting, it really isn't. Despite Mitchell tossing knives about and acting manly, it's pretty dull. BUT, I really expected much worse. Considering the zillions of Samson/Hercules/Machiste Italian films (most of which were terrible), I assumed this dubbed film would be just horrible. Perhaps having the talented director Mario Bava (known for horror films) helped a bit. Still, it's far from a must-see film and is easy to skip or see if you've got nothing better to do.