The Arena
U.S.A. - Italy / 1973
Directors:
Steve Carver, Joe D'Amato
Starring
Pam Grier
Margaret Markov
Rosalba Neri
Color / 78 Minutes / R
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
New Concorde Video
Pam Grier as Mamawe.
Hold your mouse pointer over an image for a pop-up caption
Bodicia is captured by Roman slavers.
Wash 'em up!
Bodicia, ravaged by Roman rapists.
Time for go to bed!
Into the arena.
To the death?
Revenge on the Romans.
The Arena
Action-packed
Bare Flesh
 
Movie Rating  
4
  DVD Rating   4  
10 = Highest
Rating
 
Roger Corman's New World Pictures financed this variation on the Women In Prison exploitation theme, set during the days of the ancient Roman Empire. It was produced by former actor Mark Damon (Corman's Fall Of The House Of Usher), who'd retired from acting and become a film producer in Europe after moving there. Shot in Italy with a mostly European cast — featuring many familiar faces from a host of Eurohorror films — The Arena (also known as Naked Warriors) is Roman spectacle on a shoestring, a bargain basement Gladiator for the '70s drive-in circuit. It'd be the picture that belonged on the bottom of the double bill were it not for the presence of then-rising cult movie goddess Pam Grier (Coffy, Foxy Brown). At least that's the impression gleaned from this DVD, which unfortunately presents the film in full-screen format. More about that later.
    Grier and statuesque blonde Margaret Markov (who'd teamed previously in 1972's Black Mama, White Mama) costar as Mamawe of Nubia and Bodicia, a priestess from Brittany. Both are kidnapped from their homelands by Roman soldiers. They, along with other women, find themselves on the auction block in the slave market of Brundusium. Flamboyantly gay Priscium (Sid Lawrence) buys the lot of them for his master, the politically-connected organizer of the local games, Timarchus (Daniele Vargas). The girls are purchased as sex slaves for the entertainment of Timarchus' powerful friends and as wine servers during the games. Only Bodicia and Mamawe maintain a semblance of dignity under the yoke of servitude, defiant even to Timarchus' haughty overseer Cornelia. (Played by "Sarah Bay", a.k.a. Italian sex symbol Rosalba Neri [Lady Frankenstein, Amuck!]. Unfortunately she doesn't take her clothes off in this one.) When the gals engage in a food-throwing catfight that demolishes the kitchen, one of Timarchus' buddies suggests turning them into gladiators for the arena. Keen to keep ticket-buying citizens coming back for more, Timarchus soon has the women training for combat under the tutelage of master gladiator Septimus (the Tor Johnson-ish Peter Cester), a hulking bald fighter who makes the mistake of falling in love with one of his new pupils, Lucinia (Mary Count). The first public contest between the female gladiators is a (supposedly) comical affair, with no one getting injured or killed. But the bloodthirsty crowds are easily bored — the next match will be to the death. The survivors, led by Mamawe and Bodicia, realize that each of them in turn will eventually die on the blood-soaked sand of the arena unless they make a daring break for freedom.
    This isn't a particularly good film, at least in the "formatted for TV" version. There's plenty of action, particularly in the final 15 minutes, but when cropped fullframe much of it looks like it was shot too close — you can't really tell who's fighting who when the gladiators revolt and battle soldiers of the city's garrison. There are also a number of scenes with two people in the shot, each with half of their faces cropped off and just a lot of space in between them filling up the screen. But there are plenty of problems with The Arena unrelated to the aspect ratio. The low budget reduces the aesthetic of the Roman Empire to drapery and a few bits of statuary here and there. (What's the deal, Corman? Didn't want to pay for stock footage from some Italian peplum?) Most of the European cast members, speaking English phonetically, are terribly dubbed. The cliché-riddled script by John and Joyce Corrington (The Omega Man) seems to compress time to a remarkable degree (a child born to Lucinia is mentioned but she's never seen pregnant; the gals become proficient warriors practically overnight, besting troops of the Roman Army); either that or big chunks of the movie were cut prior to release. (At 78 minutes it does whiz by at a rapid clip. Good thing, too.) The main villain, Timarchus, is a simpering, hysterical girlyman, never a good move for an action flick. As for exploitation elements... Violence is surprisingly tame, without much blood being spilled. There's a good dose of female skin on display, thank goodness (mostly courtesy of bodacious Bodicia), but things could've been better had they padded it out with just a few more minutes of babes in the buff. Like maybe a scene with the gals giving Rosalba a bath or something... C'mon! Wouldn't that have been better than seeing hairy-backed Paul Müller ravage Margaret Markov? Recommended for gladiator freaks or Pam Grier completists only.

As mentioned, the New Concorde DVD utilizes a cropped, full-screen version of the film. Frustratingly, the opening and closing credits are letterboxed, as is the trailer, which only serve to confirm that Arena has to be a better viewing experience when shown in its correct aspect ratio. The audio track is also sub-par, with noticeable hiss and instances of muffled dialog. If not for these major flaws, this bargain-priced disc would be a real steal. In addition to the trailer for The Arena, coming attractions to six other Corman-financed pictures are included (basically the same ones found on other New Concorde DVDs): Big Bad Mama, the classic WIP exploitationer The Big Doll House (also starring Pam Grier), Eat My Dust!, Death Race 2000, Humanoids From The Deep, and, inexplicably, the 1997 direct-to-video Knocking On Death's Door. The DVD also comes with short text biographies of Corman, Grier, Markov, and director Steve Carver (Lone Wolf McQuade), plus an 8-minute video interview of B-movie kingpin Corman with film critic Leonard Maltin fielding the questions. 5/26/02
UPDATE The disc reviewed here went OOP in 2004 or thereabouts. Since Buena Vista began reissuing the New Concorde catalog in 2005, it may eventually return to DVD.
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