THE ARENA Lethal Ladies Collection Vol. 2

U.S.A. - Italy | 1974 Directed by Steve Carver Starring Margaret Markov Pam Grier Rosalba Neri Color | 82 Minutes | R Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC | 2-disc set) Shout! Factory

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		EC Home Review List Coming Soon Downloads
		Review by Brian Lindsey Film:5 DVD:7

Replaces EC's review of the 1999 New Concorde edition NOTE: DVD Rating is for entire 3-film set

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 Mark Damon (Corman's Fall of the House of Usher), who had 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, such as Paul Muller and Rosalba Neri — The Arena (also known as Naked Warriors and Gladiator Women) is Roman spectacle on a shoestring, a low budget Gladiator for the drive-in circuit. The presence of then-rising cult film goddess Pam Grier (The Big Doll House, Coffy) makes it an unusual hybrid of 1960s Italian peplum and 1970s American grindhouse exploitation.

Grier and statuesque blonde Margaret Markov (who'd teamed previously in 1972's Black Mama, White Mama) co-star 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 Brundisium. 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", AKA Italian sex symbol Rosalba Neri [Lady Frankenstein, Slaughter Hotel]. 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 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 bid for freedom.

The Arena isn't a notable or even particularly good film, but it isn't a waste of time, either, especially if you have an interest in the "Sword and Sandal" pictures of the early to mid-1960s — and just wish that the ladies in them would occasionally get naked. At least there's plenty of action, particularly in the final fifteen minutes; with Shout! Factory's new anamorphic widescreen transfer one can now see what the heck is going on in the combat scenes, which helps considerably. (When cropped fullframe, as was the case with the 1999 New Concorde disc, you couldn't really tell who was fighting who when the gladiators revolt and battle soldiers of the city's garrison.) The proper aspect ratio also allows one to get a better feel for the production design, which in 4:3 mode seemed to reduce the aesthetic of the Roman Empire to drapery and a few bits of statuary here and there — the film certainly benefited from access to Rome's Cinecittà Studios, which had lots of ready-made period costumes, props and set dressings lying about. (Director Steve Carver uses these assets well.) Alas, most of the European cast members, speaking English phonetically, are indifferently or poorly dubbed. The 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), although at 82 minutes it does whiz by at a rapid clip, making it ideal for a double feature bill. The main villain, Timarchus, is a simpering, hysterical girlyman, never a good move for an action flick; Vargas' performance is woefully cartoonish to boot. 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, 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 slave girls giving Rosalba a bath or something... Wouldn't that have been better than seeing hairy-backed Paul Muller ravage Margaret Markov?

After being out of print for almost a decade, The Arena returns to DVD as part of Shout! Factory's excellent Roger Corman Cult Classics line — specifically the Lethal Ladies Collection, Vol. 2, joined by the enjoyably silly (not to mention T&A-packed) Fly Me (1973) and Cover Girl Models (1975) in a three film/two-disc set. The Arena and its bonus supplements get Disc 1 to themselves; the other films share Disc 2. None of the movies are in exactly tiptop condition vis a vis the source materials, exhibiting some print damage, the occasional emulsion line and missing frame, but the prints are colorful and sharp, and in each case represent the best versions likely to ever appear on home video. That The Arena is now presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16x9 TVs, makes a big difference. (Shout! Factory has also decided to include a couple of minutes of dialog which were cut from the original American theatrical release, here reinserted into their proper place in the narrative. These were taken from an inferior fullframe master, so the aspect ratio briefly switches to 4:3 during these scenes.) Audio for all three is your basic Dolby Digital Mono, which delivers the goods in a satisfactory manner with the occasional snap, crackle and pop.

The Arena gets almost all the set's bonus features. (Disc 2 merits only a TV spot for Fly Me.) Into The Arena is a brisk 18-minute featurette blending interviews of Roger Corman, producer Mark Damon, director Steve Carver and star Margaret Markov, who look back on the film's production with the hindsight of nearly 40 years. An audio commentary with Carver, moderated by Katarina Leigh Waters of WWE and Katarina's Nightmare Theater fame, covers much the same territory as the featurette only in greater detail, with many additional anecdotes from the director's perspective. The included U.S. theatrical trailer for the film uses the alternate Gladiator Women title. ("They live as slaves... fight like demons... and love on command.") 2/14/12

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