DVD

Skin

1973
Directed by: Steve Carver, Joe D'Amato
Written by: John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington
Produced by: Mark Damon, Roger Corman
Studio: New World Pictures
Distributor: New Concorde
Running Time: 78 minutes

Starring:
Margaret Markov .... Bodicia
Pam Grier .... Mamawi
Lucretia Love .... Deirdre
Paul Müller .... Lucilius
Daniele Vargas .... Timarchus
Marie Louise .... Livia
Mary Count .... Lucinia
Rosalba Neri .... Cornelia
Vassili Karis .... Marcus
Sid Lawrence .... Priscium
Pietro Ceccarelli .... Septimus

Boobs, breasts, knockers, melons, ta-tas, tits. No matter what you call them, most men (and many women) like seeing them in their movies. At least in their B Movies...

Wehorror.com along with RogueReviewers.com are proud to present:
The B Movies Boobies Roundtable! This month for your pleasure I present to you: The Arena. This is the nearly forgotten 1973 B movie starring the lovely Pam Grier (Coffey, Ghosts of Mars, Jackie Brown) and directed in part by infamous genre director Joe D'Amato (1936-1999), who directed an endless stream of Emanuelle and Zombie/Gore flicks in the 70's and 80's. And while the film was not directly produced by Roger Corman, it was his studio, New World Pictures, that bankrolled the film.

The movie starts out in an idyllic wooded setting that we later find out is Brittania. There are women and girls, all dressed in white, performing a ceremony in a clearing in the sunshine. Then suddenly, crashing through the tranquility, come Roman soldiers on horses, slaughtering nearly everyone they see. But one particularly beautiful women is taken away, to be sold at market.

The next scene is similar except that it is set in Nubia, with drummers and a flutist playing a rhythmic melody while a woman dances. Once again, Romans strike and in a somewhat grisly scene start shooting arrows and throwing spears into the innocent gathering of people. And also once again, a beautiful woman is taken away.

We then arrive at the market place in Brundisium (an ancient port city in what is now South East Italy). There are 4 girls up for sale. The first is our fair and blonde damsel from Brittainia, Bodicia (Margaret Markov). The next is the lovely and luscious Mamawi (Pam Grier). The other two girls, Dierdre (Lucretia Love) and Livia (Marie Louise), are sold as a group along with Mamawi and Bodicia to an overtly gay, and obviously rich, man named Priscium who is being carried around by a bunch of slaves. It turns out that Priscium works for the ruler of the city who is a portly man who likes keeping the citizens of the city happy by having weekly gladiator death matches in the local arena.

In the kitchens where the girls are sent to work, friendships and rivalries quickly form. But before too long, lines in the sand are drawn amongst the rivals. On one side is Bodicia and Mamawi, and on the other side is Livia, who is played by the incredibly sun burnt actress Marie Louise. After the wrong words are said the women get into a fight and before too long there is a major food fight going on in the kitchen. The ruler comes around and is too scared to do anything but fortunately Septimus comes around and manages to single handedly quell the little rebellion. At first the ruler is horrified, but an advisor suggests sending the girls to the arena to fight it out in front of the crowds. The appeal to this is quickly garnered by the ruler and the next day the girls are all in gladiator training. The first fight results in a little comic relief as one of the contestants is drunk. After she loses the battle she still manages to get a "thumbs up" from the crowd and the ruler so her life is spared. However, a few days later at the next fight, the loser is not so lucky. Mamawi is forced to slay her opponent or be slain herself by archers at the ready to make sure the gladiators finish their opponents off in case they become squeamish.

This sets off a rebellion that results in the ruler being slain in the arena, the sun burnt actress getting gang raped by members of the crowd, almost every gladiator/slave being killed (both male and female), and Bodicia and Mamawi out-fighting everyone and escaping to the sea. Whew! I suppose after the rapes and beatings they received they deserved to get away.

As far as a coherent movie goes this one passes muster. It also has a decent script for a low budget flick from the early 70's. Some of the dialogue could almost even be considered classic: "Oh Gods, do you mean we have to satisfy their animal heat?"; "You drunken slut! You steal the masters wine!". Well, you get the idea. The acting is for the most part passable, but Pam Grier does actually stand out, as does Sid Lawrence who plays his namesake in the film, Priscium, to the hilt. When he buys a lot of four girls at the marketplace, he is advised to "Handle them gently." His response is "I won't handle them at all!" and with a little flourish disappears into his tented caravan. The Italian actor who plays Septimus, Pietro Ceccarelli, also happens to look slightly like famed B movie actor Tor Johnson.

The fighting is pretty active and I wouldn't be surprised if someone didn't get hurt during the filming. The sets are pretty effective and there was even a budget for extras to make up the crowd in the arena.

Now onto the important stuff for this review: The breasts! You get Pam Grier's ample boobs in a couple scenes. Actually you get a full frontal of Pam in a couple scenes. I know this wasn't big news at the time considering she got naked in quite a few movies during that part of her career, but my God, what a body she has! Her costar in the film, Margaret Markov, also gets naked in a few scenes as do several other actresses. The clothing that they wear most of the time is minimal. There are short skirts and cool looking leather outfits, armour plating that goes well with mini-skirts, and a halter top that seems to have been scientifically designed to make Pam's breasts bounce and jiggle as much as possible. In any event, that halter top at times is a scene stealer, especially during some of the fight scenes. There is even some token beefcake for those interested in it. Most of the male slave are bare chested, muscle bound gladiators who were greased up for pretty much the entire film.

The R1 disk itself does not offer too much. There are some trailers for this and a few other Corman films and a few biographies which include an interview with Roger Corman by movie groupie Leonard Maltin that is pretty interesting. Corman talks about some of his WIP (women in prison) films, including The Arena, Pam Grier and also Ron Howard and Eat My Dust.

The 1:66 full screen transfer on the movie is just okay. I suppose this is the best the film has looked since it was released 30 years ago. I have a video copy (titled Naked Warriors) that did look pretty bad compared to this dvd. The sound is mono and comes across a bit flat at times. But when much of the bra busting female cast is naked as often these actresses were, who has a chance to pay attention to the sound?

So for what it is, this is a fairly entertaining flick. There's lots of sword fights, bouncing breasts everywhere, a crucification, and even a Tor Johnson look alike. What more could you expect from a low budget sword & sandals/women in prison flick?

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