Witchfinder General 666 Steve Carver's "The Arena" aka. "Naked Warriors" of 1974 is a highly entertaining piece of 70s exploitation that should not be missed by a B-movie fan. Produced by the almighty Roger Corman, co-directed by the king of exploitation himself, Joe D'Amato, and starring the sexiest duo of 70s cult heroines, the wonderful Pam Grier and Margaret Markov, this is pure Grindhouse cinema for lovers, and should not leave anybody bored.Abducted from their homelands and enslaved by Romans, two young women, the Nubian Mamawi (Pam Grier) and Bodicia (Margaret Markov) from the Brittany, are, along with other female slaves purchased by the Roman owner of an arena, where they are to do domestic work and serve as mistresses/sex slaves to the gladiators. After a fight at the dinner table, however, one of their unscrupulous slaveholders suggests to have the women fight for their lives in the arena, in order to offer something fresh to the blood-thirsty audiences...Both stunningly beautiful, charismatic, sexy and cool, Pam Grier and Margaret Markov are a true dream team in exploitation cinema (something they already proved in "Black Mama, White Mama" of 1972). Apart from Grier and Markov, the cast furthermore contains Lucretia Love ("Battle Of The Amazons", "The Sexorcist") and Rosalba Neri ("Lady Frankenstein", "Johnny Yuma"). Another cool role is that of Paul Mueller, a huge, ugly and bald Tor Johnson-lookalike, who plays an invincible gladiator. I personally also found the score pretty cool, although it is certainly not too original. The sleaze and violence are not quite as extreme as in many other exploitation flicks of the kind, but there's enough of both to entertain. Being a fan of exploitation flicks (or not) is a matter of taste, of course, and "The Arena" may therefore not be everybody's type of film. I personally love this kind of films however, and I therefore recommend this to all my fellow exploitation-enthusiasts. Especially Pam-Grier fans should give it a try!

lost-in-limbo 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.

bensonmum2 At first glance, it appears that Roger Corman was trying something new and different with The Arena. But once you get into it, it's easy to see that the movie is yet another Women in Prison film, albeit in a different setting. As far as WIPs go, it's middle-of-the-road - some of the movie works while while some of it doesn't.There are a couple of things that The Arena has going for it. First and most obvious is Pam Grier and Margaret Markov. These two seem to have a natural chemistry. The scenes with both actresses are the highlight of the movie. After watching Grier and Markov together, I really want to see Black Mama, White Mama more than ever. Another thing The Arena has going for it is a sense of fun. If you don't take it too seriously, there's a lot of silly, almost cheesy fun to be had.Unfortunately, not everything in the movie works. I'll start with the plot. Actually lack of a plot would be a better description. Women are kidnapped, taken to Rome to serve as slaves, forced to fight, and try to escape. There's absolutely no character development and no reason to care about most of them. Another area where The Arena doesn't hold up to close scrutiny is the fight scenes. These scenes are so obviously choreographed and staged that nothing looks natural. Usually I enjoy seeing Pam Grier kicking butt, but here it's not as good as I had hoped.

-6 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.