When looking at the women-in-prison genre, it surprises me that there are not more films like The Arena. While there have been numerous films set in penitentiaries, reform schools, and work camps, I believe that this is the only exploitation film featuring female prisoners based in ancient Rome. The result is what would happen if you crossed Spartacus with The Big Bird Cage. Most of the standard exploitation elements are present including the requisite bathing scene, the animosity between characters, and the attempted break-out. I can't say that I didn't enjoy watching this one.

Pam Grier and Margaret Markov team up again I am assuming due the success of 1972's Black Mama, White Mama (the trailer for The Arena screams 'black slave, white slave'). The film opens with Markov as a priestess named Bodicia who is performing some kind of ritual on a boy. The Romans show up, kill a bunch of people and take her captive. We are then introduced to Grier as Mamawi, an African woman who is also taken captive after her tribe is killed. The two ladies end up at a slave market and are purchased by a gay fellow named Priscium along with two other girls. They are brought to Priscium's gladiator training camp and are supposed to 'service' the patrons. After a food fight in the kitchen, it is established that a great new way of entertaining the masses would be to have the girls fight in the arena. This proves to be very popular and soon the girls are fighting for their lives thanks to the desires of the bloodthirsty fans. The only hope for the ladies is to escape through the catacombs to freedom.

Anyone familiar with the types of movies that New World Pictures released in the 70's should know exactly what to expect from this one and should not be expecting anything more. This is a B-movie that serves to entertain and it not to be taken terribly seriously. While the Rome angle was an interesting twist, this is a women-in-prison film at heart and ends up being an average entry into the genre. Had it not been for the gladiator sequences and the change of location, this probably would have only gotten two stars but seeing Grier and Markov trying to reenact the Kirk Douglas/Woody Strode battle set the movie apart from the others. The finale was also quite well done with a big battle between the girls and the guards complete with swords, arrows, and pitchforks in front of a crowd of spectators. Most films in this genre have at least one or two scenes that differentiate them from one another but they are all using the same formula. None of the ladies are shy about their bodies and we get nude scenes from Grier, Markov, Lucretia Love (The Eerie Midnight Horror Show), Marie Louise, and Mary Count.

Director Steve Carver also made Big Bad Mama and Lone Wolf McQuade. The film was shot in Italy and rumour has it that sleaze-king Joe D'Amato co-directed (which makes sense as he is credited as the director of photography under the pseudonym Aristide Massaccesi). Gremlins director Joe Dante was the editor and writers John and Joyce Corrington also scripted The Omega Man. Producer Mark Damon was the star of Roger Corman's version of The Fall Of The House Of Usher. Markov left the movie business shortly after this film was made.

If you are looking to see a 70's exploitation film featuring caged women, you can do better than this but as a curious experiment on a proven formula (or if you just want to see Pam Grier naked), it's worth a look. I would have liked to have seen more female gladiator films come out of the 70's but I guess at the time, ancient Rome wasn't as much of a hot commodity as it was in prior decades. The Arena was remade in 2001 with Playboy playmates Karen McDougal and Lisa Dergan in the lead roles. (Josh Pasnak, 1/8/06)

Directed By: Steve Carver.
Written By: John William Corrington, Joyce Hooper Corrington.

Starring: Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, Lucretia Love, Paul Muller.