uring a peaceful coming-of-age ceremony in the forest, a pagan gathering is attacked by Roman soldiers; meanwhile, during a ceremonial dance, an African tribe is likewise ambushed. From these and several other raids, women are captured to be sold into slavery, including Bodicia (Margaret Markov), Mamawi (Pam Grier), Deidre (Lucretia Love), and Livia (Marie Louise). “Save her for the market!”

Although these four women in particular aren’t unusual subjects, trained by Cornelia (Sara Bay) to be servants for patrons of a gladiatorial arena, they’re destined for stranger activities. After the wealthy owners/organizers of the establishment, including Timarchus (Daniele Vargas) and Lucilius (Paul Muller), suffer losses from declining audiences and revenues as one-on-one duels aren’t attracting crowds as much (and the recent Spartacus uprising still haunts them), a new idea occurs, prompted by a food fight in the kitchen. Could the slave women be pitted against one another in the arena in brutal combat to the death?

As an early, low-budget Roger Corman-produced picture, “The Arena” features very few original ideas, but it does accomplish early on what it sets out to accomplish. It’s an exploitation flick, boasting violence (and rapes), nudity, and adventure, though it’s largely unconvincing in all but the nakedness on display. The bloodshed is of the terribly phony variety, in which swords are thrust through bodies while obscured by other figures (or wounds desperately clutched to hide the gore), and red paint is minimal if used at all; and action sequences are devoid of authentic choreography, often resorting to stiff, overly cautious grappling and weak swings of pointy steel. The bared breasts, on the other hand, are quite real.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much else of any entertainment value on display. The costumes are cheap (but plentiful), the sets shoddy, the music simplistic, the dialogue poorly delivered, the script badly written, and the acting mediocre at best (though Grier is the most confident of the bunch, clearly capable of better roles and writing). The inferiority of the artistic elements are never more apparent than when brief comic relief is inserted in extremely unwanted moments – making the unintentional humor (especially by Deidre’s character) just that much sillier.

A hint of tension surfaces during an escape attempt, but the complexity of the plot is too nominal to maintain much excitement (senses of urgency are regularly negligible); it’s also rather predictable, going through the routines of arena showdowns as opposed to spicing them up with creativity. For the most part, “The Arena” is as uninspired as it is dull, serving solely to cash in on the popularity of the women-in-prison subgenre that had been doing well after “The Big Doll House” and “The Big Bird Cage.” Fortunately, with its tiny bit of a women’s-liberation theme infused at the finale, at least it concludes well, with a larger-scale skirmish (and horse stunts) that segue into additional battles and some welcome comeuppances.

– Mike Massie