BATTLE
OF THE AMAZONS (1973)Director: Al Bradley (Alfonso Brescia)
EUROVISTA Digital Entertainment
BATTLE
OF THE AMAZONS (1973)In an ancient civilization, a tribe of amazon women (lead by the towering Lucretia Love) keep men for mating purposes and as slaves, regarding their lives as worthless. The brave Zeno (Lincoln Tate) is seen making love to a woman, so the amazons torture the poor girl to death and capture him as a slave. Zeno manages to escape, and ends up in a peaceful farming community.
The harmless community tries to reason with the amazons, but they kill their elder leader and pillage their tiny village, causing many casualties during the chaos. Valeria (Paola Tedesco) assumes authority since her father was the sacrificed leader, and she devises a plan of action against the amazons. She hires a trio of misfit, barbarous types to instruct her people how to fight so they can overpower their skillful antagonists. Valeria and Zeno fall in love but they most overcome the amazons in order to live in harmony.
BATTLE OF THE AMAZONS is an Italian/Spanish co-production that's pure exploitive fun. Filled with sword fights, torture, orgies etc., AIP distributed the film here to play on various drive-in double feature bills. The advertisements for the film were obviously sparked by the posters for Hammer's much tamer "cavewomen" cycle. The painting of the girl clutching a spear looks like a cross between Rachel Welch and Victoria Vetri!
Director Brescia (using the asinine pseudonym, Al Bradley) also directed a semi-sequel, SUPER STOOGES VS THE WONDER WOMEN, likewise released by AIP the following year. He's also responsible for half a dozen late 70s "Star Wars" rip-offs, as well as the incredible BEAST IN SPACE (1978) with Sirpa Lane. With BATTLE OF THE AMAZONS, Brescia delivers that epic "sword & sandal" formula on a limited budget, but the final battle is a riot: Most of the fighting amazon women are male stunt players wearing warrior masks and long-haired wigs! Spanish horror buffs will also recognize Mirta Miller (DR. JEKYLL AND THE WOLFMAN, DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE) as a prominent amazon.
After BATTLE OF THE AMAZONS vanished from the drive-ins in the mid 70s, it seemed to have disappeared all together. The R-Rated feature never showed up on TV and was never released on video in this country. Now, EUROVISTA has released the film on DVD in its original 2:35.1 widescreen aspect ratio. The colors are agreeable for the most part, and the source material shows some wear, mainly in the form of some light green scratches that appear from time to time, but the print is in very acceptable condition overall. The mono sound is fine.
There are also some delectable extras on the disc, including the theatrical trailer, a TV spot (oddly in Scope!), a photo gallery (including the entire U.S. lobby card set), and bios on director Brescia and stars Love and Tate. Also included is a glossy reproduction insert of the original AIP pressbook. EUROVISTA's second DVD release is a real treat, and drive-in movie fans will no doubt want to add this limited edition to their collection. You can order it directly from the U.S. distributor by clicking HERE. (George R. Reis)