Knives of the Avenger

In the ancient times, the savage and cruel warrior Hagen (Frank Ross) is chasing Queen Karin (Lisa Wagner) and her son Moki (Louis Polletin) to marry her and usurp the kingdom of her husband, King Arald (Jack Stuart). Karin and Moki are hid in a cottage in the woods living like peasants and they are protected by a stranger, the warrior Helmut (Cameron Mitchell), who is an expert in knives. Moki gets close to Helmut that teaches him how to hunt and fight and later Karin discloses to him that three years ago, her husband traveled in a ship to overseas to seek grains to his starving people. The vessel wrecked in the coast of Britain and since then they have had no news about Arald. Further she tells that Hagen was the responsible for the starvation since he had broken the truce between the kingdoms of Arald and King Rurik and killed his wife and son. Thirsty for revenge, King Rurik had invaded her kingdom with his warriors and killed the people and raped the women including her in her honeymoon, but spared the life of Arald. Helmut, who is actually King Rurik, falls in love for Karin and questions whether Moki is his son.

This is the first action movie of Mario Bava that I have seen and I found it an underrated tale of revenge and redemption. The screenplay is very well written, disclosing a dramatic story, and supported by great direction and acting and magnificent cinematography. In the end, the viewer is never sure whether Moki is the son of Rurik or Arald but the tears of Karin might indicate that she knows the truth about the fatherhood of Moki. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Rating: ** (max. ****)

Poorly paced Viking epic about Mitchell, who comes to protect the wife of a dead king from an usurper, unaware that she has reason to exact vengeance on him. Storyline is unusually complex but going-ons seem stretched out unnecessarily. Some consider this a western - well, if it wasn't for that setting they may be right. Score, photography, acting is quite nice, but, to reiterate, sluggish story-telling diminishes the effect. For Bava completists. Stick with OPERAZIONE PAURA, LISA E IL DIAVOLO, CANI ARRABBIATI or CINQUE BAMBOLE...

Afterword:

In the liner notes, Bava historian Tim Lucas considers this film "the genre's last hurrah" and sees it as a "distinct forerunner of the sword and sorcery genre". A "hurrah" it ain't, and Schwarzenegger's CONAN was inspired by HERCULES (Bava was involved!). For more Bava reviews, please visit my homepage.

The last of Mario Bava's various peplums for the silver screen – although he would still have a couple more stabs at the genre for Italian TV – is also the last of four films (one of them in an uncredited capacity) he made with second-tier Hollywood star Cameron Mitchell. It seems rather incredible to me now that Italian producers were still trying, at this late stage, to emulate the commercially successful formula of THE VIKINGS (1958) – even down to dyeing their leading man's hair blonde like Kirk Douglas'.

The film starts atmospherically enough with a witch on a sandy beach waxing metaphysically about the doom-laden future lying in wait for a vanquished Queen (the rather wooden Lisa Wagner) and her treacherous pursuer (Fausto Tozzi, a forceful if decidedly one-note portrayal). Despite the expected bouts of lively action, the film is surprisingly intimate for this director and genre; in fact, an even stronger influence is that of SHANE (1953), complete with adulating kid – an aspect which is further reinforced by the various scenes of horsemanship and showdowns in dark taverns. Besides, even the action sequences rarely involve more than a couple of characters (including the climax set inside a cave), and the fact that it employs flashbacks (which help render the two male leads – the stoic and, decidedly, ambivalent Mitchell and the rugged Giacomo Rossi Stuart – more rounded than is par for the course) is largely a departure for this kind of film.

On the debit side, one must certainly note the sluggish pace. All in all, even if still perhaps his best peplum, this is a lesser Bava film – which I rather enjoyed more the first time around (ironically, watched via a pan-and-scan print on Italian TV!).

Cameron Mitchell stars in this Viking film that essentially is a traditional western plot but set in the Middle Ages. Mitchell plays the hero--a guy who comes to town and finds that a local baddie is tormenting folks. So, being a noble sort of guy, he comes to the aid of a woman and her son--not realizing that she is a queen living in hiding. While all this sounds pretty exciting, it really isn't. Despite Mitchell tossing knives about and acting manly, it's pretty dull. BUT, I really expected much worse. Considering the zillions of Samson/Hercules/Machiste Italian films (most of which were terrible), I assumed this dubbed film would be just horrible. Perhaps having the talented director Mario Bava (known for horror films) helped a bit. Still, it's far from a must-see film and is easy to skip or see if you've got nothing better to do.

Yours truly hasn't got any affection with the Sword & Sandal whatsoever, but hey, since it's a Mario Bava film, and since I consider him the greatest director of all times, "Knives of the Avenger" somehow became a must-see after all. I stand corrected, though, as this wasn't initially meant to be a Bava-film. It became a Bava-film when the production badly ran into trouble, and he was needed for re-writes and a timely delivery. The fact that one man was capable or replacing a fired director, alter an entire script and finish a reasonably okay film in less than a week proves once more that Mario Bava was the ultimate cinematic genius.

The plot and set-up are extremely simple, but fairly efficient. A mysterious, blond-haired warrior protects a fugitive mother and her son from a merciless gang of outlaws led by the cruel Hagen. The story is supposedly set in the Viking era, but I didn't spot anything (costumes, ships, Northern locations) to emphasize this. Bava worked with what he had available, clearly, namely a fairly good cast (with adequate performances from Cameron Mitchell and Fausto Tozzi) and violent battle sequences. Unless you have - like me - a specific interest in the work of the director, "Knives of the Avenger" is a dull and unmemorable period piece, NOT worth tracking down.