Knives of the Avenger (1966)

Pretty Good

Boring

A lot of fun.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

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.

Knives of the Avenger (1966) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Mario Bava directed this viking tale about a Queen (Lisa Wagner) and her son on the run from a ruthless warrior (Frank Ross) but a stranger (Cameron Mitchell) comes to their rescue. KNIVES OF THE AVENGER was apparently started by a different director but it was going so badly that Bava was brought on to clean things up. From what I've read, he pretty much re-shot the majority of the film and that's a good thing because once again his talent is head and shoulders above the rather standard screenplay. After the success of THE VIKINGS nearly everyone was throwing in these types of stories and the one being told here is rather bland and doesn't really stand out against the others. I watched this with my young son and he was confused as to why these vikings didn't have ships but I wasn't about to open up a conversation about budgets. For the most part the film remains entertaining thanks to the technical genius of Bava as well as Mitchell. Now I'm not going to sit here and say that Mitchell turned in a great performance but as a fan of his, it was rather fun seeing him in this role. I'm not certain he was the greatest choice for it but it was still fun seeing him. Ross is also very good in the role of the villain, although leading lady Wagner was a bit too stiff for her own good. There's some nice cinematography throughout the film and there's one brilliant sequence where we're in the dark, a man goes through a wall and then we're in the bright outdoors. How this was filmed and shot is certainly the highlight of the picture. KNIVES OF THE AVENGER has a pretty standard and boring story but it's brought to life by the positive aspects so fans of Bava will want to check this out.

I generally can find something to like about all the big cult film subgenres; but the one exception to that is definitely the 'sword and sandal' film. I've only seen a handful and they never fail to bore me to tears. I tuned into this one simply because it has the great Mario Bava at the helm; however, it turns out that Bava is just as bad as Fulci when it comes to films like this, and Knives of the Avenger is heinously boring. What we basically get is a bunch of people that are supposed to be Vikings (I think) running around in silly costumes. The plot has something to do with a woman, or fighting, or something. Anyway, this basically goes on for about eighty five hours...sorry, I mean eighty five minutes and then the film ends. Mario Bava made his name in the horror genre and his directorial style lends itself to the genre so well as Bava is brilliant at creating atmosphere. This film does actually feature some decent camera work and Bava does create a few good atmospheric scenes. However, that's really the only good thing I have to say about this film. Before seeing Knives of the Avenger, I had Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Bombs down as Bava's least fine hour; but now I'd say it's a tie between the two. Both are very much avoidable, although fans of this type of movie (assuming this type of movie has fans) might find something to like here I suppose.

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.