Knives of the Avenger (1966)
Mario Bava's third and final team up with Hollywood western star Cameron Mitchell is a lively Viking epic.
Amusingly the film is practically a direct remake of the classic 1953 western Shane in which a weary gunfighter settles down with a woman and her son out in the wilds but soon becomes involved in a violent cattle ranch war.
Yes the cattle ranch war is replaced by viking squabbles but the story is much the same, especially how the son comes to idealize Mitchel as the father he never knew. The similarities aren't a problem though. Shane is a good western and Knives of the Avenger is a fine historical actioner from Bava.
Mitchell as always is pretty good value as our avenging hero, although at times he does look a little odd with his dyed blonde hair, dark stubble and strangely grey eyebrows. The rest of the cast complement Mitchell well. The bulk of the first two thirds are spent solely in the company of the lovely Lisa Wagner and her son, Moki, played by Louis Polletin. In some respects the film stands or falls on Polletin's performance. If he'd failed to convince or become irritating as Brandon De Wilde did in Shane then it would have ruined the film. Fortunately he's largely excellent and the quiet family scenes play out rather well.
The final third is where the bulk of the action is. Mitchell coming into conflict with the ruthless Hagen and his war with King Arald as played by Fausto Tozzi and the ever watchable Giacomo Rossi Stuart, perhaps one of the unsung heroes of sixties and seventies Italian cinema and every bit as good, if not better than the usual suspects - Merli, Franco, Testi, Merenda etc.
Bava directs the film with pace and gives it a frantic urgency in the many fight scenes, not to mention some typically fine photography during the quieter scenes.
Knives of the Avenger is one of the lesser known Bava films, but came out when the director was at his prolific best in the mid sixties, and is more than worthy of your attention.
|