Mario Bava’s Secret Filmography IN THE ARENA VACATION
Maciste all’Inferno I Normanni
I sette gladiatori Le sette spade del vendicatore
N THE TWO YEARS which had now passed since La maschera del demonio, Mario Bava had gone about his business, following his usual, unambitious inclinations—that is to say, taking what- ever work was offered to him and collecting his pay, without giving any larger thought to the arc of his ca- reer, or to his own physical limitations. Gli invasori, with its vast number of extras and lo-
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KIRK MORRIS seeks escape from Hades through a flaming portal in
Riccardo Freda’s MACISTE ALL’ INFERNO.
gistical demands, was a more difficult film than any Bava had directed to date. By his own admission, after filming the illusory sea battle on the final day of shoot- ing, Bava—who had been working non-stop for more years than he could count—collapsed from what he termed “nervous exhaustion.” Perversely, Bava would often boast of this breakdown in later years, in per- sonal conversations and in interviews, describing how his inhalations of the noxious fog used to fill the stage had nearly driven him mad.
