April 25: Bava Forever: Bava died on this day 44 years ago. Let’s watch his movies.

How amazing that this is a movie co-directed by two masters of moody horror — Jacques Tourneur (Night of the Demon, Cat People, The Leopard Man) and Mario Bava.

A co-production between Italy’s Titanus and Galatea Film and France’s Lux Compagnie Cinematographique de France and Societe Cinematographique Lyre, this is the story of Persian armies attacking Greece, which is defended by Olympic hero and commander of the Sacred Guard Phillippides (Steve Reeves).

To keep Phillippides from his duty, a conspiracy tires to marry him off to Charis (Daniela Roca, Caltiki – The Immortal Monster) but he is already in love with Andromeda (Mylène Demongeot).

After all this drama, Darius (Daniele Vargas, Eyeball) the kind of the Persians is marching his gigantic army on Greece, which can only be saved if our hero can talk the Spartans into helping him.

A few days before this movie was due to play theaters, major scenes had to be reshot when the editor discovered that several extras were smoking cigarettes on camera. Bruno Vailati also directed some scenes. He’s listed as the AD, but some claim that Tourneur left most of the directing to his assistant.

As a reward for Bava saving them the embarrassment of this movie having modern technology appear in it, he was rewarded with the chance to make his own project and direct it, which was Black Sunday.

There’s some great underwater camerawork in this and Bava elevates it beyond simple sword and sandal moviemaking, the same that he would later do on Hercules In the Haunted World.

Of course, I’ve seen too many movies, so I’ve reviewed it twice.

You can watch this on YouTube.