Hello listeners, Ben here.

The next episode of The Plot Thickens comes out on Tuesday, but we have a little weekend

treat for you.

This is a really engaging story.

Pam told us about a gladiator movie she made in 1973 for Roger Corman.

The movie was called The Arena.

Pam Brear is the fiery Nubian Slay.

Margaret Markoff is the beautiful high priestess, thrust together, fighting for their lives as gladiator

women.

Believe it or not, Roger Corman actually asked Martin Scorsese to direct The Arena, but

Scorsese turned it down, made mean streets instead.

Roger may not have landed the director he wanted, but he did get Pam for one of the

leads.

In 1974, she flew to Italy to film The Arena.

It was shot in a large studio in Rome called Chinachita.

Chinachita means cinema city, and it lives up to that name.

Everyone told me how all the directors had worked at Chinachita.

This is like the holy ground of Italian directors.

Chinachita is actually the largest film studio in Europe.

The script required Pam and her fellow gladiators to ride horses.

Pam was eating lunch in the commissary before rehearsing one of those scenes.

The crew member found her with some distressing news.

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