Summaries

Synopsis

Two unscrupulous Merchants (ALFREDO VARELLI, GINO BUZZANCA) capture by ruse and greed two Greek warriors, Pirro (ROD TAYLOR), the Colossus of Rhodes, and a compulsive liar, Glauco (ED FURY). Both and the rest of the ship's crew, are then given plenty food and drink - spiced with a sleeping drug - so that they can be sold to the Amazons. "By Diana!" is the swearing expression one man says off-camera, when landing on their land...

The redhead Queen of the Amazons (GIANNA MARIA CANALE) presides a meeting during which the warlike Melita (DANIELLA ROCCA, meaning the Black Horse, discusses the fate of the men with the uppity blonde Antiope (DORIAN GRAY). Their heated argument is followed by the other women councilors, and the squad of Amazons lined up in military garb, all turning their heads left and right (as if it was a tennis match). The councilors tend to spare the men's lives, but Melita requests a trial by combat with Antiope to decide the matter. Antiope refuses: «No, Melita... I'm not angry enough for that! I don't want us to fight.» (She looks to be afraid of the warlike and hefty captain of the Amazon army.)

The Queen retires to her chambers to take the decision, and one Amazon in the parade faints as the Queen passes. A councilor tells the queen that «She's expecting a baby.» The Queen suppresses a smile. The Queen and her sister - the High Priestess (ADRIANA FACHETTI) - exchange bored remarks about men, wine, and the days of the past. The Queen wishes to pass on her duties to someone younger, to be free of her tiresome duties.

Within the high walls of the Amazon city, effeminate men go about chatting with each other and doing the domestic chores expected of slaves: preparing food in the kitchen, mending clothes, mopping the floor, buying products in the street-market, washing clothes in the river. Amazons have feminized their man slaves, and do not have sex with them, not even for breeding. Hence, the philosophical debate between Melita and Antiope: two forms of society were at grips.

Sopho (IGNAZIO LEONE) is an effeminate Egyptian, who robs food from the Tall Man who works for the sexy Captain of the Amazon Guard.

There is an evening ballet (with jazz score) in which three men in golden jock-straps and plummeted helmets, and then two dozens of Amazons in one-piece swimsuits, dance in front of the new prisoners, and the statue of the Goddess.

Next day, the High Priestess presides the duel. A gong sounds for the start of the trial by combat. Melita looks impressive on her black horse. Antiope sounds careless on her white horse: «Hi, Melita! Ready when you are!» Melita retorts, «Afraid to lose, uh?» Melita seems to have the majority of supporters. The two horsewomen charge at each other, with their long spears and crested helmets, and pass far from each other, with just a clanging sound of spear tips bouncing off the red metal shields. «The first encounter is a draw!», announces the High Priestess. The girls cross back to their corners of the main square, and Melita falls off her horse, when trying to turn the horse around. Antiope laughs her heart out, «Did you hurt yourself, honey?» The Queen looks in astonishment. There's a second charge on horseback, and this time Melita is thrown off her horse by Antiope's spear. The High Priestess announces: «Anty-o-pee is the winner. The duel is now finished!» («La lotta e finita» in the original version), to the cheers of the crowd. Still sitting on the ground, Melita acknowledges defeat: «Alright Antiope, you are the winner. Do what you like with that man.» Antiope makes a funny face of surprise, and mischief, and pouting, she says in a girlish voice: «I will!...» She dismounts graciously, and walks to the line up of men on a side bench. The Queen looks at the scene implying that she would rather be on Antiope's situation to make the first pick of the assorted males. (38m52s)

Antiope chooses Glaucos (ED FURY) to be her partner for the night, and the subsequent Amazons go about doing their own picking. When Antiope picks Glaucos from the stall, she says, «I pick that one!» Very proud, he says, «At your service!», and kisses her deep. She slaps him. He says, «Your slap is as strong as your kiss!»

The High Priestess calls out: «Antiope, the Queen has called you!» The Queen perceived in that lusty kiss that Antiope is not prepared for a life of virginity as all queens are due, and advises her to wait three days and nights in the temple, thinking about it, before taking the throne oath to the Goddess.

Meanwhile, the last two Amazons conspire to leave Pirro alone on the podium, so that Melita will be forced to take him, the most foolish of the men, as her companion. While he tries to insinuate himself as a man who could be of great service to Melita in order to become queen, Melita already has a plan, and demands it from him: to convince Glauco to abduct Antiope from the temple, where she'll be alone for the next three days. But he ends up by kissing Melita, on the hot seaside, and she is risking the throne, and her virginity, in that embrace.

A Burly Man proves to be a great kisser, and all the Amazons are flocking around to be kissed by him. Pairs are being formed, and Pirro brings Glauco to the idea that they are the only men alone in town. Glauco enters Themis' temple - which is enough to condemn him to death - and manages to kiss Antiope. Reluctantly, she ends up by going out with him. Pirros does not go with them, which was Melita's plan, and stays hidden in the temple. So he sees Melita hiding the sacred gold girdle of the Amazon Queen. He gets hold of it, and then goes to Melita's quarters, to do some bargaining of his own. He trades the sacred girdle for her protection of him, and making him her companion for life - as Queen!

Meanwhile, Antiope falls in the hands of Sopho, the Egyptian Inventor, who explains to her what is happening.

Glauco prepares an escape in a Pirate's ship, while Melita tries unsuccessfully to get crowned instead of Antiope, by presenting another sacred girdle... The Queen is not wishing to surrender the power to her, though, and demands the time prescribed by their law, two moons.

Melita with a choice of faithful Amazons, ambushes Glauco in the night; he fights back but is overwhelmed by the number of the female attackers. Antiope arrives with Sopho, and wants to get Glauco free, but Melita menaces to kill him with her sword, and Antiope reluctantly has to obey her.

Glauco is tied up to an x-shaped cross in the main square, when Antiope reappears, presents the sacred girdle to the Queen. The Queen passes the throne to Antiope, and tells her to decide what to do with the prisoner. «Let him be granted his life!»

«Tell him to get out of here,» barks the Queen.«Release him!» says Antiope to the guards.

That night, the Pirate Captain (ALBERTO FARNESE) leads his men in an attack to the Amazon palace. In a confused battle between pirate's torches against stone buildings and Amazon's arrows shot at unbelievable angles, the men slaves get free, and escape to Greece with the pirates.

Next day, all peace restored, Pirro discovers in the arms of Melita, by the waterfall: «You're beautiful! You're a woman! You're made to be loved...» «Yes,» interposes Melita. «You're made to be kissed...» «Uhm-uhm,» she says, starting to give him a kiss. He stops to breathe, and shouts, hands in the air: «This is well worth a fight!»

Sopho is trying to resist the High Priestess's advances, and then he is hunted by all the Amazon girls. He finally says good-bye to his two friends, who remain with their new pairs: Glauco with Antiope, and Pirro with Melissa.

The Queen remains alone, without anyone having kissed her, or at least been able to explain her in sensible terms what it was like.

The parrot says, from the top of the city walls: «Hurrah to the women, hurrah to the men... ah... goodnight to you all!» (End of the English version at 84m)