Stage combat, fight craft or fight choreography is a specialised technique in theatre designed to create the illusion of physical combat without causing harm to the performers. It is employed in live stage plays as well as operatic and ballet productions. With the advent of cinema and television the term has widened to also include the choreography of filmed fighting sequences, as opposed to the earlier live performances on stage. It is closely related to the practice of stunts and is a common field of study for actors. Actors famous for their stage fighting skills frequently have backgrounds in dance, gymnastics or martial arts training.
Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum, is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Samson and Delilah (1949), Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and Cleopatra (1963). These films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by spaghetti Western and Eurospy films.
Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to any martial art involving the use of a sword. The formation of the English word "swordsman" is parallel to the Latin word gladiator, a term for the professional fighters who fought against each other and a variety of other foes for the entertainment of spectators in the Roman Empire. The word gladiator itself comes from the Latin word gladius, which is a type of sword.
Lorenzo Fernando Lamas is an American actor. He is widely known for his role of Lance Cumson, the irresponsible grandson of Angela Channing—played by Jane Wyman—in the soap opera Falcon Crest (1981–1990), for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.
Historical European martial arts (HEMA) are martial arts of European origin, particularly using arts formerly practised, but having since died out or evolved into very different forms.
Anthony Charles De Longis is an American actor, stuntman, and fight choreographer.
No Exit is a 1995 Canadian action film directed by Damian Lee, starring Jeff Wincott, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Richard Fitzpatrick, Joseph Di Mambro and Guylaine St-Onge. Wincott stars as an anti-violence academic who ends up killing a man responsible for the loss of his unborn child, and is abducted by a millionaire to star in his illegal, fight-to-the-death TV program. In the U.S., the film was re-titled Fatal Combat.
Snake Eater is an action thriller film directed by George Erschbamer, starring Lorenzo Lamas, Josie Bell, Robert Scott and Ronnie Hawkins. Released on March 10, 1989, it was Lamas' first action film, and Cinépix's attempt at the type of action vehicle that was popular at the time. Harkening back to the Canadian company's grindhouse roots, it infused the veteran vigilante storyline found in many contemporary films with "hicksploitation" elements, which many reviewers found distasteful but did not prevent its commercial success. Three more installments followed between 1991 and 1997.
Jalal Merhi is a Brazilian-born Lebanese-Canadian martial artist and filmmaker. As a competitor, he was a regular on the tournament scene in the late 1970s to mid 1980s. As a film and television producer, he owns the Film One company, and previously owned a studio located at the Donlands Theatre in Toronto.
Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster, also known as Snake Eater's Revenge, is a 1990 action film directed by George Erschbamer, starring Lorenzo Lamas, Larry B. Scott and Michele Scarabelli. It is the sequel to 1989's Snake Eater. Lamas returns as ex-Marine Jack "Soldier" Kelly, who teams with new sidekick "Speedboat" to protect an inner city neighborhood from drug traffickers.
Deadly Heroes is a 1993 Israeli–Canadian action film directed by Menahem Golan, starring Michael Paré, Jan-Michael Vincent and Billy Drago. Paré stars as a former Navy SEAL trying to rescue his wife from a terrorist group who fled with her to North Africa after he attempted to thwart their attack on a Greek airport. Available date listings suggest that Deadly Heroes was the last 21st Century Film Corporation production released during the company's existence, although Crime and Punishment was belatedly released in 2002 by another entity.
The Killing Machine, also known as The Killing Man, is a 1995 Canadian psychological thriller film written and directed by David Mitchell, starring Jeff Wincott and Michael Ironside. In it, an amnesiac contract killer seeking to escape the clutches of a shadowy government agency allies with a whistleblower, who may have uncovered a conspiracy regarding the human engineering of the AIDS epidemic.
"A Shakespearean Baseball Game", subtitled "A Comedy of Errors, Hits and Runs", is a sketch by the Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster. First performed on television in 1958 and slightly revised in 1971 and 1977, the sketch depicts a fictional baseball game with the manager, players, and umpires all speaking in Shakespearean verse. The dialogue parodies lines from the plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III while referencing modern baseball culture. It became Wayne and Shuster's signature sketch, and both its television and radio recordings have been preserved as significant works.
"Rinse the Blood Off My Toga" is a comedy sketch by the Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster. First broadcast on The Wayne and Shuster Hour on CBC Radio in 1954, it was reenacted for their British television debut in 1957 and their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. The sketch recasts the Shakespearean historical tragedy as a detective story with gangster overtones. Set in the Roman Senate right after the assassination of Julius Caesar, the script has Brutus (Shuster) engaging the services of private eye Flavius Maximus (Wayne) to identify Caesar's assassin. Several lines from the sketch became popular catchphrases, including Flavius's order of a "martinus" in a Roman bar, and the repeated lament of Caesar's widow Calpurnia in a thick Bronx accent, "I told him, 'Julie, don't go!' " It is considered Wayne and Shuster's most famous sketch.
The Precious Legacy: Judaic Treasures from the Czechoslovak State Collections was one of the names for a travelling exhibition of Czech Jewish art and ritual objects that opened at The Whitworth in Manchester, in 1980. It subsequently toured the United States and Canada from 1983 to 1986. In 1990, part of the show was brought to Israel for a joint exhibition with the permanent collection of the Israel Museum. The travelling exhibition was relaunched in 1998 for a two-year tour of Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia.
Rose & Ruby Productions, also known as Rose and Ruby Pictures, was a Canadian sports promotion and film production company founded in 1977. It was one of the country's notable producers of televised sports programming before establishing itself as a purveyor of genre movies in the 1980s and early 1990s. For much of its history, the company was anchored by directors Damian Lee and David Mitchell.
Hawk's Vengeance is a 1996 Canadian action film directed by Marc F. Voizard, starring Gary Daniels, Jayne Heitmeyer, Cass Magda and George Chiang. The fourth installment of the Snake Eater franchise, it introduces "Hawk" Kelly, the British-raised stepbrother of the previous films' "Soldier" Kelly, who investigates his sibling's mysterious death amidst a gang war between ethnic Chinese and white skinheads. The series' usual star Lorenzo Lamas does not appear, and his role is recast with another actor during a brief expository scene.
Snake Eater III: His Law is an action thriller film directed by George Erschbamer, starring Lorenzo Lamas, Minor Mustain, Tracey Cook and Scott "Bam Bam" Bigelow. It is the third and penultimate installment of the Snake Eater franchise, after 1989's Snake Eater and 1990's Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster. Lamas, in his last series appearance, returns as Vietnam veteran Jack "Soldier" Kelly, who attempts to save a dropout student from sex trafficking biker gangs.
Law of the Jungle, also known as Jungle Law, is a 1995 Canadian martial arts film film written, produced and directed by Damian Lee, starring Jeff Wincott, Paco Christian Prieto and Christina Cox. Wincott stars as a lawyer who has fallen on hard times, and must fight in underground tournaments organized by a mobster (Prieto) who was once his childhood friend. The film was retitled Street Law for its U.S. release.
Gladiator Cop, also known as Gladiator Cop: The Swordsman II, is a 1994 Canadian fantasy action film directed by Nick Rotundo, starring Lorenzo Lamas, James Hong, George Touliatos and Claire Stansfield. While branded as a sequel in some territories, it is a reboot of 1992's The Swordsman, and reuses a significant amount of footage from that film.
