The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984) New Horizons/Action-Fantasy RT: 81 minutes Rated R (violence, lots and lots of nudity) Director: John Broderick Screenplay: John Broderick and William Stout Music: Louis Saunders Cinematography: Leonardo Rodriguez Solis Release date: May 11, 1984 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: David Carradine, Luke Askew, Maria Socas, Anthony De Longis, Harry Townes, William Marin, Arthur Clark, Daniel March, John Overby, Richard Paley. Box Office: $2.8M (US)
Rating: ** ½
The Warrior and the Sorceress, a low-budget sword-and-sorcery movie starring David Carradine (Lone Wolf McQuade), is a direct remake of A Fistful of Dollars, the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western that itself was an Americanized remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Carradine plays Kain, a lone warrior who travels the barren deserts of Ura, a planet with two suns. Once a “holy warrior” for a now-extinct priesthood, he now wanders from place to place making a living as a sword-for-hire for anybody that will pay his asking price.
Kain enters the village of Yamatar to find two warlords fighting for control over the town’s well, the only source of water for thousands of square miles. He sees a golden opportunity to shake things up in Yamatar and make some serious money in the process. Zeg (Askew, The Beast Within) currently has control over the well. Kain saunters in and defeats his guards in about two minutes. Rival warlord Bal Caz (Argentine actor Marin) witnesses the attack and tries to hire the mercenary to lead his army against Zeg so he can take control of the well. It doesn’t really matter who controls the well. Either way, the poor villagers get screwed. Water is a valuable commodity and commands a high price.
Living in the shadows of Yamatar is Prelate Bludge (Townes), also a member of the extinct priesthood. It turns out Zeg is holding his daughter, the sorceress Naja (Socas, Deathstalker II), prisoner in his castle. Only she can re-forge the lost Sacred Sword of Yura which will give its bearer unlimited powers. He continues to play both ends against the middle in hopes the warlords will ultimately kill each other giving the townspeople unlimited access to the well.
Saving Naja from Zeg’s dungeon becomes part of his mission. Who wouldn’t want to rescue her? She walks around topless the whole time. In fact, all of the women in The Warrior and the Sorceress go topless all the time. It made me wonder whether Yamatar was a clothing-optional village. In one scene, Kain is entertained by a stripper with four breasts. That’s right, she has four boobs! With all the bare boobs, it’s shocking it didn’t become a hit with hormonal teen boys.
Directed and co-written by John Broderick (The Swap), The Warrior and the Sorceress looks like it cost about $150 to make and that’s a generous estimate. It reminds me of one of those cheap God-awful sword-and-sandal flicks that used to show up on TV, either on the late show or Sunday afternoons on UHF channels. All that’s missing is the badly-dubbed English. It’s extremely CHEESY! The sword fights are disappointingly bloodless. After the gore and carnage of Conan the Barbarian and The Sword and the Sorcerer, you’d hope the director would provide a bit of splatter. Alas, this is not the case. Maybe the abundance of bare boobs is his way of compensating for the lack of blood and guts.
Carradine does a pretty good job in the lead role, but why shouldn’t he? After all, his character here bears a strong resemblance to the character he played in the popular TV series Kung Fu. Hell, both characters are called Kain! Could it be any more obvious what the makers are trying to do? The rest of the acting ranges from campy to terrible, although Maria Socas does look pretty hot. Both Askew and Marin look like they’re having the time of their lives camping it up as the evil warlords.
There’s no doubt The Warrior and the Sorceress is pretty bad, but it doesn’t aim all that high to begin with. After Conan made a big splash (or should I say slash?) at the box office, it was inevitable that the low-budget studios would churn out their own cheap entries in the sword-and-sorcery genre. As a result of Conan’s success, we got Sorceress, Ator, Deathstalker and The Warrior and the Sorceress. It’s true they’re all cheap knock-offs, but there’s some fun to had watching them, especially if you enjoy crappy, low-budget exploitation movies. This one goes the extra mile by giving Bal Caz a pet lizard only he can understand. I have absolutely no idea why this is included in the story, unless it’s a reminder that we’re watching a sword-and-sorcery story set on another planet. You already know it’s another planet because of its two suns which has to make walking through the desert a very harrowing experience.
I remember seeing The Warrior and the Sorceress at the movies at a Sunday afternoon matinee (at the City Line Theater) and just laughing at the absurdity of it all. I wasn’t happy with the bloodless violence, but I did appreciate the ample nudity. What did you expect? I was 16 at the time. In any event, it’s a nice reminder of time when one-week wonders played at respectable theaters. These are the movies I’d rush out to see on weekends. Quality was never a strong suit with movies of this kind, but I wasn’t looking to see prestigious Oscar contenders. I was looking for cinematic trash. The Warrior and the Sorceress definitely fits that description.
