The Blade Master (1983) New Line/Action-Adventure-Fantasy RT: 92 minutes Rated PG (violence) Director: Joe D’Amato (as “David Hills”) Screenplay: Joe D’Amato (uncredited) Music: Carlo Rustichelli Cinematography: Joe D’Amato (as “Frederick Slonisco”) Release date: February 15, 1984 (US) Cast: Miles O’Keeffe, Lisa Foster, David Brandon (as “David Cain Haughton”), Charles Borromel, Kiro Wehara (as “Chen Wong”), Robert Black, Donald Hodson, Stephan Soffer (as “Sthephan Soffer”), Nello Pazzafini (as “Ned Steinberg/Robert Black”), Osiride Pevarello (as “Hershel Curtis”). Box Office: N/A
Rating: *
If you thought Ator, The Fighting Eagle was bad, wait until you get a load of Ator 2 (Italian title, Ator 2- L’invincibile Orion), more commonly known by its American title The Blade Master. I was as shocked as you are to learn the Italian-made sword-and-sorcery cheapie somehow merited a sequel. I first learned of its existence while perusing a West Coast Video near where I used to work in 2000. I was even more shocked to learn later (much, much later) it was followed by two more, Iron Warrior (1987) and Quest for the Mighty Sword (1990) in which Eric Allan Kramer (Robin Hood: Men in Tights) replaces Miles O’Keeffe in the title role. It has to be bad if Miles passed on it.
You might possibly know Ator 2 or The Blade Master under yet another title. Are you a fan of MST3K? If so, then you might have seen an early episode where the gang riffs on a piece of schlock called Cave Dwellers. IT’S THE SAME DAMN MOVIE! Although not a regular viewer of the show, I do recall catching about ten minutes of this episode back in ’92. I recognized the character Ator right away, but the rest of it was unfamiliar. I didn’t think more on it at the time. Not until that fateful visit to that new-to-me West Coast Video eight years later. The rest isn’t exactly history or prehistory.
Joe D’Amato, the auteur behind the first Ator and several Black Emanuelle movies, returns to direct The Blade Master under the pseudonym “David Hills”. I can’t say if it was modesty or shame that prompted him to go uncredited as the writer of this second chapter in the adventures of the boneheaded barbarian Ator, son of Torren, destined to bring the world out of darkness by defeating the evil Spider King. Having already accomplished that, it’s on to a new quest, to destroy something called the “Geometric Nucleus”, a powerful device that can be used as a weapon of mass destruction. If it falls into the wrong hands…. oh, you know the drill.
For reasons that aren’t clear to me, The Blade Master starts out with a scene that can only be interpreted as a salute to Quest for Fire. A group of cavemen just chilling in their cave dining on raw meat are attacked by a rival tribe. It’s a nasty fight by PG standards with repeated shots of actors in animal skins grunting and pounding each other with clubs. I assume the attackers were after the fire burning in the cave, but we’ll never know for sure. It’s never mentioned again. It has nothing to do with the plot.
The scene cuts to alchemist Akronos (Borromel, War of the Planets) working in his laboratory and fretting about a dream he had the night before. He says to his comely daughter Mila (Foster, Fanny Hill), “Human knowledge, even in its most exalted form, is nothing against fate.” Might it have something to do with the Geometric Nucleus in his possession? It just might. He then proceeds to run down the major events of the previous movie (replete with footage) before a visitor comes calling.
The villain in The Blade Master is a guy named Zor (Brandon/Haughton, Caligula: The Untold Story). He’s a former student of Akronos who went bad. He wants the GN for nefarious purposes. Akronos refuses to hand it over. Instead, he stalls him while Mila runs to the end of the earth to fetch Ator, also a former student. She’s followed by a few of Zor’s goons who shoot her in the chest with an arrow. She staggers to Ator’s place and would have died if not for his medical knowledge. Uh, paging Dr. Ator? He’s the least convincing doctor this side of General Hospital.
Mila wakes up and alerts Ator to her father’s imminent danger. He subjects her to a test to prove her identity. When she passes with flying colors, he agrees to accompany her back to his old master’s castle with his trusty assistant Thong (Wehara/Wong, The Mines of Kilimanjaro) by his side.
Many adventures do our heroes have along the way. They face off against invisible warriors (easily defeated by having cloaks thrown over them), cannibal cavemen (the attacking tribe from the opening, I think) and a sacrificial snake cult (the first one had spiders, this one has snakes). They try to feed Mila and Ator to a giant snake still hungry after four fair maidens. Where else have we seen a muscle-bound warrior fight a giant snake? They also try to help a village of poor farmers fight oppression only to be double-crossed. That’s what trying to do a good deed gets you.
The Blade Master is ridiculous all the way through in case you couldn’t tell by the detailed description I provided. The scene that had me busting a gut occurs just after Ator and company finally make it to Akronos’ castle. Ator sends Mila and Thong in through an underground passage while he makes his entrance from above….. on a hang-glider. Yes, just like Yor. He takes the long scenic route and drops prehistoric grenades (?) on the guards shocked to see a man in the sky before finally coming in for a landing on the roof. I’d like to know where he got the glider. Did he build it himself? Is he an engineer in addition to a doctor and warrior? So many questions; no freaking answers!
In his haste to beat Conan the Destroyer to cinemas, D’Amato hurriedly shot The Blade Master. He didn’t even have a completed script. He just wanted to get in the can quickly. He got lucky (?) with getting Miles to reprise his role. The beefcake actor was supposed to star in a prehistoric piece called Adamo ed Eva, but backed out due to religious reasons. Mark Gregory (1990: The Bronx Warriors) stepped in leaving Miles free to play Ator a second time. Lucky him.
The acting in The Blade Master is monumentally bad. Miles O’Keeffe makes Lou Ferrigno look like a classically trained actor. He has the personality of a slab of marble. He’s the ideal choice for cheapie S&S flicks made anywhere but the US. Foster can’t recite dialogue to save her life. Brandon/Haughton is a hoot as Zor with that silly fright wig and goofy bird hat. However, top dishonors must go to Charles Borromel, the K-Mart version of Henry Silva. His drawn-out line readings made an already slow movie move even slower.
For all the clumsy swordplay and choreography not to mention the lousy special effects, The Blade Master has a certain charm to it. There was a time long ago when cheap Italian-made pictures could secure a theatrical release here in America. This was before audiences became more selective about what they left the house to see at a theater. I would have seen Ator 2 at the cinema had it opened in Philadelphia which it didn’t. It’s bad alright, but it’s the fun kind of bad. Just sit back and enjoy the silliness.
