{"id":11414,"date":"2025-03-12T23:17:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T03:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11414"},"modified":"2025-03-12T23:17:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T03:17:54","slug":"the-blade-master","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/03\/12\/the-blade-master\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blade Master"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Blade Master<\/strong> (1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Line\/Action-Adventure-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 92 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joe D\u2019Amato (as \u201cDavid Hills\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joe D\u2019Amato (uncredited)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Carlo Rustichelli\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joe D\u2019Amato (as \u201cFrederick Slonisco\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 15, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Miles O\u2019Keeffe, Lisa Foster, David Brandon (as \u201cDavid Cain Haughton\u201d), Charles Borromel, Kiro Wehara (as \u201cChen Wong\u201d), Robert Black, Donald Hodson, Stephan Soffer (as \u201cSthephan Soffer\u201d), Nello Pazzafini (as \u201cNed Steinberg\/Robert Black\u201d), Osiride Pevarello (as \u201cHershel Curtis\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you thought Ator, The Fighting Eagle was bad, wait until you get a load of Ator 2 (Italian title, Ator 2- L\u2019invincibile Orion), more commonly known by its American title The Blade Master<\/strong>. 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\u2019Keeffe in the title role. It has to be bad if Miles passed on it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You might possibly know Ator 2 or The Blade Master<\/strong> 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\u2019S THE SAME DAMN MOVIE! Although not a regular viewer of the show, I do recall catching about ten minutes of this episode back in \u201992. I recognized the character Ator right away, but the rest of it was unfamiliar. I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t exactly history or prehistory.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Joe D\u2019Amato, the auteur behind the first Ator and several Black Emanuelle movies, returns to direct The Blade Master<\/strong> under the pseudonym \u201cDavid Hills\u201d. I can\u2019t 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\u2019s on to a new quest, to destroy something called the \u201cGeometric Nucleus\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For reasons that aren\u2019t clear to me, The Blade Master<\/strong> 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\u2019s 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\u2019ll never know for sure. It\u2019s never mentioned again. It has nothing to do with the plot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The 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), \u201cHuman knowledge, even in its most exalted form, is nothing against fate.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The villain in The Blade Master<\/strong> is a guy named Zor (Brandon\/Haughton, Caligula: The Untold Story). He\u2019s 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\u2019s followed by a few of Zor\u2019s goons who shoot her in the chest with an arrow. She staggers to Ator\u2019s place and would have died if not for his medical knowledge. Uh, paging Dr. Ator? He\u2019s the least convincing doctor this side of General Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mila wakes up and alerts Ator to her father\u2019s 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\u2019s castle with his trusty assistant Thong (Wehara\/Wong, The Mines of Kilimanjaro) by his side.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Many 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\u2019s what trying to do a good deed gets you.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Blade Master<\/strong> is ridiculous all the way through in case you couldn\u2019t 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\u2019 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\u2019d 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!<\/p>\n

\u00a0In his haste to beat Conan the Destroyer to cinemas, D\u2019Amato hurriedly shot The Blade Master<\/strong>. He didn\u2019t 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<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting in The Blade Master<\/strong> is monumentally bad. Miles O\u2019Keeffe makes Lou Ferrigno look like a classically trained actor. He has the personality of a slab of marble. He\u2019s the ideal choice for cheapie S&S flicks made anywhere but the US. Foster can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For all the clumsy swordplay and choreography not to mention the lousy special effects, The Blade Master<\/strong> 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\u2019t. It\u2019s bad alright, but it\u2019s the fun kind of bad. Just sit back and enjoy the silliness.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Blade Master (1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Line\/Action-Adventure-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 92 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joe D\u2019Amato (as \u201cDavid Hills\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joe D\u2019Amato (uncredited)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Carlo Rustichelli\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joe D\u2019Amato (as \u201cFrederick Slonisco\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 15, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Miles O\u2019Keeffe, Lisa Foster, David Brandon (as \u201cDavid Cain Haughton\u201d), Charles Borromel, Kiro Wehara (as \u201cChen Wong\u201d), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/The-Blade-Master-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11453,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414\/revisions\/11453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}