- Title: The Warrior and the Sorceress
- IMDb: link
One of 10 films produced by Roger Corman in Argentina in the 1980s, The Warrior and the Sorceress is a thinly-veiled retelling of Yojimbo on an alien world (featuring the most modest of fantasy or sci-fi trappings). More sword than sorcery, the story opens with Kain (David Carradine), a former holy warrior turned mercenary, wandering into the village of Yamatar where the most precious resource is a well fought over by two warring gangs.
As in Yojimbo, our warrior sells his sword to both sides looking to divide and conquer. On one side is the duplicitous Bal Caz (Guillermo Marín) and his weird lizard pet/advisor who almost immediately decides to betray the warrior after hiring him, and on the other is Zeg (Luke Askew) who has captured a priestess of Kain’s former order and has delusions about ruling the world by having her craft a mythical sword.
The topless María Socas, notably clad in only bikini bottoms for the vast majority of the film, co-stars on Naja the Sorceress whose full abilities mainly seem to involve forging an unstoppable sword whose role in the plot is smaller than you might suspect. The only other performance of note is Anthony De Longis as Zeg’s chief henchman who we’ll see Kain eventually square off against.
The movie’s modest budget, and limited scenery and effects, do lead it to looking more cheap than cheesy. The action sequences are passable, especially given Caradine was working left-handed after breaking his dominant hand prior to production, but the most memorable aspect of the film is the surprising amount of time Socas spends bare-breasted on-screen without ever being given all that much to do which would lead Caradine to comment on how infatuated director John C. Broderick was with his leading actress (well, her body at least).
The troubled production ended with a film edited by different teams in two different countries, but I’m not sure anything could really have saved this one. Although mostly derided by critics, with even screenwriter William Stout a bit ashamed of how much of Yojimbo the final cut plagiarized while at the stealing the name of Carradine’s character from his most famous role, The Warrior and the Sorceress has become something of a cult classic over the years. The new Blu-ray from GRUV (which took over Shout! Factory’s catalogue) includes no extras.
