The Warrior and the Sorceress

Roger Corman once again reaches for the classics. He had already ripped-off Kurosawa without being sued (Seven Samurai in Battle Beyond the Stars), so why not try it a second time. Thus came the retarded fantasy version of Yojimbo. Most of the scenes are copy-paste with only a few cosmetic changes. If you always thought Kurosawa's films were short on mutants and telepathic lizards, you've come to the right place. The Warrior and the Sorceress is one of a series of sword and sorcery films that Corman's company shot in Argentina (the best of which is Deathstalker II). In this case, however, the cheap locations and cheap labor there didn't make the film look like it had twice the budget. The sets are visibly cardboard. There is fencing (David Carradine was never very good at it, but he did a pretty decent job of it after having broken his arm hitting a wall during an argument with his girlfriend before filming), but there's no magic. The titular witch doesn't cast spells and is only there to show her breasts. All the female characters are actually there to show their breasts, one of them even has four breasts (the film’s poster alludes to this) – that was also missing in Yojimbo. So instead of a “sword and sorcery” movie, it's more of a “sword and boobs” movie – at least they saved on costumes. They also made sure that male viewers wouldn't accidentally fall asleep during the film, and I believe that it will work for many (seeing this as a teenager, I wouldn’t take my eyes off the screen). Anyway, it's one of the sexiest movies I've ever seen. I probably don't need to mention that it's not a work that belongs in the Hall of Fame of world cinema, but unfortunately it's not even grotesquely bad trash either. It is surprisingly quite slow and dreamy for an exploitation flick (the director probably had some higher ambitions) and is only entertaining in its weirdness. (2016.08.23)