Guilty Pleasure Cinema - The Sword and the Sorcerer

There was a time in high school when me and my friends saw EVERY movie that came out. With two dollar Tuesdays you never missed a chance to get out of the house. This was also the time when videos where first coming on the scene and most of the movies that were made at the time were very low budget (or seemed to be). The filmakers were hoping to make their money up with video rental revenue. With the sucess of The ROAD WARRIOR it seemed like every second movie was set in a post apocalyptic nightmare. The sucess of CONAN gaurenteed that there would be no shortage of dungeon and dragon inspired movies either. One of my favorites and one we rented many times was THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER starring Lee Horsley as Talon. Horsley was the poor mans Tom Selleck and he had a tv show where he played a private detective like Tom. Although it was sold as a major film release it still had its share of cheesey monsters, cheesy dialog, and gory special effects. The villian was the great character actor Richard Lynch (the poor man's Anthony Zerbe) who seemed to show up whenever one of these types of movies needed an asshole. We all also loved that three bladed sword that Talon carried. Impractically it could fire the blades like a crossbow but then you had to retrieve them from your victim so that the sword could be reset. He also had a blade on his forearm like a single Wolverine claw for that up close and personal wetwork. I remember loving Kathleen Beller as the unbiquitous princess enslaved by passion (according to the poster)whom our grubby hero needed to save. She actually looked frail enough to need saving, especially from the giant snake that tries to molest her(lucky snake). However, the action is good and the characters engaging enough to please any teenage boy (even one my age)and I am surprised that its not been on tv very often since its release over 25 years ago. It seems tailor made for the late night spot on the Drive-In or Action channels.