THE SWORD AND THE CLAW (1975)
Label: 101 Films × AGFA
Region Code: B
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 88 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Natuk Baytan
Cast: Bahar Erdeniz, Barbara Lake, Cüneyt Arkin
Synopsis: They took his money. They took his family. And now, they've taken his hands. But they can never take his revenge! Exploding from the same hallucinogenic netherworld as TURKISH STAR WARS, THE SWORD AND THE CLAW stars Turkish genre legend Cuneyt Arkin in his most iconic role. It's CONAN THE BARBARIAN meets The Three Stooges meets DOLEMITE with more lo-fi bloodshed, pop-art visuals, and bizarro dubbing than the boundaries of reality can handle.
This slice of Turkish 1970 weirdness is a cornucopia of medieval violence, bonkers action and jaw-dropping WTF-ery, opening with King Solomon in a over-the-top battle scene that is just an exquisite spectacle with arrows and swords everywhere, theres blood, and humor - there's a little bit of everything thrown in for lovers of bizarre action mayhem. After winning the battle Solomon forces the surrender of his enemies Commander Antoine and his new bride Princess Maria, but Antoine plots with Bishop Osorio to overthrow Solomon in one of the most amazing red-carpet roll outs of all time! This has to be seen to be believed, a knife-throwing assassin is hidden away in the rolled-up carpet while an archer is packed away inside a trunk! In the aftermath Solomon is stabbed repeatedly and his hands are cut off while bracing a door which allows for his beloved (and apparently very pregnant) wife Princess Almunia to escape with the help of her loyal protector Rhastim. In perhaps the quickest birth of all time she pops out a boy while on the run, but she dies soon after. Rhastim hides the baby in some nearby bushes while he dispatches Antoine's guards who are in close pursuit. When he returns to retrieve the baby it has been taken by a pride of lion's who seemingly adopt it as their own - I swear this happened, it is not some absinthe fueled fever dream! Years later the crooked Antoine still rules the kingdom with an iron-fist, while Rhastim is involved with a group of rebels who continue to plot to overthrow the tyrannical Antoine.
This awful-fun Greek-Turkish co-production might technically be bad fil. but it is certainly entertaining, a colorful bit of foreign genre movie making that makes very little sense, but there's just something so fun about it. We get a phenomenally bad English-dub, loads of sword play and plenty of non-stop action, plus garish period costuming - it's never dull. Continuing the story, the would-be boy-heir grows up to be known locally as the Lion Man, a feral man who fights for good in the nearby villages, sort of like a sword and sandal Tarzan by way of Robin Hood, protecting the villagers from the tyranny of Antoine, before teaming-up with Rhastim and his rebel forces to launch an all out assault against the the evil King.
The choreography is fun, there's lots of ropey swordplay and people being launched off of springboards, with Lion Man often times pouncing on his prey, as a Lion Man would. Later in the film when his hands are destroyed by acid he's outfitted with a metal-crafted pair of gloves with large claws, so we get to some fun, bloody calw-glove carnage during the last ten minutes. The Sword and the Claw (1975) is not a good film but I will say that it's fun and weird, bad is great as long uts not dull, and the bad English dub is a hoot, adding another layer of schlock-tastic fervor to the proceeding. If you love it weird, wild, and awful this is a movie for you, there's no shortage of carnage and action onscreen, I guarantee you you will be mesmerized by it's awesome awfulness.
Audio/Video: The Sword and the Claw (1975) arrives on region-B locked Blu-ray from 101 Films x AGFA with a 4K transfer from the only 35mm theatrical print in existence, and it looks raw as Hell, but identical to the U.S. release. The first few minutes were so lousy with white speckling that I thought it was snowing during the opening battle, but after that it cleans up considerably. There's still plenty of scratches, grit and damaged frames throughout but the colors are quite nice and there's a fair amount of detail to the raw looking image. Audio comes by way of a English-dubbed uncompressed mono 2.0 track - it's a bad, boxy dub that has all the charisma of a first grader reading an instruction manual, but that's just part of the fun of it.
Extras on the disc include 10-minutes of face-smashing action trailers from the AGFA vaults, this includes Argoman and the Fantastic Superman (1967), Superargo and the Faceless Giants (1968), The Three Supermen in the Jungle (1970), The Three Supermen in The West (1973), and The Supergirl of Kungfu (1975), plus as we get a bonus feature - this time it's the South Korean gravity-defying kung fu flick Brawl Busters (1978) starring Black Jack Chan - love the name! This bonus flick is sourced from a 2K scan of a theatrical print and is also well-worn with plenty of print damage and emulsion scratches. I have never been a huge kung fu/martial arts fan but this was a lot of fun, we have a squad of female warriors, some fun fight scenes and lots of wuxia-style shenanigans, and more hilarious dubbed dialogue. I really just watched this one in the background while I did some chores around the house, peering in occasionally to enjoy the action, which there was plenty of, but I didn't follow the story much at all to be honest.
Special Features:
- 4K transfer from the only 35mm theatrical print in existence!
- Face-smashing action trailers from the AGFA vault! Argoman: The Fantastic Superman, Superargo and the Faceless Giants, The Three Supermen in the Jungle, The Three Supermen in the West, The Supergirl of Kungfu (10 min) HD
- Bonus Movie: BRAWL BUSTERS (1981)(83 min), from a 2K scan of an original theatrical print!
This is one of those nutty films you have to be a deep-diving lover of this sort of wacky foreign action gem to fully appreciate, and I fully confess that I am that special sort of person! While I enjoyed watching it on my own I can only imagine the fun-factor exponentially increases with the number of friends/beers you watch it with, so grab some brews and jump into the fire. Pleased to see the continuing 101 Films x AGFA range keeping these z-grade oddities flowing full force for the cinema-weirdos everywhere.
