The success of Conan the Barbarian kicked off a cycle of copycat sword and sorcery films from Roger Corman, starting with this one, where he hired his old comrade Jack Hill. Hill disliked the experience and result so much he took off his name as writer (Jim Wynorski gets sole credit) and director, but kept it on as producer.
It's about two identical twin women of royal lineage, which actually is a great idea, but the film doesn't do anything with it - instead of using the stock Corsican Brothers route of having them grow up apart as different people, this one has them grow up together, so they're basically the same person, so you get no conflict. Literally they are identical. This for me is the biggest problem in the movie. The Corsican Brothers has a great concept - twins grow up separately, one rich and one poor, and unite to take on the baddies.
There's some funny silly moments like the girls being so naive they don't know what a naked man looks like, and quite a sexy one where one girl is having sex and the other one feels it - more of this stuff would have been great.
The special effects are hokey but I didn't mind. There are some spooky scenes towards the end in a cave - given a lower than expected budget director Jack Hill would have, in hindsight, been better off doing more scenes like this. (I realise that's easy to say from this point of view.)
It is undercast - the leads are twins and good looking, they are fine, but they needed stronger support and don't get it. There's too much emphasis on the dull male hero with a weird perm and I get where the comic viking was meant to be coming from but the actor doesn't get there. The satyr is just creepy.
The story should be simple but winds up needlessly complex. Why kill off that guy at the beginning and have him come back? Why not just keep him alive? The lead girls aren't central to the action enough - they're saved too often.
And yet... there is action, it looks good set on film (much better than later Corman productions) and it was shot a lot on location (in Mexico). It has a sense of adventure. Not as bad as I had been led to believe, more frustrating because it could have so easily been better. It's such a waste Jack Hill hasn't made a film since this time.
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