Rating: D
Dir: Chuck Vincent
Star: Sybil Danning, Donald Pleasence, Rick Hill, Josephine Jacqueline Jones
[22] Back before Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton came on the scene, films like L.A. Bounty had Sybil Danning raising “monosyllabic” to an art-form. Together with her amazing cleavage, she delivered a slew of memorable B-movie performances – Battle Beyond the Stars, Chained Heat, The Howling II – and almost snared Jeanette Goldstein’s role in Aliens. However, her career was tragically derailed by a blown wrestling stunt, leaving us to ponder what might have been. Though in the case of Warrior Queen, it’s closer to “what the hell is going on?”.
This is a low-rent version of Tinto Brass’s Caligula: porn with classy actors, directed by the late Chuck Vincent and sees X-rated stars like Samantha Fox alongside Danning and, even more bizarrely, Donald Pleasance. The alternate title, Pompeii, gives a glimpse of the contents, which end in a glorious explosion of stock footage. Until then, Sybil occasionally swings her sword, and Donald looks…confused, but you’ll see more sex than you do of either star, and it’s enough to ensure the UK release is 9 minutes shorter. Perhaps significantly, the edits have no detectable impact on coherence.