12 April 2023

Review: The Sword and the Claw

Blu-ray: The Sword and the Claw (1975)

I watched The Sword and the Claw just the other day, and yet I’m still processing what played out before my eyes. Just when I thought I’d seen about everything that the 101 Films AGFA releases could throw at me with these low budget indie movies, along comes this with its bad dubbing, awful editing, a ridiculous soundtrack, even more ridiculous sets and locations (which change moment to moment mid-scene), a boy raised by lions, and SO much more.

The 4K scan from the only 35mm print in existence makes this look as good as it’s ever done, but as with most of these AGFA releases, don’t be expecting pristine picture and sound quality, though the rawness of the picture all adds to the atmosphere of movies like this.

The only thing that let me down was how late in the movie the “lion claws” appeared. A selling point on all the posters at the time and highlighted on the great cover art of this release, I was left wanting more “lion claw action”. But what the hell, being drawn in by a movies cover art is all part of the experience that I loved when browsing VHS rental stores back in the day.

While not particularly bloody (compared to some of the previous AGFA releases), The Sword and the Claw contains a lot of action, with most of it based around an unfeasibly large amount of jumping high in the air.

I’m still not entirely sure what I watched and will have to revisit it again, as I think there’s a hell of a lot more to take in than you can get with just the one viewing.

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