Il trono di fuoco

I remember seeing this one on home video back in the 80's. My friend rented it no doubt on account of its video cover which almost certainly featured a barbarian babe with a sword. I can't say I remembered it too fondly, as all I could honestly remember was the scenes of the throne of fire itself. Overall, it isn't nearly as salacious as some of the other barbarian movies of its era, such as Amazons, so I reckon that may be why it seemed so averagely routine back then. Having revisited it again just the other night I do have to say that it was considerably better than I thought it would be. Sure, its story about a warrior's quest to prevent the son of Satan sitting on the throne of the title and ruling the world in an evil way, is about as generic as you can get for this kind of thing. But when it comes to the mid 80's sword and sorcery sub-genre, cosy familiarity is not necessarily a bad thing, right?

What you get is a chief villain with a perm, who likes to kill as many innocent people as he can but fortunately for us, always puts the hero in easily-escapable positions and then leaves the room. To this end, various capturings and escapings ensue in the story, one sequence of which features the hero being thrown into the Well of Madness, where he encounters a floating severed head and an armoured warrior. So, this is all good silly fun that delivers the requisite ingredients basically, however, the definite highlight of the movie was the delectable Sabrina Siani who plays a character called Princess Valkari whom the chief baddie is set on marrying on the day of the night of the day (a badly rendered solar eclipse to you and me); anyway, Ms Siani has a body to kill for and kicks about for the entire runtime in a barbarian girl bikini, which was very nice of her to be perfectly honest.

Peter McCoy (Pietro Torrisi) who also starred in the similarly themed Sword Of The Barbarians and The Invincible Barbarian appears here in this tale of swords, sorcery and ominous prognostication.

In it he plays Siegfried, a mightily muscled hero who is predestined to challenge Satan from attaining mastery over the earth, a feat that the dark one can (luckily for us) only achieve during a solar eclipse and whilst sitting on the magical 'Throne Of Fire' of the films title.

OK so the film isn't going to win any awards for ingenious plot intricacies but in this genre what can one expect?

As it is, the film is actually mildly enjoyable and even has a few decent scenes on offer (the 'Well Of Madness' being a particular stand out), plus there's some rather energetic sword fights on display from our oiled down hero (who looks a fair bit like fellow B movie action star Jeff Wincott!)

Always a plus in my book, this also stars regular Italian sword and sorcery sex symbol, Sabrina Siani who as usual looks absolutely gorgeous!!!

On the downside however, the movie does tend to drag a fair bit throughout, especially during the scenes when our hero is captured....in fact our hero seems to spend the entire film alternating between getting captured and then staging daring escapes! Oh well.....

Overall, if like me, you enjoy these types of films then I'd certainly suggest you give this a try. It's actually not half bad and is certainly infinitely better than most modern takes on the genre.

This cheapjack Conan rip-off is so mightily inept that the villain actually comes off appearing more sympathetic, interesting and intelligent, not to mention handsomer, than the hero. Surely this was an unintended consequence of the poor script and bad acting, the seemingly lumbering stupidity of the wooden muscle-bound hero and the obligatory trotting around cardboard sets in g-strings by these supposedly heroic do-gooders. This makes the Conan and Beastmaster films look like Ben-Hur and El Cid in comparison. The only (accidental)redeeming feature is the striking presence of Harrison Muller, Jr. as Morak a surprisingly appealing "bad guy." Both his person and his character stand out, perhaps largely due to the colossally boring nature of those around him. It's hardly his fault that he was warped by destiny as the plot would have it...the viewer can't help but root for him to succeed since he's the only one of any interest or appeal on scene.

If you are like me...you don't mind spending a Saturday watching a poorly made movie with swords, magic, and beautiful leading ladies. The Throne of Fire is just such a movie.

The plot is basically good vs. evil. Satan's messenger and a witch have a son and he is raised believing no one can oppose him. He sets out to rule the kingdom. In order to sit upon the Throne of Fire (made by the Norse god Odin) he must be a rightful heir to the throne and sit upon it first on a solar eclipse. To obtain the right to the throne he kidnaps the princess of the kingdom and forces her to marry him. However, the good-guy barbarian Conan wannabe is there to try to save the day.

Plenty of sword fighting ensues and some pretty bad special effects. In my humble opinion this movie was too long and not worth much to anyone unless you enjoy the genre. The leading lady (Sabrina Siani) is indeed beautiful and I will try to find other movies of hers. Look for errors in this movie such as the Christian wedding ceremony in a Norse Barbaric period.

The beautiful princess Valkari (Sabrina Siani) must marry the evil Morak (Harrison Muller, whom I remember from "She"), otherwise he cannot sit on the Throne of Fire and become rightful ruler. The hero Siegfried (Pietro Torrisi) goes on a mission to rescue the princess and prevent Morak's rulership.

If the storyline seems familiar to you: yes, we've seen it all before, and much better. This poorly staged movie ticks the usual boxes of the genre, and even other low-budget sword and sorcery flicks of that era shine compared to this ineptitude. It was the last movie Franco Prosperi ever directed and the last top-of-the-bill part in a cinema production for teenage queen Sabrina Siani who is familiar to fans of the genre from "Conquest" and the first "Ator" movie. You can easily give this a miss.