''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' (also known as ''Ator III: The Hobgoblin'', ''The Hobgoblin'', or ''Troll 3'') is a 1990 Italian

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by

Joe D'Amato Aristide Massaccesi (15 December 1936 – 23 January 1999), known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres (western (genre), westerns, ''Commedia sexy all' ...

. It is the fourth and final film in the ''Ator'' film series.

Plot

Thorn, King of the Gods, gave the Sword of the Sacred Graal to Ator, King of the Akili, to bring justice to his people and lead them back to their home in the Middle World. When Thorn comes to reclaim it, Ator refuses to give it back because he wants to pass it on to his little son Ator. Dejanira, an immortal, arrives in time to plead for Ator's life. Nonetheless, Thorn kills Ator, splitting the sword in two, and orders Dejanira to be imprisoned in a circle of fire until a human arrives who is strong enough to free her, at which point she will lose her immortality. Young Ator's mother Sunn places him and the sword fragments in the care of the ugly sorcerer gnome Grindel and asks him for a death potion. Giving her a love potion instead, Grindel sleeps with her and curses her to lead a life of eternal poverty and prostitution until a man comes who embraces her like a mother. Years later, when young Ator is about to turn 18, the soothsayer Nephele shows him a vision of Dejanira, with whom Ator falls in love, and tells him of his destiny. Ator finds the sword fragments hidden in Grindel's cave, forges them together and kills the gnome with it. Following Nephele's instructions, Ator first travels to the Western Kingdom, where he enters a cave to defeat deadly robotic warrior twins and a fire-breathing dragon, after which he sacrifices the cave's treasure to the Gods. In another cave, he finds and frees Dejanira, which rouses Thorn's anger, who makes a volcano erupt and the cave collapse. In a tavern, Ator meets his mother and, without recognising her, rescues her from an abusive client. When she recognises him and falls into his embrace, Grindel's curse is lifted and she immediately turns old in his arms and dies. After burning her body, Ator continues his quest for his people and the Middle World by travelling through the Eastern Kingdom, where he and Dejanira confront the treachery of King Gunther and his sister Grimilde.

Cast

Eric Allan Kramer Eric Allan Kramer (born March 26, 1962) is an American actor. He is known to television audiences for his roles as Scott Miller on AMC's '' Lodge 49'', Dave Rogers on ''The Hughleys'', and Bob Duncan on the Disney Channel sitcom '' Good Luck Cha ...

as Ator (as Eric Allen Kramer) * Margaret Lenzey as Dejanira * Donald O'Brien as Gunther (as Donal O'Brien) * Dina Morrone as Sunn * Chris Murphy as Skiold *

Laura Gemser Laurette Marcia Gemser (born 5 October 1950) is an Indonesian-Dutch retired actress, model and costume designer. She is primarily known for her work in Cinema of Italy, Italian Sex in film, erotic cinema, most notably the ''Emmanuelle#Other film ...

as Grimilde *

Marisa Mell Marisa Mell (born Marlies Theres Moitzi; 24 February 1939 – 16 May 1992) was an Austrian actress. Typecast as a femme fatale in European arthouse and genre films, she is best regarded for her performances as Eva Kant in Mario Bava's critically ...

as Nephele * Don Semeraro as Thorn / Grindel / Hagen

Production

Actress

returned to the screen in this film after a five years absence. The film re-used some of the goblin masks from ''

Troll 2 ''Troll 2'' (or ''Goblins'') is a 1990 independent dark fantasy horror film written and directed by Claudio Fragasso under the pseudonym Drake Floyd. It stars Michael Stephenson, George Hardy, Connie McFarland, and Jason Wright. The plot ...

''. The film bears similarities to ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the . The compo ...

''. Ator is the equivalent of Siegfried, raised and abused by Mime (Grindel), who gets the magic sword Notung (The Sword of the Sacred Graal) and frees the sleeping warrior maiden Brünhilde (Dejanira) from a circle of fire. The last act of the film with the evil king and his gnomish advisor is similar to the last opera of the cycle, with the characters Gunther, his sister Grimhilde and Hagen even retaining their names from the opera, though unlike the opera, ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' does not end with the hero's death.

Release

In the United States, ''Quest for the Mighty Sword'' was released

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

on August 29, 1990. The film was also released as ''Ator III: The Hobgoblin'', ''The Hobgoblin'', and in Germany as ''Troll 3'' (German release title). D'Amato personally referred to the film as ''The Lord of Akili'' in a 1996 interview.

Reception

John Stanley called the film " other pathetic entry in the Italian-produced ''

Ator ''Ator'' refers to a film series of four Italian movies made in the 1980s by director Joe D'Amato, using the pseudonym David Hills. D'Amato wrote and directed the first, second, and fourth films in the series, personally disregarding the existe ...

'' series". Keith Bailey gave it a rating of one out of five stars, categorising it as "

so bad it's good A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate Fandom, fanbase, which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in rep ...

", with reservations due to some "dull moments". He wrote that the film's hero "manages to avoid spaghetti sauce lava when not fighting Siamese-twin robots and mucus-covered

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...

clones in a quest that really doesn't seem to have any specific goal" and thus grants that "there are some hilariously bad sequences that will please fans of the abysmal".

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quest For The Mighty Sword 1990 films 1990 fantasy films Ator English-language Italian films Films directed by Joe D'Amato Films scored by Carlo Maria Cordio Sword and sorcery films Alternative sequel films Fantasy crossover films