The sword and sorcery craze was booming in the early 1980s when Roger Corman produced a Conan knock off starring the beefy Rick Hill in the title role of Deathstalker. The movie has a ridiculous plot focusing on the title character questing for the “Power”. Deathstalker is not a very relatable hero, he’s not even a very likable antihero; however at exactly 24 minutes and 8 seconds into the movie the very likable character of Kaira the warrior woman enters the scene.
Wearing not much more than a sword and a cloak Lana Clarkson quickly dominates every scene she’s in. Her character is killed off rather quickly, but it didn’t take long for Roger Corman to quickly write an entire movie wrapped around Lana Clarkson. Enter Amethea the Barbarian Queen! Amethea and her bridesmaids tear up the scenery with plenty of battles, blood and boobs. Not much is left for the imagination.
It seems pretty clear that Lana Clarkson takes her work seriously. Her swordfighting skills were pretty poor in Deathstalker. Not so in Barbarian Queen. Lana now has skills! She does all of her own fighting and stunts and weilds a full-sized sword with incredible ease. You can practically see Lana holding back to avoid injuring the stuntman!
Lana also appeared as Alpha Beta in “Amazon Women on the Moon” alongside the stunning Sybil Danning. In Roger Corman’s Black Scorpion series, Lana portrays the villainess Mindbender.
Lana Clarkson as Mindbender, from Roger Corman’s Black Scorpion
Looking back and seeing her in costume at 5’11″ (not counting heels) I can’t help but think she could have pulled off an incredible version of Ms. Victory in a live-action FemForce movie.
How do you like them apples?
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Is that an AC Comics logo I see above MindBender’s head? She was stunning.
Ms. Victory is tough. I could see a young Lana in the costume of Ms. V, but not necessarily in the role. Lana was just really fun to look at though, so I probably would have been ok with it.
My inner adolescent is far less picky than my inner assistant director.
Excellent. Love and will always miss Lana! Could(would loved to have) seen her as Stardust! Thanks for the post Keep up the great work!
In fact, DEATHSTALKER is much more fun than it has any right to be, given its exploitative nature. Women appear bare-breasted for no reason. Gore spews. Eyeballs are eaten (don’t ask). By rights, it should be the kind of movie people watch just to make fun of, or the kind of movie that simply gets shut off in favor of something else. Instead, though, DEATHSTALKER is just ambitious enough, and just audacious enough, to transcend badness and be solid entertainment. Just the thing for an evening that calls for 90 minutes of sword-swinging fun.
Damn, I remember getting up in the middle of the night as a teenager to watch these films in secret while my family slept; sitting right next to the TV, ready to switch off at a moment’s notice if anyone got up (except our faithful dog, who was usually in the same room with me and took everything in stride for a little middle-of-the-night head scratchies
). Ms. Clarkson was as good as advertised… especially in the scene where Mr. Stalker “came” to her while she slept at night.