I know, I can't believe it either. TCM's recent acquisition of titles from the Columbia library has resulted in some interesting programming choices this year, though probably none as weird as YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE, an Italian/Turkish co-production filmed in Turkey with an Italian director (Antonio Margheriti, who used his usual "Anthony M. Dawson" nom de plume) and released in the United States by Columbia in 1983.
This extremely funny fantasy stars Reb Brown (TV's CAPTAIN AMERICA, who now is a Sunn Classic Pictures executive) as Yor, a rugged blond warrior who teams up with lovely cavegirl Corinne Clery (MOONRAKER) and irascible old man Luciano Pigozzi (billed, as usual, as "Alan Collins") to fight an evil overlord (John Steiner). Actually, there's much more to it than that, since YOR is a condensed version of an Italian TV miniseries. I can't imagine watching this any longer than the 88 minutes that it already is, but cutting the miniseries down to feature-length makes it play like a particularly strange Republic serial, making Yor leap from one dangerous situation to another without looking back, meeting ape-men, pterodactyls, dinosaurs and even robots with lasers! We eventually learn that Yor is really from the future, hence, the literal title.
If you aren't cracking up at the dialogue or special effects, you'll certainly get a kick out of Yor using a giant bat as a hang-glider or smacking a plastic monster in the head with his stone axe or swinging across futuristic chasms, dodging laser beams, like Luke and Leia in STAR WARS or smacking a robot's head clean off its body with a big rock. Or comely Clery, scrumptious in her teensy leather outfit.
Two 30-second TV spots for YOR follow, so you can laugh your ass off too.
While we wait for a YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE DVD release, you can watch the whole film on YouTube now. And rock out to the awesome YOR theme song.
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