"It's Hard to Kill a Horse With a Flute".

CIRCLE OF IRON-1978-A fighter named Cord (Jeff Cooper) fights in a weird tournament where the winner gets a chance to find "the book of enlightenment" held by someone named Zetan. He wins but is expelled for cheating by the games master (Roddy McDowall in strange headgear). He sets out to find the book anyway and helps a philosophy spouting blind flute player (David Carradine, similar to his Caine KUNG-FU character) who beats up three attackers in alley.

To find the book Cord must go through several trials. In the first he battles the leader (Carradine again) of a tribe of monkey men. Then in the film's most amusing scene he meets "man in oil" (Eli Wallach), a doctor who sits in a tub of oil to destroy his sexual urges. Cord then meets a barbarian leader Changsha (Carradine once more) who fights pro wrestler Earl Maynard and eventually provides Cord with his next trial. There he also meets Tara (Erica Greer) who tries to make Cord break his vow of chastity and gets crucified instead. In a dream he confronts Death (Carradine in his fourth role). Then he and the blind flute player have a few adventures. At the end Cord does meet Zetan (Christopher Lee) and finds out the secret of the book.
Carradine is great in his multiple roles (especially the blind flute player saying things like: "A fool is the twin of the wise") Antony De Longis is Morthond.

The Zen Buddhism inspired story was developed by Bruce Lee, James Coburn and Stirling Silliphant (who co-wrote the screenplay) as a vehicle for Lee (who died in 1973 ). Despite this it does seem influenced by the KUNG-FU TV show. Silliphant was a prolific TV writer who also penned the original CHILDREN OF THE DAMMED, THE SWARM and several Irwin Allen disaster movies.

Director Richard Moore was a cinematographer on films like WILD IN THE STREETS, MYRA BRECKENRIDGE and (later) ANNIE. CIRCLE is his only film as director. Co-scripter Stanley Mann also wrote DAMIEN: OMEN 2 and METEOR. It takes place in the Far East but was filmed in Israel.

"A fish saved my life once. I ate it".

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