One Million Years B.C.

source: One Million Years B.C.

Trailer—One Million Years B.C.

One Million Years B.C.

Clearly a product of its time - "One Million Years B.C." (from 1966) is pure prehistoric kitsch where fur bikinis, creaky stop-motion dinosaur effects, and randy cavemen all add up to a decidedly mixed-bag of entertainment where you'll find that you're often asking yourself why the hell you even bothered to watch this goofy nonsense in the first place. But - Hey! - If you're looking for lotsa unintentional laughs - This one's, literally, overloaded with 'em.

Raquel Welch literally bursts on the screen, mammaria bulging through her cave girl outfit in this remake of One Million Years BC. This is the film that made her a sex symbol for the Sixties right into the Seventies. This remake of the 1939 classic where Victor Mature and Carole Landis became stars boasts Technicolor and some nice Ray Harryhausen special effects dinosaurs. Of course the fact that dinosaurs were not contemporary with cave men on the evolutionary journey is as irrelevant here as it was in 1939. The plot such as it were follows pretty much along the lines of the 1939 story. Cave man John Richardson from one tribe meets cave girl Raquel Welch from a slightly more advanced tribe and in this prehistoric Romeo and Juliet story, the Montague and Capulet tribes do find some common cause to survive. If they didn't I'm sure we wouldn't be here. Ray Harryhausen monsters and Raquel's bulging mammaria, what's more to want in a film?

How can fans of sci-fi/fantasy not enjoy this 1966 effort from Hammer Studios? You have the wonderful effects of the master, Ray Harryhausen and a decent enough story, oh and dinos! The Region 2 DVD is definitely the disc to get, as it is the complete version of the film and it has a couple of nice interviews with Raquel Welch and Ray Harryhausen. I love what Harryhausen had to say about complaints about inaccuracy with putting man and dinos together on the screen. It's not meant to be a scientific story, it's meant to entertain and entertain it does! Watch as Tumak (of the Rock People) and Loana (of the Shell People) forge a shaky relationship and possibly bring their two tribes of people together. Along the way they battle a huge sea turtle, Allosaurus, Pteradon and other wild beasties of the day. If you love dinos and films meant to be nothing more than fun entertainment, chances are, you'll enjoy this Hammer Studios effort.

Ray Harryhausens work is unparalleled and is once again to be admired in this film. I was intrigued that the first thing hygiene wise that humans (at least women) must have come up with was shaving. The females in this movie are all clean shaven in places where women traditionally have kept themselves clean shaven. The men obviously weren't going to learn this art until some time later. Nonetheless this motion picture is one of those that never gets tired with repeated viewings.

Despite being historically incorrect and having very bad special effects (mainly the iguana scene and the african wild boar scene), I find the film quite interesting, with a perfect stop-motian and action scenes, drama and quite good survival. Highly recommend.

One Million Years B.C. is THE film that made me a movie fan and lover of all things prehistoric! Ray Harryhausen's creatures are great, the music adds superbly to the atmosphere, the location photography looks just right (just ignore the occasional obvious set), and there has never been a better-looking cavegirl than Raquel Welch! A solid-gold guilty pleasure! Actually, what's there to be guilty about? This film is solid-gold entertainment!

It's my childhood formative movie memory. It's the glorious Raquel running about in a fur bikini. Those legs, that face. It's a ten. and so's the movie. Watched it again, now some forty-odd years on and, sentimentality aside, it still remains curiously engrossing. Definitely a strange fish, this slice of dinosaur hokum endures in an intangible way and really, in all honesty, I hope never to put my finger on exactly why. Just wallow in it's matinée-marvel and it's appeal on many levels, from youthful monster-glee to, ahem, mature appreciation of the 'cast'.