One Million Years B.C. (1966)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Don Chaffey

Writers:

Michael Carreras (screenplay)
Mickell Novack (adapted from an original screenplay by) ...

Release Date:

21 February 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

This is the way it was.

Plot:

Caveman Tumak is banished from his savage tribe. He finds a brief home among a group of gentle seacoast...

Plot Keywords:

Tribe | Caveman | Prehistoric | Volcano | Remake

Cast

Raquel Welch	...	Loana
John Richardson	...	Tumak
Percy Herbert	...	Sakana
Robert Brown	...	Akhoba
Martine Beswick	...	Nupondi
Jean Wladon	...	Ahot
Lisa Thomas	...	Sura
Malya Nappi	...	Tohana
Richard James	...	Young Rock Man
William Lyon Brown	...	Payto
Frank Hayden	...	1st Rock Man
Terence Maidment	...	1st Shell Man
Micky De Rauch	...	1st Shell Girl
Yvonne Horner	...	Ullah

Runtime:

100 min | USA:91 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | Sweden:15 | Singapore:PG | UK:PG (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Lago Verde, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

Company:

Associated British-Pathé

Trivia:

This was Hammer's 100th production.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Humans and dinosaurs were not contemporaneous. There were no dinosaurs one million years ago, having gone extinct 65 million years ago.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Goin' Down the Road (1970)

Classic prehistoric hokum!

Watching 1970s TV screenings of 'One Million Years BC', the Connery Bond movies, the original 'Planet Of The Apes' and 'The Omega Man' made an enormous impact on my childhood that I don't think I've ever truly recovered from! Looking at it now as an adult you can see how laughably stupid it all is, but you can't help but still love it! The vision of Raquel Welch in her animal skin bikini nearly brought puberty on five years early for me. She's still a sight to see but the charms of Martine Beswick ('Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde', 'A Bullet For The General') are now more to my taste. She's sensational!

The plot, such that it is, concerns Tumak (John Richardson of 'She'), one of the "rock people" who look like spaghetti western refugees and like nothing better than grunting, wearing fur, and beating the crap out of each other. Tumak falls out with his old man and brother, is banished and after some aimless wandering around avoiding dinosaurs (and in one surreal moment a giant tarantula!), he stumbles across the hitherto unknown "shell people". They are blonde surfer types who introduce him to such innovations as improved spears, hot water, painting, crying and feminism. And also to the babelicious Loana (Welch) who takes a shine to him. Tumak still has "attitude problems" and ends up getting banished from their tribe too, but with Loana and a new and improved spear what more can the guy want? Of course he heads straight back to his homies and yes, there's trouble ahead including fraternal friction, a jealous ex (Nupondi, the stunning Beswick), lots of Harryhausen dinosaurs, and exploding volcanos. Does mindless entertainment get any better than this? Hardly ever. Add a cool score from Mario Nascimbene and what you have is a classic piece of unforgettably trashy exploitation.