One Million Years BC (1966)

[polymorphikos]

Quite simply, what did you think of it? Are there any other dinosaur movies other than JP and King Kong, and so on. I'm asking because it recieves a lot of criticism when I go into other forums, even though the effects hold up after thirty-something years and it's absolutely beautiful and very captivating. The fight with the carnosaur in the camp of the Shell tribe goes down as one of my favourite cinema moments ever. (The other favourite moment is when some guy in a skin-raft is fighting a Kronosaur with nothing but a spear and bow on the open ocean, but they haven't actually filmed that yet so I can't count it).
Anyway, the main reasons I liked the film were the brilliant special effects and cinematography, the sheer melodrama and pulp romanticism of it, and the way it makes the human problems look as significant as one fig amongst many other figs in a large forest bereft of life to eat said figs.
So, opinions?

 

[Morning Star]

Stop motion monsters kick ***!

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Well, the plot was rather skimpy, as were the costumes but it had a definite charm for me. Actually I like the older (by my standards) monster flicks too, does anyone remember an 80s version of The Land that Time Forgot? Those are still my definitive movie dinos.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I would love to revisit those films - the one with cowboys lassoing a carnosaur, too. Nostalgia, eh?

 

[dwndrgn]

I'm a big fan of those types of flicks - including ones like The Seven Voyages of Sinbad. I think the worst problem with these is that the stop-motion animation is good but the actors don't interact well with them. These days it seems easier for the actors to understand where the monsters are so they are looking in the right spots!

 

[polymorphikos]

I've got one of those promotional copies of the Land That Time Forgot that they brought out for the movie, and I've been meaning to track the film down. Probably won't be able to find it, though.

 

[BAYLOR]

Dinosaurs and caveman. This film is absolute preposterous nonsense given that about 65 million years separate the two species. The only thing this film has going for it was Raquel Welch, her skippy costume and great Dino effects. When it's on on tv, I tend not to miss it.

 

[Finch]

I Liked hammer films at the time . Hammer films were never meant to betaken seriously . Amputations of rubber limbs , lots of bright red blood and girls in see through negligees. One Million Years BC was a strange departure for them . I would guess that they actuly wanted to taken seriously an this was the one to do it .

 

[Foxbat]

I must admit, I'll watch anything if it says Hammer on the screen. I do sometimes wonder how they managed to talk Raquel Welch into this one (not that I'm complaining).

 

[BAYLOR]

I must admit, I'll watch anything if it says Hammer on the screen. I do sometimes wonder how they managed to talk Raquel Welch into this one (not that I'm complaining).

Money and it's an acting job.

 

[clovis-man]

And then there's the 1940 version with Victor Mature and Lon Chaney Jr. No CGI, but fun anyway. Available on Youtube and elsewhere.

 

[Toby Frost]

Raquel Welch, her skippy costume

G'day Raquel! What's that? There's dinosaurs up at the bilabong? I realise this was probably a typo, but it would have been an intriguing casting decision!

When I was little in the 1980s, children's programmes would quite often show clips of stop-motion dinosaurs from old films. I found them fascinating. I wonder if Ray Harryhausen was involved?

 

[BAYLOR]

G'day Raquel! What's that? There's dinosaurs up at the bilabong? I realise this was probably a typo, but it would have been an intriguing casting decision!

When I was little in the 1980s, children's programmes would quite often show clips of stop-motion dinosaurs from old films. I found them fascinating. I wonder if Ray Harryhausen was involved?

Ray Harryhausen did do the dinosaur effects for for the film.

 

[BAYLOR]

And then there's the 1940 version with Victor Mature and Lon Chaney Jr. No CGI, but fun anyway. Available on Youtube and elsewhere.

I don't ever remember seeing this version on television.

 

[BAYLOR]

Then there the 1981 film Caveman with Ringo Star and Barbara Bach . Which is equally silly and equally entertaining. I loved the stop motion Dinos they had in that film , they were so wonderfully goofy .

 

[BAYLOR]

I wonder if Hollywood will ever consider rebooting this film Probably.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

I don't ever remember seeing this version on television.

Television was the only place I ever saw 1940 One Million B.C. Looked really good back then. Saw it several times, probably showed because it was a Victor Mature movie. The only other cave man show I remember seeing on the old 9 channel TV was the original Daffy Duck and the Caveman cartoon.

I vaguely remember One Million B.C. 1966. Cave Man 1981 with Ringo Starr made slightly more of an impression, but only for the clueless, for lack of a better word, characters roaming around.

 

[BAYLOR]

Television was the only place I ever saw 1940 One Million B.C. Looked really good back then. Saw it several times, probably showed because it was a Victor Mature movie. The only other cave man show I remember seeing on the old 9 channel TV was the original Daffy Duck and the Caveman cartoon.

I vaguely remember One Million B.C. 1966. Cave Man 1981 with Ringo Starr made slightly more of an impression, but only for the clueless, for lack of a better word, characters roaming around.

Caveman struck me as being a comic parody send up of the 1966 version of One million Years BC .

 

[clovis-man]

I don't ever remember seeing this version on television.

Hey. Knock yourself out! one million bc 1940 - safesearch.norton.com Video Search Results

 

[Randy M.]

I must admit, I'll watch anything if it says Hammer on the screen. I do sometimes wonder how they managed to talk Raquel Welch into this one (not that I'm complaining).

Checking my memory against IMDB, it appears she'd only had a couple of starring roles before this one. I'd bet she was looking to tap into the popularity of Hammer productions at the time, and was wise to do so. I don't know how well the movie did, but that shot of her in the fur bikini is iconic in a way only a few stills from Hammer are. She became known world wide and it created a lot of opportunities.

Randy M.