Als Dinosaurier die Erde beherrschten

I remember seeing this movie with my brother at the theater back in 1971. When we arrived, we received a book with the language used in the movie and a rough translation. I can find no mention of that book on any web site, and haven't purchased the video to see if it is still printed. It was great fun watching it again today after so many years. Even without the translation, the movie is very enjoyable and great fun to watch. Although the "dinosaurs" leave a little to be desired compared to today's movies, they did a great job integrating real lizards into the film.

Sure this film is filled with all sorts of historical (hysterical) inaccuracies but I bet millions of teens and preteens didn't go to the movie theaters to get a history lesson back in 1970. I know I sure didn't want to see a Discovery Channel documentary when I fed "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" into my DVD player. I wanted to be taken back to an imaginary time that existed in the exciting corners of my brain when I was a kid --- you know, when cavemen fought against big old dinosaurs to stay alive and compete for food. Heck, is the world Hammer created any different than, let's say, the world Hollywood created for "King Kong"? I don't remember anyone complaining about dinosaurs and giant apes supposedly existing in 1930.

But I digress, this is the incredible love story between a caveman (Robin Hawdon) and a cave cutie (Victori Vetri) who have to fight off jealous cave competitors and giant stop-motion dinos to find their place in the sun. If you allow yourself to be transported into this imaginary world, you can really enjoy the story for all it's worth. You have beautiful leads, prehistoric romance, some sex (if you watch the uncut version), volcanoes, battles between cave tribes, dinosaur danger, and a completely made-up language for the dialog. What fun! It's not "Jurassic Park" but even that blockbuster saw fit to pay tribute by naming it's theme park display after this aged little film.

Seen 35 years or so later, the special effects are a little disappointing and I've never seen such good looking cave people before (outside of Raquel Welch, of course). But this is a enjoyable way to pass some time on a Saturday afternoon.

"When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth," like its predecessor "One Million Years B.C." was one of those great movies when I was a kid that helped ease my transition from comic-book-reading, baseball-card-collecting dinosaur geek to comic-book-reading, baseball-card-collecting chick freak. I was seven when it was released, and I still remember the TV airwaves saturated with advertising. I whined and screamed and begged my brother to take me, and he did. Great part was, we caught this flick as part of a double-feature with Harryhausen's "Valley of Gwangi." Eat your heart out, stop-motion animation fans!

Perhaps because of the great childhood experiences surrounding this movie, there's a kid-voice in my head that still sees it as near-flawless cinema. But in all honesty, it's just G-rated exploitation in the purest sense of the word. The dinosaurs in the movie promos draw the young boys in, and once their behinds are in the seats they slowly become less cognizant of the prehistoric beasts and more cognizant of the way Victoria Vetri's cave tunic gives her breasts that extra lift or the way her legs seem to be constantly shimmering with sweat. Even at seven I noticed this, which is why "Dinosaurs" provided a great transition into puberty for me half a decade before it actually hit. A lot of fun, this, but don't mistake it for art. Watch it for the beasts and the (scantily clad but not naked) boobs, toss in a bag of microwave popcorn and a few beers. It may be G-rated but it's still kind'a fun.

I just saw this film for the second time in 36 years (it's 2007), and for the first time "uncut". It went from a "G" rated kid's matinée to an "R" rated exploitation guilty pleasure. But it's still not a bad movie even with the two restored sex scenes. If your a fan of the genre and you have already seen Hammer's 'One Million Years B.C.', then you must see this uncut version of 'When Dinos...' just to see the direction Hammer films was taking in the early 70's. I'm waiting for the restored DVD to become available. The version I saw was off the net in poor VHS quality and the restored elements were in even worse shape. I already own the first Hammer film on DVD. I would have no reservations picking up this sequel if it were released in it's original "R" form.

When I was a kid, my older brother bought a cheap, B/W, very dark copy of this movie on super-8mm to play on his projector, from an ad in «Famous Monsters»... Wow! Did I love this movie!!! I must have watched it at least 50 times!

Since then, I've always wanted to see a complete version (because the reel my brother had bought was only a 15 minutes version of it) of this movie but, with no luck. Until yesterday that is, when I found a used VHS of it, and for a mere $5, I finally saw with my own eyes what my imagination could only supply till now: vibrant colors, longer scenes, "ancient" dialogues, etc...

It was better than I had imagined! I was glued to the TV set like I was 6, all over again...

I read the users comments before writing this one and found it sad that some comments, are missing the point completely! This ain't an historical movie! It's pure escapism fun! The same way "The Valley of Gwangi" is, or any Harryhausen movie was... Watching this movie made me regret having thrown out all my old «Prehistoric Scenes» Aurora model kits!