Eine Million Jahre vor unserer Zeit

This deals about the struggle of primitive cavemen and their battle against prehistoric monsters and other creatures . It's a remake of the 1940 movie by Hal Roach with Victor Mature , Carole Landis and Lon Chaney Jr . It starts with a prologue that tells you all you want to know about this "brutal world¨. This is a story of a long , long ago when the world was just beginning. A young world , a world early in the morning of time . A hard , unfriendly world with creatures that sit and wait , creatures that must kill to live. And man , superior to the creatures only in his cunning . There aren't many men , a few tribes scattered across the wilderness . Never venturing far , unaware that other tribes exist even , too busy with their own lives to be curious . Too frightened of the unknown to wander . Their laws are simple , the strong take everything . A chief named Akoba (Robert Brown) is leader of the Rock tribe . And his sons are named Tumak(John Richardson) and Sakana (Percy Herbert) from the tribe of the Brunettes. There is no love between them and confrontation emerges . Tumak meets a cave woman (Raquel Welch) from the tribe of the Blondes , both of whom trying to make a life for themselves and take on rival clan , subhuman, cannibalistic tribes and volcanoes on its ending in an earth-splitting volcanic eruption .

This classic Hammer -in its 100th movie- and Seven Arts production is a stupendous story of adventure , thrills and romance. The tale provides sweeping and exciting entertainment . The action scenes blend creatures and humans more seamlessly than ever before in cinema and has some nice battles between prehistoric animals . Surviving Brontosaurs, Triceratops, Dinosaurs ,Alosaurs, Pterodactyls are the true stars , rise to the occasion to amuse in an otherwise slow movie. The fantastic beasts look superb and are stunningly made by expert craftsmen as the spectacular special effects include dinosaurs , fighting between Tiranosaurius Rex and Triceratops , a giant turtle ,along with some superimposed iguanas, all of them are made by technician-artist Ray Harryhausen. As warns the movie the characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the names character or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional . Produced and written by Michael Carreras adapted from an original screenplay by George Baker . Wonderful cinematography in glimmer color DeLuxe by Wilkie Cooper filmed on location in Lanzarote , Island Canarias (Spain) . Exciting music and special musical effects composed by Mario Nascimbene with usual musical supervisor Philip Martell ; furthermore rare sounds by Roy Baker . The motion picture is professionally directed by Don Chaffey . Rating : Good and unforgettable for famous fur-trimmed bikini clad that you'll always remember .

One thing that newcomers to Hammer need to appreciate is that many of their films are low-budget, and kitsch, and One Million Years B.C scores high on the cheese-factor even by Hammer's yardstick. The film's tagline is laughably off-target – "This is the way it was!" – I am almost positive cavewomen didn't have immaculately coiffured hair, push-up loincloth bras, eyeliner, and waxed legs, while their primitive menfolk did battle with dinosaurs that scientifically speaking died out many millions of years earlier. Needless to say, a willing suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite to enjoyment of this movie.

Inappropriate marketing aside, if you can get past these hurdles, B.C is an entertaining, if mindless, action movie, and one which is elevated to ongoing cult status thanks to 2 main factors - Raquel Welch and Ray Harryhausen.

Even if you have never heard of this film, chances are at some point you have been exposed to "that picture". Raquel Welch is THE reason this film's cult following is 95% male, and seeing her in her loincloth bikini is quite honestly a sight to behold. Fleeing from giant dinosaurs, and fighting with cavewomen, this role in a low-budget British monster movie is the one that put her on the map and created one of the greatest sex symbols ever to light up the silver screen.

Only just losing out to Raquel Welch as the star of the show, are the creatures themselves. Animated by the inimitable, legendary Ray Harryhausen (as far as I know the only special effects guru to become a household name in his own right) the creatures are brilliantly realised, and integrated seamlessly with the live-action elements. Aside from Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans, this is some of his best work – the Allosaur attack on the shell-people's village being a real technical accomplishment and highlight of the film. The results are slightly marred though by the the integration of real animals, shot and superimposed to look massive. An early attack from a giant, half-asleep looking iguana is hardly menacing, nor is a (thankfully very brief) appearance by a gigantic tarantula that is trying to eat an equally gigantic cricket. These negative moments are forgotten though when Harryhausen's flawless stop-motion takes center stage, bringing us the iconic triceratops fight amongst other great set-pieces.

Thanks to the jaw-dropping "talents" of Raquel Welch, the rest of the cast are pretty expendable. Even main star John Richardson's character of Tumak could have been played by a monkey in a spacesuit when Welch was on screen, no-one would have noticed. Everyone plays as well as they need to though, given the grunt-riddled, running-away-from-an-imaginary-monster screenplay. The storyline is simplistic, (primitive man learns tolerance and civility) and is basically a thinly veiled cover for a series of awesome action set-pieces and monster vs human battle sequences, and a vehicle for the scantily clad Raquel Welch to run around getting sweaty and dirty, which can only be considered a bonus.

In summary, leave your brain at the door and you are likely to have a great time. This is a cult classic; a camp, entertaining showcase for Harryhausen's skills, and while shallow, has enough action and sex-appeal to please the average testosterone-laden viewer. Worth watching for Raquel Welch's magnetic presence alone.

Raquel Welch's later, more solid acting performances will never erase our memories of this dinosaur-epic wherein she runs around in full cavegirl regalia. Then again, she may not want them to. Time has been surprisingly kind to this reworking of 1940's "One Million B.C." The special effects are very good, the wilds of prehistoric nature are often excitingly, colorfully captured, and handsome John Richardson is charismatic as a caveman who, along with Welch, ditches his tribe to set out on a personal journey. Yes, it's Raquel in a fur-bikini that most people will remember, but a good time is had by all. **1/2 from ****

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!

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.