Creatures the World Forgot

Of all the caveman movies I have seen, this one is the best because it choose to present early man as realistic as it could. Rather than have dinosaurs, this movie features animals and creatures that were actually around when early man was. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy dinosaurs very much and had I seen this movie as a kid, I might have thought it was a horrible one. However, now that I am able to recognize good acting and filmmaking, I really loved this movie. It presents the story of early man as a bleak time, a struggle for survival where death was around every corner. No doubt, that was how it was for early man. There are a few beautiful women here, but you won't see as much of their figures as you did in say, "1 Million Years B.C.". None the less, if you are a fan of history or anthropology, "The Creatures That Time Forgot" is a great way to spend your time.

Their home destroyed by a volcanic eruption, a tribe of dark-haired cave-people cross the land looking for somewhere safe to put down roots. Along the way, they meet a tribe of friendly blonde cave-people, who are happy to share their women. Not one to say 'No' to a hot blonde, Mak (Brian O'Shaughnessy), chief of the dark-haired people, sires two boys: blonde Toomak and dark-haired Rool. On the same day, another baby is born: a dumb girl who is almost sacrificed, but who is saved by the tribe's shamen (Rosalie Crutchley). Toomak and Rool grow up as rivals vying for their father's attention. When Mak is killed by a yak (or some such beast), it is the blonde son who is chosen as his successor, leaving the bitter Rool to try and seize leadership...

Rather than feature cavemen versus dinosaurs, as in One Million Years B.C. and When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth, this final prehistoric offering from Hammer takes a more realistic route -- if Julie Ege as a sexy cavewoman can be called realistic. Unfortunately, without the spectacle of an Allosaurus terrorising humans, or a bikini babe being carried off by a Pterodactyl, and with the dialogue between the cave-people consisting of lots of grunting, the film quickly becomes a bore.

To try and compensate for the plodding nature of his screenplay, director Don Chaffey loads his film with bums (from both sexes) and boobs, with Ege eventually making her entrance as Toomak's mate Nala, but even scantily clad cave-people cannot prevent Creatures the World Forgot from being a slog almost as arduous as that undertaken by Mak and his people. Not very exciting highlights include young Toomak catching a porcupine and a pig, a fight with a cave bear (played by a man in an unconvincing bear costume), a battle with some cannibals, and Ege being attacked by a big snake while Toomak and Rool fight to the death (although Rool is eventually stabbed by the dumb girl, his body falling off a cliff, looking all too much like an immobile shop dummy).

Oh well, at least the scenery is nice.

Disney fans N.B.: Mak presents the newborn Toomak to his tribe in a scene remarkably similar to that of Rafiki holding up Simba in The Lion King. Moreover, Nala is the name of both Toomak's woman and Simba's love interest. Coincidence? Who knows?

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Don Chaffey. Produced by Michael Carreras for Hammer Films; Released by Columbia Pictures. Screenplay by Michael Carreras; Photographed by Vincent Cox; Edited by Chris Barnes; Music by Mario Nascimbene; Assistant Director: Ferdinand Fairfax. Starring Julie Ege, Tony Bonner, Robert John, Brian O'Shaughnessy, Rosalie Crutchley, Marcia Fox, Doon Baide, Sue Wilson, Gerard Bonthuys, Don Leonard, Ken Hare and Fred Swart.

Prehistoric tribes on the loose grunting their way across Africa, facing mini-cataclysm and indulging in non-stop savagery. In a "2001"-ish Dawn of Man mode, their customs are delineated well, although their beliefs in the supernatural and their origins are handled crudely. The big difference: no oversize creatures appear in this one other than a big grizzly bear.

CREATURES is a blast! It eschews the stop-motion dinosaurs of ONE MILLION YEARS BC and WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH and concentrates on the struggles of primitive men in a bleak, prehistoric world. Despite the smirking ad campaign and much-ballyhooed adult rating, CREATURES spends far less time than its predecessors showcasing the anatomical blessings of its female cast members and places more emphasis on the brutality of early man's daily life. The girls are certainly an eyeful, but they are nowhere near as groomed or glamorous as Raquel Welch or Victoria Vetri.

The film stands out in many ways. There is no opening narration and no dialogue to speak of. Instead of using the gibberish language of the earlier films, the "Creatures" say very little, grunting and gesturing to communicate with one another. The solid performances make this surprisingly effective. The movie also inverts the formula established by its predecessors, moving the requisite cataclysmic volcanic eruption to the beginning and letting the human drama dominate the climax. This unusual structure lends extra weight to the finale.

I went in wondering how grunting cavemen(even the curvy kind like Julie Ege!) could hold my attention for 90 minutes without dinosaurs to fight. To my joy, the film is actually quite entertaining. The birth, life and struggle of two brothers vying for leadership of the tribe has an almost Biblical quality, and director Chaffey gives us plenty of fighting and conflict with nature to keep the film moving. Though much of the story consists of the tribe traveling from one fight to another, I found myself caught up in their journey and never once got bored. I don't know any of Don Chaffey's other work, but ONE MILLION YEARS BC and CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOT have convinced me that the man knows how to tell a story.

Bottom line? It's a caveman movie. If that ain't your bag, you probably won't like it. But if you can watch the other two Hammer prehistoric movies without fast-forwarding to the dinosaur scenes, you'll probably find CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOT a very pleasant surprise!

This film begins in prehistoric times with a small hunting party killing a gazelle and bringing it back to their tribe located in nearby caves. Not long after their return, however, a volcano erupts which subsequently kills a number of the people to include the leader of the tribe. So having lost their chieftain a new leader emerges and together everybody follows him out into the wilderness. It's during this time that they come upon another tribe and after spending some time with them they proceed on their way with a few members of the new tribe joining them. As it so happens one of the new members is a blonde female who was given to the chieftain to wed and as time passes she gives birth to twin sons-one of them dark haired and the other blonde. Unfortunately, the difficult childbirth proves too much for her and she dies immediately afterward. Strangely enough, at this same time another female of the tribe also gives birth to a young female child who turns out to be dumb. Figuring that this new baby is therefore defective the decision is made by the chieftain to have her killed. Fortunately for her, the shaman of the tribe intervenes and adopts her instead. From that point on the two sons become extreme rivals vying for their father's attention and looking to become the next chieftain while the blonde female trains as an apprentice of the shaman. From that point on it's these three people who will figure prominently in the tribe's success or failure. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a difficult film for me to follow for several reasons. For starters, except for certain grunts and gestures, there is no language used in this film and that created some difficulty figuring out what was going on at times. Likewise, this decision also hampered the character development as well. That being said, while this might have been a decent movie otherwise, the damage resulting from this poorly conceived decision was just too noticeable and for that reason I have rated this film accordingly. Below average.