O Despertar do Mundo

I just watched One Million B.C. I hadn't seen this in sixty years and it certainly brought back memories. I remember seeing it at the Rialto Theater in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But no one called it the Rialto, everyone called it the Rat Hole. Why? Because rats ran across the floor in the dark, bats swooped down from the ceiling, and poor old winos slept and snored in the back row. Decent people didn't go there.

But on Saturday afternoons, kids took over the place to watch four to five hours of movies, cartoons, and 1930's serials -- which even by 1953 standards were corny – all for only 15 cents. I don't remember that any of us ever questioned whether we were decent people or not; the popcorn was great. How the winos could sleep with all the noise I have no idea. Child audiences were highly proactive with what was going on up on the screen.

It was safe then for kids to ride their bikes downtown. And every Saturday afternoon that place was packed. The winos never bothered us, and we'd never heard of child molesters. All we knew was not to accept candy from strangers and since no one ever offered us any, we all felt safe.

This movie stuck in my mind because it was unlike anything I'd ever seen. At ten years old it fulfilled my every dream of adventure ... dinosaurs, volcanoes, ancient peoples, jungles, snakes and morals that we could all understand and appreciate: It's better to be kind and unselfish than to be mean and brutal. I'd highly recommend this film but only if you think back to when you were 8 – 11 years old and watch it as you would have then. Even if you find it a tad corny, the child in you will love it.

I've seen One Million BC a couple of times and enjoyed it, although its remake, One Million Years BC with Raquel Welch and Ray Harryhausen special effects is much better. This was released on video in Germany, of which I have a copy which a mate ordered for me from Amazon.

A group of explorers go into a cave and look at some cave paintings done by Stone Age Man. The movie then goes back in time and we learn how these people lived. One of these, Tumak meets a girl from a rival tribe and falls in love with her. After getting up to different adventures including battles with dinosaurs and other prehistoric life (more of which later), a volcano erupts and there is also an earthquake towards the end.

Now to those creatures, starting with those "dinosaurs". These are enlarged lizards and alligators with sails stuck on their backs to resemble Dimetrodons. We also see a T-Rex which is just a man in a monster suit and seems to be dancing. At the beginning, the cavemen kill a rubber Tricertops for food. Other creatures we see are Woolly Mammoths which I think are just elephants covered with fur, a giant armadillo, aardvark and snakes. Some of these creatures look OK and some look rather shoddy.

Stock footage from this movie was to appear in many others in years to come, including Teenage Caveman, Tarzan's Desert Mystery and King Dinosaur.

The cast includes Victure Mature in his first movie, Carole Landis, horror star Lon Chaney Jr (The Wolf Man) and John Hubbard.

Though not fantastic, One Million BC is certainly worth a look and is a worthy addition to any collection, especially for fans of dinosaur movies like myself.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

A group of mountain travelers find refuge in a cave where professor Conrad Nagel is examining prehistoric wall drawings. Nagel soon goes into a lengthy examination of the meaning of these pictures for his newly arrived guests which turns into the flashback which is the film. The pictures are the story of two prehistoric peoples: the tribal, brute rock people and the pleasant, peaceful shell people. Naturally, the story is a romance between stars Victor Mature(just his second feature film) and the lovely blonde Carole Landis. This film, produced by Hal Roach, has some things going for it. I liked the division between the two tribes and how each sustained life in a prehistoric world. The acting was surprisingly good with Mature and Landis doing credible jobs despite spouting occasional gibberish meant to be taken as caveman lingo. Landis in fact is quite affable and charming(being in a mini-cave dress always helps too). Lon Chaney Jr. gets his start in this type of film so to speak as the head of the rock people and as Mature's father. Chaney is good and is able to emote lots of emotion while using little dialog. The special effects are unfortunately not too special as we are basically given Irwin Allen/Bert I Gordon dinosaurs. You know the type. Iguanas and other common lizards, as well as an alligator, dressed up in fins and the like. For the technology used, these effects are okay and predate my examples of movies using them. There are also some very non-scientific bits of information used throughout the film...like man has already got domesticated dogs for just one example. Overall, this movie is a pleasant fantasy of what life might have been back then. It should not be taken too seriously as it is in truth a fairly simple tale with a simple message of how man might change through the influence of another(Landis on Mature and his people).

All right enough already, so they got the order of prehistoric life wrong in One Million BC. But it sure looked good to have Victor Mature tangling with that T-Rex and saving the shell people. And that's what the movie-going public paid to see, Victor Mature and Carole Landis scantily clad in front of the camera.

Small studio producer Hal Roach busted the budget for this one, released by United Artists. Conrad Nagel as an archaeologist interprets the cave drawings for a group of weary young people on a hike who take shelter where he's doing some research. The two protagonists Louanna of the shell people and Tumac of the rock people look a whole lot like Carole and Vic.

Vic's from the savage rock clan who basically operate on a survival of the fittest basis. After a quarrel with the head of the clan, Lon Chaney, Jr. he's exiled and he's found in the primeval forest by Carole Landis who definitely likes what she sees.

Her shell people are a bit far up the evolutionary scale and she and the rest strive mightily to break Vic of his individualistic and isolationist ways.

And that's the key to One Million BC. Think of the time it came out and what the world was facing. There's a lot of aggressive wildlife in the forest primeval and the savage wildlife in 1940 had two legs instead of four. Time for the clan and rock people of the day to put aside their differences and face the common foe of nature.

This was supposed to be D.W. Griffith's comeback film and it's open to speculation as to how much he did shoot on this. I think the protagonists have an innocence about them, even the savage Mature before he gets housebroken so to speak the way Griffith protagonists do.

For the next 30 years the footage of One Million BC was used over and over again in every kind of monster film going. Those lizards got to be old friends after a while. It also launched the careers of both Victor Mature and Carole Landis. Though both of them did have considerably more dialog in later films.

After over 60 years One Million BC is still a great film to watch and be enthralled by the special effects as they were originally done. One Million BC got two Oscar nominations for Special Effects and Best Music Score.

Will the rock and shell people find they have a common foe? Watch and find out.

Just watched this classic Hal Roach production on the TCM site. It's the story of a man and woman and how they get their previously enemy tribes together. Actually, what I just said made the movie sound simplistic which, despite the prehistoric setting, it's not. In fact, I was surprisingly enthralled by the story, the acting of Victor Mature and Carole Landis (though Ms. Landis is also good eye candy), the fights of the "dinosaurs" (actually lizards, alligators, and armadillos), and the exciting special effects concerning the volcano eruption. Roy Seawright deserves mega-kudos for that last sequence and possibly for Mature's fight with what looked like a model dinosaur worthy of Willis O'Brien. Also loved the music score that was played throughout. That score might have broken whatever monotony the slower scenes may have had. So with all that said, I'm recommending One Million B.C. for anyone interested in these old-fashioned effects movies.