One Million B.C.
                                                                                                                    
Director: Hal Roach
Year: 1940
Rating: 5.5
I have always been curious about this film because the 1966 Hammer film of nearly the same title was a remake of it. I finally got around to it on a video that had Greek subtitles which is kind of amusing in that it is cave person dialogue. A lot of grunts and pointing. Much to my surprise though the 1966 version has a lot in common with this one - other than it cost a few million dollars more, it was shot in color, it had Ray Harryhausen doing the stop-motion special effects and of course it had Raquel Welch in a fur bikini. Otherwise though, basically the same story. This was a solid hit back in 1940, produced and directed by Hal Roach and it was a big boost to the career of Victor Mature. I am not sure if that is a good thing though. This was only his second film and he was acclaimed as the new Weissmuller. Not having any dialogue probably helped his performance. This feels very much like a silent film with music because of the big gestures and facial expressions. It won an Oscar for Special Effects which mainly consist of disguising animals as prehistoric monsters and using a lot of rear projection of real lizards. You know how films nowadays put up a blurb that no animals were hurt in the filming. Not this one.

 

One can view this as an adventure tale with lots of giant animals or as a socio-political comparison of brute capitalism versus communism. I am surprised these writers were not questioned by Congress for their Leftist propaganda. The Rock People are brutes - run by a dictator (Lon Chaney Jr.) where the weak are left to die and it is every man for himself depending on strength and ambition. Tumak (Mature) is the son of the leader and fights him for food. The old man wins and pushes Tumak off a cliff. For some reason Tumak is the only man with no facial hair. He must have invented the razor blade. His unconscious body is discovered by Luana (Carole Landis) of the Shell People and immediately blows her shell to get the rest of the tribe to come.

 

They take Tumak in and teach him good table manners, how to sing, to be one of many and most importantly a sense of humor. Not so much how to share though and he gets kicked out of their cave for starting a fight over a sharp spear. The Rock people haven't figured that out yet. Luana likes the hunk though - her kind of rough and ready man - and no beard to scratch her complexion. She goes with him across the land of giant beasts. They end up back with the Stoners and Luana being a bit bossy teaches them how to laugh and share. Even the Old Man takes a liking to her and he doesn't like anyone. The future thanks you Luana for spreading laughter and manners. Then the volcano explodes and in one cool scene a woman running to rescue her son is overtaken and covered by the lava. From what I have read the production filmed a lot of footage that was never used and went into the stock footage basement - to be used by numerous low budget films for years.