| One Million Years B.C. | |
|---|---|
U.S. Theatrical poster by Tom Chantrell |
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| Directed by | Don Chaffey |
| Produced by | Michael Carreras |
| Written by | Brian Clemens |
| Starring | Raquel Welch John Richardson Percy Herbert Robert Brown Martine Beswick |
| Music by | Mario Nascimbene |
| Cinematography | Wilkie Cooper |
| Editing by | Tom Simpson |
| Distributed by | Hammer Film Productions |
| Release date(s) | 30 December 1966 (UK) February 21, 1967 (USA) |
| Running time | 100 min. (U.K) 91 min. (U.S.) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2.5 million (US rentals)[1] |
One Million Years B.C. is a 1966 British adventure/fantasy film starring Raquel Welch, set - loosely - in the time of cavemen. The film was made by Hammer Film Productions, and was a remake of the 1940 Hollywood film One Million B.C., and it recreates many of the scenes of that film (such as an allosaurus attacking a tree full of children). It is marketed with the taglines "Travel back through time and space to the edge of man's beginnings...discover a savage world whose only law was lust!" and "This is the way it was." It was released in the United States in 1967.
Like the original film, this remake is largely ahistorical. It portrays dinosaurs and humans living together, whereas, according to the geologic time scale, the last dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65 million years BC, and Homo sapiens (modern humans) did not exist until about 200,000 years BC. Ray Harryhausen, who animated all of the dinosaur attacks using his famous stop motion technique, has stated that he did not make One Million Years B.C. for "professors" who in his opinion "probably don't go to see these kinds of movies anyway" (this was a comment he made for the DVD of the 1933 version of King Kong).
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Tumak (John Richardson), a caveman from the Rock tribe, is banished to the harsh desert because of a fight with his father Akoba (Robert Brown the tribal leader. After surviving many dangers such as a giant lizard, ape men, brontosaurus and a giant spider, he collapses on a remote beach, where he is spotted by "Loana the Fair One" (Raquel Welch) and her fellow fisherwomen of the Shell tribe. They are about to help him when an Archelon (which is three times the size of the actual prehistoric Archelon) makes its way to the beach. Men of the Shell tribe arrive and apparently fend off the giant turtle with spears (Although in fact, it appears the turtle just wanders out to sea, where it originally intended to go anyway).
Tumak is taken to their village, where Loana tends to him. Scenes follow emphasising that the Shell tribe is more advanced and more civilized than the Rock tribe. They have cave paintings, music, delicate jewellery made from shells, and rudimentary language - all things Tumak seems to have never before encountered.
When the tribe women are fishing, an Allosaurus attacks. The tribe flees to their cave, but in the panic, a small girl is left trapped up a tree. Tumak seizes a spear from Ahot (Jean Wladon), a man of the Shell tribe, and rushes forward to defend her. Emboldened by this example, Loana runs out to snatch the child to safety, and Ahot and other men come to Tumak's aid, one of the men being killed before Tumak is finally able to kill the creature.
In the aftermath, a funeral is held for the dead men - a custom which Tumak disdains. Leaving the funeral early, he re-enters the cave, and attempts to steal the spear with which he had killed the Allosaurus. Ahot, who had taken back the spear, enters and is angered by the attempted theft, and a fight ensues.
The ensuing commotion attracts the rest of the tribe, who unite to cast Tumak out. Loana leaves with him, and Ahot, in a gesture of friendship, gives him the spear over which they had fought.
Meanwhile, Tumak's brother Sakana (Percy Herbert) tries to kill their father to take power. Akoba survives, but is a broken man. Sakana is the new leader. While this is happening, Tumak and Loana encounter a battle between a Ceratosaurus and a Triceratops. The battle is eventually won by the Triceratops which fatally gores its opponent.
The outcasts wander back into the Rock tribe's territory and Loana meets the tribe, but again there are altercations. The most dramatic one is a fight between Tumak's current love interest Loana and his former lover "Nupondi the Wild One" (Martine Beswick). Loana wins the fight, and refuses to strike the killing blow, despite the encouragement of the other members of the tribe.
While the cave people are swimming - seemingly for the first time, and inspired by Loana's example - they are attacked by a female Pteranodon. In the confusion, Loana is snatched into the air by the creature, and dropped bleeding into the sea, when a thieving Rhamphorhynchus intervenes.
Tumak initially believes her dead, but she has survived the ordeal. They are reunited just as Sakana leads a group of fellow hunters in armed revolt against Akoba. Tumak, Loana, Ahot and other members of the Shell tribe arrive in time to join the fight against Sakana. In the midst of a savage hand-to-hand battle, a volcano suddenly (and symbolically?) erupts: the entire area is stricken by earthquakes and landslides that overwhelm both tribes.
As the film ends, Tumak, Loana, and the surviving members of both tribes emerge from cover to find themselves in a ruined, near-lunar landscape. They all set off - now united - to find a new home.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Raquel Welch | Loana |
| John Richardson | Tumak |
| Percy Herbert | Sakana |
| Robert Brown | Akhoba |
| Martine Beswick | Nupondi |
| Jean Wladon | Ahot |
The exterior scenes were filmed at Lanzarote and Tenerife in the Canary Islands in the middle of winter. The film features the Echium wildpretii plant, as a homage to Tenerife's unique endemic flora. However, the plants are set in scenes filmed on the Lanzarote beach. In actuality, this plant only flowers from May to June, and is found in Tenerife mountain zones higher than 1600m. As there were no active volcanoes in the Canary Islands, the studio had to construct a 6-7 foot (2 metre) high volcano on the ABPC studio back lot. The eruption, lava explosions and lava flows were composed of a mixture of wallpaper paste, oatmeal, dry ice and red dye.
This was one of the later Ray Harryhausen stop motion animation films, he only created four more films after this one. Harryhausen, as usual, filmed the dinosaur visuals in his personal studio in London.
As the Shell people are attacked by a giant turtle, the women call it "Archelon" which is the real scientific name for the animal. The film uses two live creatures: a green iguana and a tarantula (a cricket can be seen at the tarantula's side). Ray Harryhausen was asked repeatedly about these two unanimated creatures, and he confesses they were his idea. At the time, he felt the use of real creatures would convince the audience that all of what they were about to see was indeed real.
Robert Brown (Akhoba) wears makeup similar to that worn by Lon Chaney, Jr. in the same role in the 1940 version, One Million B.C.
The publicity shot of Welch from the movie became more famous than the movie itself, becoming a best-selling poster and something of a cultural phenomenon. The image can be recognized by people around the world, even among those who are not familiar with the film. Many noted photographers had been flown to Tenerife by 20th Century Fox on a publicity junket, but the iconic pose of Welch was taken by the unit still photographer, who never made anything more than his weekly salary for his world-famous work. The poster was a centerpiece in the film The Shawshank Redemption.
Roughly nine minutes were cut from the American print, including a provocative dance from Martine Beswick and a gruesome end to one of the ape-men in the cave. Some footage of the allosaur attack on the Shell tribe was also deleted from the initial release, but restored decades later.
Stock footage depicting the landslide was reused for Alex's dream (Beethoven's 9th Symphony) in Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange[2]
Further films from Hammer, which traded on the attractions of scantily clad cave girls, were Slave Girls (1968), When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) and Creatures the World Forgot (1971).[3]
Welch was described as "wearing mankind's first bikini" and the fur bikini was described as a "definitive look of the 1960s".[4][5]One author said, "although she had only three lines in the film, her luscious figure in a fur bikini made her a star and the dream girl of millions of young moviegoers."[6]
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