ALL SCI-FI Forum Index ALL SCI-FI
The place to “find your people”.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

One Million Years B.C. (1966 England)

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi Movies and Serials from 1950 to 1969
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 9:05 pm    Post subject: One Million Years B.C. (1966 England) Reply with quote



Perhaps the least satisfying of all Ray Harryhausen films, despite a wealth of high quality stop-motion animation.

It's a remake of "One Million B.C." (1940), and both versions attempt an odd gimmick: no English dialogue is spoken by the prehistoric people, just unintelligible "caveman" words. The same thing was tried in "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth". (In both films the cavemen frequently use the word "Akeeta" -- but the word is never applied with enough consistancy to indicate what it means!)

The actors struggle to tell the story with pantomimed gestures, a trick that gets a bit tiresome after awhile.

In 1981 Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, and Shelley Long starred in "Caveman", a hysterical spoof of "One Million Years B.C.". It had excellent stop-motion animation and a "caveman language" which the audience actually learned to understand during the movie, because the words were applied so consistently ("ul" means food, "alundi" means love, etc.).

During a lecture at Georgia State University in 1981, I asked Ray Harryhausen what he thought of "Caveman". He replied, "I don't like send-ups."
Very Happy
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Aug 23, 2022 3:21 pm; edited 5 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Pow
Galactic Ambassador


Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 3400
Location: New York

PostPosted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 11:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would also add to the least "satisfying list", Bud, It Came From Beneath the Sea, & Earth vs The Flying Saucers.

I say this as a huge, huge Harryhausen fan.

Whenever these films come on, I will always fast-forward through 'em just to view the Ray's stop-motion scenes.

The stories & dialogue are simply forgettable.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
I would also add to the least "satisfying list", Bud, It Came From Beneath the Sea, & Earth vs The Flying Saucers.

I say this as a huge, huge Harryhausen fan.

Whenever these films come on, I will always fast-forward through 'em just to view the Ray's stop-motion scenes.

The stories & dialogue are simply forgettable.

Couldn't agree less, I'm afraid. Admittedly the story in "It Came from Beneath the Sea" is simple, but still very enjoyable. It's every bit as good as "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms".

And the story in "Earth vs the Flying Saucer" is well written and well presented. I've always felt that if was a solid invasion film — one of the very few good ones.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:47 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I'm not particularly fond of this Harryhausen film, but the scene with allosaurus is magnificent.

The scene in Caveman (1981) in which Ringo uses a similar strategy on the old T-Rex is quite enjoyable, too. You can view it at the 27:00 mark in the second video below.
________________________________


_____________ One Million Years B. C. Highlight


__________



________________ Caveman (1981) full movie


__________

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Aug 28, 2022 11:27 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
scotpens
Starship Captain


Joined: 19 Sep 2014
Posts: 871
Location: The Left Coast

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:45 pm    Post subject: Re: One Million Years B.C. (1966 England) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
It's a remake of "One Million B.C." (1940), and both versions attempt an odd gimmick: no English dialogue is spoken by the prehistoric people, just unintelligible "caveman" words. The same thing was tried in "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth". (In both films the cavemen frequently use the word "Akeeta" -- but the word is never applied with enough consistency to indicate what it means!)

An Akita is a big Japanese dog breed. I thought everyone knew that!




Last edited by scotpens on Tue Apr 24, 2018 5:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Custer
Space Sector Commander


Joined: 22 Aug 2015
Posts: 932
Location: Earth

PostPosted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 11:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here's Loopydave's take on the poster:

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Bogmeister
Galactic Fleet Vice Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 574

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
____________

__ One Million Years BC / Original Theatrical Trailer


___________


I don't need to go into the most famous virtue of this film, since a picture is, at times, worth more than a couple of hundred words.

__________
__________

Though this is one of the most famous dinosaur films, familiarity with the poster of Welch far surpasses knowledge of the film itself. The poster is iconic and sort of represents what the sixties were about, much like Marilyn Monroe represents the fifties. This is a REMAKE of the 1940 film, which was titled simply One Million B.C..

____

This film of supposedly prehistoric times kind of wants to have it both ways. As indicated by the title, it doesn't really follow the precepts of creationism, that Earth was created about 6,000 years ago. Yet, the biblical-like narration in the beginning speaks of a young world.

This goes against the widely-held scientific perception of the Earth being at least 4 billion years old. Hence, this would already be an old world, if following that science, even if it did take place a million years ago.

Also, actual cavemen such as we see here probably existed closer to 15,000 years ago (as shown in the recent film, 10,000 BC, which had its own problems, but we won't go into that here).



Of course, the other problem this film represents for teachers and scientists is the depiction of dinosaurs alongside cavemen-humans. According to latest evidence, the two sets of life are separated by 65 million years. Now, for those who need to explain this discrepancy, we can postulate an alternate Earth depicted here.

Anyway, Harryhausen and Hammer Films didn't make the film for scientists. I don't think they made it for fans of talky pictures either. After the opening narration, get ready for no further English spoken during the rest of the film. This film, therefore, is a pretty good exercise in pure visuals, allowing pictures (much like drawings on caves, uh?) to tell the entire story. There is a caveman language, but it's very limited.



BELOW: Comparison between this film's key caveman-dinosaur battle and the 1940 version:




There is a plot, believe it or not. The story begins with a primitive tribe of that era, lorded over by an older but still very tough caveman (Robert Brown).

The film shows us that such traits as compassion have not been developed yet. Elderly members of the tribe must fend for themselves, and if they don't, no one sheds a tear on their passing. It's the way of life.

The ruler has two sons (John Richardson Richardson and Percy Herbert), who don't get along well, being close to a version of Cain and Abel.

Actually, the father doesn't get along very well with the sons either. It's all about plain survival — the more brutal you are, the better you survive. Tumak (Richardson) gets into an argument with his dad and is cast out. Tumak wanders across the desert and barely makes it to the sea, where a more civilized tribe lives. There, he meets Raquel Welch.



And, boy, there are a lot of dinosaurs in this one. In many ways, this is prime Harryhausen glory.

There are a couple of enlarged beasts, a lizard and a spider, near the beginning, but otherwise it's Harryhausen unleashed! We get a view of a brontosaurus walking by, a giant sea turtle, a classic battle between a Triceratops and Ceratosaurus (like a T-Rex), a Pterodactyl giving Welch a lift and — most impressive — the attack by an Allosaurus on a tribe.

This is a lengthy sequence in which a couple of tribe members are killed, culminating in Richardson's innovative killing stroke. I actually felt sorry for a couple of the dinosaurs in this film. Harryhausen gave them — their movements — such a familiar, distinctive look, that when they perished, howling in pain, I took pity on them, as I would on any animal dying in pain.



On top of all this, there's a cavegirl fight between Welch and Martine Beswick!

Beswick already had experience in this from her gypsy-girl fight in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963). (Classic, baby, classic!)

The whole thing climaxes with one of those volcanic explosions. Remember, the Earth is young here and these happen a lot, I would guess. We get some heavy-duty scenes of carnage at the end, so much so that I'm surprised any of the tribe members survived.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

BELOW: An interesting comparative study of Welch and Ursula Andress in SHE (1965).




SOME DINO FACTS:

~ The stark landscape here, almost as memorable as the dinosaurs, is due to location filming at the Canary Islands. Harryhausen admitted he allowed the blown-up lizard & spider footage to add some realism, thinking audiences of the time would see these as more close to reality.

~ The famous pin-up of Raquel Welch played an important part in the plot of The Shawshank Redemption (94). It was the 3rd and final poster hung on the wall of the main character's cell (preceded by Rita Hayworth & Marilyn Monroe).

~ Footage of the cliffs collapsing on cavemen near the end was incorporated into A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971).

~ Harryhausen continued with more Allosaurus dinosaur FX in VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969), so he was unable to work on the less-harsh WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH, which gave Jim Danforth a chance to show his stuff. Article @MOVIE FANFARE: EVOLUTION of the MovieCaveman


____________________________ Dino Time

__________


__


_______
BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 3:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Wow, Bogmeister sure liked this movie more than I did! I think both it and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth are ridiculous. Poor stories and no dialog. What were those people thinking? Shocked

However, Caveman (1981) is a wonderful comedy, complete with a consistent caveman language we actually learn during the movie. Before the film is twenty minutes over we know what the cave folks are talking about! Very Happy

I even like the stop motion in Caveman better than Harryhausen's unfortunate attempt at a prehistoric epic!


_______ Caveman (1981): Drunken-Dinos, Oh My


___________


But BoG certainly put time and effort into his review, and I admire him for that. Don't miss the funny little video at the end, Dino Time. Laughing
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Aug 28, 2022 11:29 am; edited 4 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Krel
Guest





PostPosted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 12:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ray Harryhausen hurt Jim Danforth's feelings. J.D. showed Harryhausen his aged Tyrannosaurs figure for "Caveman", and Harryhausen told him it looked pregnant.

David.


Last edited by Krel on Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

A friend of mine had communicated with Jim Danforth extensively in connection with articles he'd written about Jim and stop motion in Wonder Magazine (a fanzine), and he said Danforth was a very tempestuous fellow.

My friend said Danforth hated Jurassic Park, calling it "a bad movie, with terrible special effects." Confused

However, in all fairness I should mention that I attended Harryhausen's lecture at the Georgia State campus in Atlanta just before Clash of the Titans came out, and afterwards I asked him what he thought of Cavemen.

Ray looked at me without smiling and said, "I don't like send-ups."

Later, I looked up the definition of a "send up" to be sure I knew what he meant. It means "an act of imitating someone or something in order to ridicule them; a parody."

Apparently Ray took Caveman as a deliberate attempt to insult his serious prehistoric epic . . . which had no real dialog and damn little plot. Rolling Eyes

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:59 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
johnnybear
Mission Specialist


Joined: 15 Jun 2016
Posts: 442

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 8:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As a fan of Raquel Welch I hate to admit that I found Martine Beswick much sexier and better looking! Wink
JB
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Jun 07, 2020 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 24 trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text. Very Happy
________________________________

~ As the Shell People are attacked by a giant turtle, the women call it "Achelon", the real scientific name for the animal.

Note from me: Those cavemen were neither Neanderthals nor Cro-Magnons. They were Paleontologists! Very Happy

~ Raquel Welch refers to this - one of her most popular movies - as "that silly dinosaur movie".

Note from me: I love Ray Harryhausen's brilliant work. But Miss Welch is right — this is a silly movie. Caveman is silly on purpose, and I love it. This movie is silly because nobody could take the premise seriously.

For the record, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth is even sillier. Rolling Eyes

~ Robert Brown wore make-up identical to that worn by Lon Chaney, Jr. in One Million B.C. (1940).

Note from me: I wonder if this was deliberate or just a coincidence.

~ The limited Hammer Studios budget for this movie is in evidence during the Archelon turtle scene. Animator Ray Harryhausen, who could keep seven Hydra heads, or seven skeleton warriors in flowing motion at one time, didn't bother to animate the archelon's hind legs, which simply dragged along in the sand.

Note from me: Annk! Wrong! The author of this item didn't do his homework. Sea turtles barely use their much shorter hind legs to crawl along the beach, as shown in the video below.

Ray did HIS homework and animated the giant turtle accurately. Very Happy


________________World's Largest Sea Turtle!

__________


~ Martine Beswick said that she and co-star John Richardson fell madly in love at first sight on-set and were together for seven years.

Note from me: A romance which spanned the ages! Even the Stone Ages! Very Happy

~ John Richardson's love interest in this movie was Raquel Welch. In real-life, he married co-star Martine Beswick.

Note from me: Wow, John was married to Miss Beswick, and he also played those romantic scenes with Miss Welch! Cool

Wait . . . there were no romantic scenes. Bummer. Sad

~ Martine Beswick said in an interview that she didn't have to audition for this movie. Being a Bond Girl opened doors for her and Hammer Studios thought she should join their family, so they offered her the role.

Note from me: Miss Beswick's "Bond girl" roll was very brief. In Thunderball she was on a motorboat with Sean Connery briefly. That's about it . . . Rolling Eyes

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Pow
Galactic Ambassador


Joined: 27 Sep 2014
Posts: 3400
Location: New York

PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2020 6:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More Fun Facts for One Million Years B.C.

Filming took place on Lanzarote which is one of the Spanish Canary Islands.

The sand dunes scenes were were shot on Grand Canary the main Isle.

Tenerife was used for the remainder of the film.

Shooting on location took 4-weeks.

The interior scenes were done at ABPC Elstree Studios in Borehamwood,England.

The animation scenes required 8-months to do beginning on December 06, 1965 and ending on July 20, 1966.

RH said that the idea to use photographically enlarged real live animals (Iguana & spider) was his idea. Ray felt that utilizing such creatures would convince the audience that what they see is real and make the later stop~animation scenes easier to believe.

Ray said later that this idea was a mistake.

A Mammoth elephant was considered for the first creature that Tumak would come across. The idea was discarded as the production would have dressed up a real elephant. It was also felt that the animal itself would not have been awesome enough.

The enormous dinosaur skeleton Tumak walks by was in reality a 12-inch model.

Ray made the Allosaurus a young one because he wanted it to be able to terrorize and kill but unable to destroy the entire village.

Ray was considering an entirely different introduction for the Allosaurus. He was going to reuse his Phorohacus from his earlier Mysterious Island movie. The Phorohacus would have been penned in a corral erected by the Shell Tribe where it would have managed to escape.

The creature would have been attacked suddenly by the Allosaur. Harryhausen felt that such a scene was simply not as dramatic an intro of the Allosaurus.

Ray's favorite scene in the movie was his battle between the Triceratop & the Ceratosaurus.

Ray dreaded animating the Pteranodon scene because of the enormous challenge of animating flying creatures. A huge amount of preparation for any model that must fly is required along with working with the complex overhead system of wires. It takes twice as long to animate flying scenes compared to scenes with grounded models.

Plans were made for a longer sequence with the Brontosaurus but it was dropped before it could be shot.

The Bronto was to have been forced onto a rock bridge that would have collapsed, plunging the dino into a cauldron of lava. Man, that would have been a sensational scene. The director felt that there were already too many stop~motion animation scenes, so this particular one was excised from the script.

My personal motto is that there can never be too many stop~motion animation scenes.

Another idea dropped was Ray's plan for a Arsinoitherium, which was a rhino-like creature. It was considered as not appearing prehistoric-looking enough for the film.

The volcano eruption consisted of wallpaper paste, oatmeal, dry ice and red dye.

Ray caught pneumonia while shooting the volcano scene.

Ray said that while he actually had little contact with lead Raquel Welch, when he did he found her likable. She was very serious about her acting and the film at that time. Harryhausen was sad to hear that Welch, in later years, was dismissive of the movie.


Last edited by Pow on Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17016
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2020 6:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Fascinating facts about this amazing movie. Thanks, Pow!

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ALL SCI-FI Forum Index -> Sci-Fi Movies and Serials from 1950 to 1969 All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group