50th ANNIVERSARY RESTORATION
RELEASED ON DOUBLE-PLAY, 24th OCTOBER
Directed by Don Chaffey
Starring Raquel Welch, John Richardson, and Martine Beswick
ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966) is the spectacular prehistoric
adventure that gave the world the most iconic bikini shot of all time, and made
a star of fur-clad Raquel Welch. An epic tale of man’s battle for survival at
the dawn of civilisation, rival tribes the Rock People and the Shell People
battle not only the gigantic prehistoric monsters and each other, but the earth
itself, still heaving, bubbling and boiling in its volcanic state.
Billed as the 100th production from the legendary Hammer
production house, the highlight of the film was without doubt the stop-motion
dinosaur animation by legendary special effects animator Ray Harryhausen. The
result was Hammer’s biggest commercial success, and the big screen’s most
famous dinosaur epic right up until the release of Jurassic Park
The film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray by Studiocanal.
Special features:
New interviews with Raquel Welch and Martine Beswick
Exclusive Ray Harryhausen stills, storyboard, and artwork
Production stills gallery.
Rating: 8/10
Review by Ian Shutter
A British remake of Hal Roach's 1939 classic One Million BC, this prehistoric adventure was produced by Michael Carreras for Hammer and it became the studios' biggest ever success, making an international sex symbol of its star, Raquel Welch.
The story of primitive humans and dinosaurs living together in the same era, this is an outlandish and frightfully dated movie when viewed today. Shot on stunning locations in the Canary Islands, with the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote providing a particularly convincing backdrop, One Million Years BC features John Richardson as Tumak, the caveman exiled from his 'Rock People' tribe, who journeys to the ocean's shore where he meets the more advanced 'Shell People', epitomised by Welch in furry bikini as Loana.
A lack of scripted dialogue for the actors, except for faux names (often comprising too many syllables for credibility), meant that gestures and physical attitudes were at the heart of the cast's variable performances, while director Chaffey had to carefully storyboard every scene involving creature effects - but he was used to this exacting process by now, having previously made the magnificent Jason And The Argonuats (aka: Jason And The Golden Fleece, 1963). Of particular note for chauvinists is the cat-fight between Loana and Nupondi (Martine Beswick), which is probably the most exciting bit of the film.
Stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen, fresh from his success with First Men In The Moon, 1964 (which adapted H.G. Wells' book into a space travel farce), worked for nine months, after Chaffey's ten weeks of principal photography, to create the memorable dinosaur effects. These included a brontosaurus, an attacking allosaurus, and a battle between a triceratops and a ceratosaurus. There's also a giant turtle, and a pterodactyl that, at one point, snatches up Loana.
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Review by Ian Shutter
A British remake of Hal Roach's 1939 classic One Million BC, this prehistoric adventure was produced by Michael Carreras for Hammer and it became the studios' biggest ever success, making an international sex symbol of its star, Raquel Welch.
The story of primitive humans and dinosaurs living together in the same era, this is an outlandish and frightfully dated movie when viewed today. Shot on stunning locations in the Canary Islands, with the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote providing a particularly convincing backdrop, One Million Years BC features John Richardson as Tumak, the caveman exiled from his 'Rock People' tribe, who journeys to the ocean's shore where he meets the more advanced 'Shell People', epitomised by Welch in furry bikini as Loana.
A lack of scripted dialogue for the actors, except for faux names (often comprising too many syllables for credibility), meant that gestures and physical attitudes were at the heart of the cast's variable performances, while director Chaffey had to carefully storyboard every scene involving creature effects - but he was used to this exacting process by now, having previously made the magnificent Jason And The Argonuats (aka: Jason And The Golden Fleece, 1963). Of particular note for chauvinists is the cat-fight between Loana and Nupondi (Martine Beswick), which is probably the most exciting bit of the film.
Stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen, fresh from his success with First Men In The Moon, 1964 (which adapted H.G. Wells' book into a space travel farce), worked for nine months, after Chaffey's ten weeks of principal photography, to create the memorable dinosaur effects. These included a brontosaurus, an attacking allosaurus, and a battle between a triceratops and a ceratosaurus. There's also a giant turtle, and a pterodactyl that, at one point, snatches up Loana.
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