Posted: Wed., Dec. 21, 1966, 11:00pm PT

One Million Years B.C.

(UK)

By Rich Gold

Warner-Pathe release of a Hammer production for Associated British-Pathe. Produced by Michael Carreras. Directed by Don Chaffney. Screenplay by Carreras, adapted from an original by Mickell Novak, George Baker, Joseph Frickert.

Loana - Raquel Welch Tumak - John Richardson Sakama - Percy Herbert Akhoba - Robert Brown Nupondi - Martine Beswick Ahot - Jean Waldon Sara - Lisa Thomas Tohana - Malya Nappi Young Rock Man - Richard James Payto - William Lyon Brown 1st Rock Man - Frank Hayden 1st Shell Man - Terence Maidment 1st Shell Girl - Micky de Rauch Ullah - Yvonne Horner

Biggest novelty gimmick of this likely click for unsophisticated situations is that, despite four writers on screenplay [including director Michael Carreras], dialog is minimal, consisting almost entirely of grunts. More saleable gimmick is that, at last, the nubile Raquel Welch is on view. Till more seen in stills than screened, Miss Welch here gets little opportunity to prove herself an actress but she is certainly there in the looks department.

Don Chaffey does a reliable job directorially, but leans heavily on the ingenious special effects in the shape of prehistoric animals and a striking earthquake dreamed up by Ray Harryhausen. Simple idea of the film is of the earth as a barren, hostile place, one million years B.C., inhabitated by two tribes, the aggressive Rock People and the more intelligent, gentler Shell People.

John Richardson plays a Rock man who is banished after a fight with his gross father (Robert Brown). Wandering the land, battling off fearful rubber prehistoric monsters, he comes across the Shell People and falls for Miss Welch, one of the Shell handmaidens. The two go off together to face innumerable other hazards. Then comes the earthquake. Then comes the end of the film and a better, more peaceable world with the two lovers still fighting for survival, But together.

The whole thing is good humored full-of-action commercial nonsense, but the moppets will love it and older male moppets will probably love Miss Welch. Wilkie Cooper, in Eastmancolor, has done fair justice to Harryhausen's effects and the only criticism that can seriously be made against that pic is that it is a pity that a full feature film has been made in which the cast, which includes Percy Herbert, Robert Brown, Marrine Beswick and several other reliable thesps, should have minimal opportunity of doing some solid acting. Rich.

Special visual effects by Ray Harryhausen; music, Mario Nascimbene; editor, James Needs; camera (Technicolor), Wilkie Cooper. Previewed at Warner Theatre, London. Dec. 20, 1966. Running Time, 100 MINS. Available on VHS, DVD.