Overlooked Movies: One Million Years B. C.

There's nothing like a good, historically accurate movie, the kind that could be shown as an instructional video in university geology or biology courses.  It shows the kind of human and near-human tribes that existed a million years B. C. and shows them interacting with the kinds of creatures that existed at that time, including a brontosaurus, an allosaurus, an archelon, a pteranodon, a giant iguana, and a giant tarantula.  

John Richardson plays Tumak, who gets kicked out of his rock people tribe because of a slight misunderstanding over a piece of meat.  He wanders around fighting various creatures until he comes across the shell people, a somewhat more advanced group that has some rudimentary language, art, and music, not to mention better spears than the rock people.  They also have Loana the Fair One (Raquel Welch), who wears a fur bikini and who, on the poster, strikes one of the iconic poses of the '60s.  Tumak decides to stick around, and who can blame him, even though his main squeeze back among the rock people is Nupondi the Wild One (Martine Beswick).

Tumak has some trouble adjusting to the new group and is soon kicked out, so he and Loana wander around fighting more giant beasts until they meet up with the rock people again.  There's a fight between Nupondi and Loana, which Loana wins.  The rock people discover bathing in the waters of a big lake, and Loana gets carried off by the pteranodon.  But she's okay!  She makes her way back to her tribe.  There's a final battle scene, and a volcano erupts, leaving the survivors to make their way in a brave new world.

Here are the good things about this movie:  Raquel Welch and the model work of Ray Harryhausen.  It's not really very exciting, otherwise.  But it's worth seeing for the meticulous historical accuracy.  It's a remake of a B&W movie from 1940.  Check out the trailer posted below if you haven't already.