One Million B.C. (1940)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

One Million B.C. was Victor Mature's (Louisville, Kentucky's second "Greatest") second film, and consequently launched a very successful career that encompassed the realm of "film noir" to "sand and sandal epics". His first film was a small part in "The Housekeeper's Daughter". One Million B.C. begins with a group of young people going into a cave to escape a snow storm and an Archaeologist interpreting various cave drawings that tell the story of the people that once lived there. What follows is a saga of two groups of cave people with two totally different cultures that wind up fighting one another. Eventually the two groups have to join forces to fight off several threatening dinosaurs. The special effects are a bit dated as well as disappointing. The viewer gets to watch an alligator with make-up type of fins fight a monitor lizard in one of the key scenes. One can only wonder what would have happened if the S.P.C.A. had been around at that time. Considering the fact that this film was released in 1940 and King Kong was released in 1933 the film makers would have been better served to use a Willis O'Brien type of stop action motion technique. The cave people actors in this film communicate with indistinguishably utterances and a lot of pointing with hand gestures. Lon Chaney Jr. and Victor Mature become engaged in an exciting alpha male battle that conveys the struggle of an evolving culture. The film is very entertaining even if the viewer has to remind himself from time to time that "humans were not living when the dinosaurs existed. Having said that, the film is well worth watching.

It's rather a Weak and Flaccid Film. Although the Hammer Remake with Raquel Welch/Ray Harryhausen is much Better, it is Amazing how many Non Monster Scenes are virtually Identical. Of course there are No Excuses (except maybe making it on the cheap) for the Lame and Less then Impressive live Animals made up to Look Prehistoric. Not Seven Years after "King Kong"(1933).It doesn't look bad, but it ends up a Ho-Hum, rather Banal Trip back in Time. A Good Musical Score and fairly Good Pacing keep things from Petrifying, and the Cast is Willing and Able. The Success of this Movie is probably what brought Willis O'Brien out of Retirement and gave Ray Harryhausen the Opening for Better Things to come, that New Cycle started with "Mighty Joe Young" (1949).

One Million B.C. (1940) ** (out of 4) Prehistoric tale of a member (Victor Mature) of the Rock people who is kicked out of the group after standing up to their evil leader (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Soon he finds himself with the more peaceful Shell people but various battles are about to follow. This here is basically a remake of D.W. Griffith's Man's Genesis and its sequel Brute Force. Both of those shorts are better than this film but there are some very interesting ideas here. It's worth noting that Griffith himself was hired to oversee the production of this movie but apparently him and Roach had a falling out after the legendary director thought he was being brought in to direct. One can only wonder what Griffith would have done with the film but Roach or his son weren't the right choice. I loved the idea at how they pretty much made a silent film as there is very little dialogue throughout. The only problem is that they don't know how to do a silent and this makes the picture drag along at several spots. What does work however are the wonderful special effects, which still hold up fairly well today. The volcano erupting is the highlight of the movie but the battle scenes are well done too.

All right enough already, so they got the order of prehistoric life wrong in One Million BC. But it sure looked good to have Victor Mature tangling with that T-Rex and saving the shell people. And that's what the movie-going public paid to see, Victor Mature and Carole Landis scantily clad in front of the camera.Small studio producer Hal Roach busted the budget for this one, released by United Artists. Conrad Nagel as an archaeologist interprets the cave drawings for a group of weary young people on a hike who take shelter where he's doing some research. The two protagonists Louanna of the shell people and Tumac of the rock people look a whole lot like Carole and Vic.Vic's from the savage rock clan who basically operate on a survival of the fittest basis. After a quarrel with the head of the clan, Lon Chaney, Jr. he's exiled and he's found in the primeval forest by Carole Landis who definitely likes what she sees.Her shell people are a bit far up the evolutionary scale and she and the rest strive mightily to break Vic of his individualistic and isolationist ways. And that's the key to One Million BC. Think of the time it came out and what the world was facing. There's a lot of aggressive wildlife in the forest primeval and the savage wildlife in 1940 had two legs instead of four. Time for the clan and rock people of the day to put aside their differences and face the common foe of nature.This was supposed to be D.W. Griffith's comeback film and it's open to speculation as to how much he did shoot on this. I think the protagonists have an innocence about them, even the savage Mature before he gets housebroken so to speak the way Griffith protagonists do.For the next 30 years the footage of One Million BC was used over and over again in every kind of monster film going. Those lizards got to be old friends after a while. It also launched the careers of both Victor Mature and Carole Landis. Though both of them did have considerably more dialog in later films. After over 60 years One Million BC is still a great film to watch and be enthralled by the special effects as they were originally done. One Million BC got two Oscar nominations for Special Effects and Best Music Score. Will the rock and shell people find they have a common foe? Watch and find out.