ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Four years after Hammer studios and Ray Harryhausen gave us "One Million Years B.C.", Hammer studios and Jim Danforth gave us an equally dinosaur-filled prehistoric extravaganza.

The dinosaur models are excellent, and so is Mr. Danforth's animation. Danforth tutored under Harryhausen, and "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" is a showcase for his talents, featuring a greater variety of monsters than "One Million Years B.C.". Danforth achieves a smoother effect in his animation than his former teacher, though Danforth's work doesn't succeed quite as well dramatically.

Sometimes the dinosaurs move with such elegant slowness the viewer wonders how Danforth found the patience to make those thousands of tiny adjustments to the models.





Written and directed by Val Guest. Starring Victoria Verti (former Playboy playmate).

All the dialoged in "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" is unintelligible "caveman" words, a legacy it inherited from "One Million Years B.C." (1966) and its classic predecessor, "One Million B.C." (1940). For some odd reason, the word "ah-kee-ta" is used over and over in both the Harryhausen and the Danforth films. The mystery of its meaning still puzzles scholars and movie buffs alike.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I apologize for the quality of this trailer but it was the best I could find. That seems a shame in view of the fact that the visuals in this movie are the really the only good thing about it.


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

[Bud Brewster]

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Enjoy this marvelous video, which explains the meanings of key words used in this movie — including the popular word "akita" (ah - kee' - ta), which is heard 57 times during the course of the film, making it very dangerous to use as a "drinking game", because you'll damage your liver and probably insist on driving yourself home while heavily intoxicated.

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A Guide to Cavespeak in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth


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

[scotpens]

Isn't an Akita a big Japanese dog?

[MetroPolly]

Hammer should stick to straight horror films, IMO. And, while I'm at it, that dino looks more like the Rhedosaurus in Beast from 50,000 fathoms. Or whatever the title is.

[Bud Brewster]

[orzel-w]

[Bogmeister]

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This was like a follow-up to One Million Years BC (1966) but with Jim Danforth providing the stop-motion FX instead of Ray Harryhausen. When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth has some whacky turns in the plot, like the climactic scenes on the raft during a tidal wave (I think the filmmakers were just unable to figure out a way to film it plausibly).

In this prehistoric reality, being blonde-haired is problematic (a good chance of getting sacrificed to some sun god) and there is no moon (as yet). There is no English dialog, just a caveman speech, as in the older film.

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Besides seeing Vetri in all her glory (there's supposedly a G-rated version on DVD, but I have the unedited one and am not sure about the tamer one's existence), the only reason to watch this is Danforth's work, including comparing it to Harryhausen. It's interesting, as noted elsewhere, that Danforth may have achieved a smoother result in his efforts, but lacked that tiny bit of dynamism & personality which Harryhausen imbued to his work. Is this the difference between being 'The experienced Master' and being the 'The Pupil' or is it just a case of individual talent & style?

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As for the Best Buy DVD, there was some controversy there when an unrated version of the DVD was released, even though it stated it was G-rated on the cover. There was a recall. This was a double-feature DVD, on which this film was paired with Moon Zero Two; the latter film was G-rated, so the rating applied to that film. For a time — or still — the DVD was expensive to get at places like eBay.

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10


BoG
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