When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1971)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

When dinosaurs ruled the earth, man was but a twinkle in evolution's eye, but the makers of this film don't let scientific fact get in the way of entertainment, depicting humans co-existing with prehistoric reptilian monsters. They also get a little creative concerning the formation of the moon, but more about that in a second.Voluptuous Victoria Vetri stars as Sanna, a blonde cave-girl who is about to be sacrificed to the sun when a sudden celestial occurrence causes hysteria, allowing her to escape: as the sun gives birth to the moon (I don't know how else to describe it), she dives into the sea and swims to safety. Regaining their composure, the other cave-people give chase. The remainder of the film sees the buxom cave-babe on the run, avoiding capture with a little help from handsome cave-man Tara (Robin Hawdon).With a thin plot that gets a little repetitive (Tara is captured twice and escapes both times), director Val Guest tries his best to avoid tedium (and mostly succeeds) by ensuring that there is plenty of eye-candy on display, not just in the form of the many scantily clad cave people, but also with some impressive location work (the Canary Islands), and quite a few prehistoric creatures: a plesiosaur, a ceratops, a generic dinosaur and its offspring (who, in the film's silliest moment, Sanna befriends), a pterosaur, and some giant crabs, all brought to life by stop-motion animator Jim Danforth. There are also a few regular lizards with frills and horns glued to their bodies.For most of the time, the film is family-friendly fare, Vetri somehow managing to stay inside her teeny bikini (which is even smaller than Raquel Welch's garb in One Million Years B.C.), but towards the end of the film matters get a little saucier: a caveman forces himself on a cavewoman (who has her top ripped off), and Vetri gets buck naked, to have cave-sex with Tara and for a spot of skinny-dipping.The film closes with the moon, now fully formed, suddenly affecting the tide, causing a tsunami that leaves Sanna and Tara, plus another good-looking cave-couple, safe and sound, their enemies washed away by the giant wave.

Released in 1970 and directed by Val Guest, "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" is a prehistoric adventure/fantasy starring Victoria Vetri as a blond cavebabe who survives her tribe's sacrificial ritual to their sun god. She then tries to join another tribe where she attracts the attention of one of the dudes (Robin Hawdon) and the jealousy of one of the brunette babes (Imogen Hassall).Wow, this flick is painfully bad. I was seriously tempted to fast-forward through the second half. This was surprising because it's basically the follow-up to Hammer's most successful film, 1966's "One Million Years BC." Unfortnately, it's nowhere the same quality. Things go wrong right away when the camera switches from excellent Canary Island locations to an obvious indoor set when it focuses on close-ups of the tribe on top of a hill. Worse, the story is dull and there's WAY too much cave-babbling, e.g. "Akita, AKITA!" The stop-motion F/X work is good, but there isn't as much as in the former film, like the great T-rex versus triceratops and the allosaurus sequences. While I like the friendly baby dino and Hassall is significantly hotter than the overrated Vetri, neither makes up for the movie's mortal flaws.The film runs 96 minutes and was shot in the Canary Islands and England (sets).GRADE: D

I saw this was coming up on TV this morning and hit IMDb to check it out first. Woe to me. I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I like a good fantasy movie. Harry Potter and a bunch of witches living among us- sure. But this movie started right off by throwing science out the window.Before we even got to the point where humans lived alongside dinosaurs (a la The Flintstones), the narrator introduced us to the first scene by telling us that "this was a time before the moon even existed". The moon existed BILLIONS of years before even the simplest form of life existed on this planet, much less dinosaurs or mammals. I might have let this go for a silent era movie from the 1920's, but this was made in the late 1960's.Then we are introduced to the primitive inhabitants of earth, with their salon hair and waxed bodies. Things kind of went along that way for the length of the film. Pretty women bouncing to and fro. Not much else going on here.Not for historians, to be sure, but at least I didn't see anyone wearing a watch.

Blonde-haired cave woman Sanna (Victoria Vetri) is picked up by a seaside tribe after being thrown into the sea by her own tribe. Tara (Robin Hawdon), a member of the dark-haired seaside tribe becomes infatuated by her and woos her with the gift of his necklace. Ayak (Imogen Hassall - who tragically committed suicide in 1980) wants Tara for herself so becomes intent on removing Sanna from the tribe, but after they fight, Sanna's former tribe come looking for her and she flees for her life. Tara starts his journey to find her and bring her back, but he faces many dangers in the dinosaurs and creatures lurking in the jungles and mountains, and a tribal prophet has foreseen a tidal wave that could possibly devastate the planet.This film is every bit as tedious as it sounds. One of a few prehistoric films produced by Hammer than depicted humans alongside dinosaurs, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth is nothing more than cheap fantasy that mixes the excitement of dinosaur attacks with big breasted women in cave girl costumes. Don't get me wrong, the sight of Vetri and Hassall all shaven- legged and oiled up wearing next to nothing and full make-up is not something I am complaining about, but that is just about all this film has going for it. The dinosaur scenes are mildly entertaining but are often repetitive, except for one scene which sees Sanna sleep in a broken dinosaur egg only to be adopted by the mother. Very silly but quite fun in it's own ridiculous way.A small caveman language was created for the film ("Akita! Akita!"), which, according to IMDb, is based on Phoenician, Latin, and Sanskrit sources. Very admirable indeed, but it is strange that such attention was made to the language when the film ignores the obvious historical fact that humans did not co-exist with dinosaurs! It seems a pointless detail when the film is clearly going for fun and titillation rather than anything remotely resembling historical accuracy. All in all, an easy way to spend a lazy bank holiday afternoon, but a rather boring and unspectacular cinematic experience. I would expect more from the director of The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961).www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com