one million years bc 1940

As caveman movies go, 1966's One Million Years B.C. has had the top spot locked in for over 50 years. Shot on the primordial Canary Islands, the film combined Ray Harryhausen's singular stop-motion dinosaurs with Raquel Welch's now-iconic fur bikini. Produced by Hammer Films - and spawning a few lesser but still entertaining sequels - it was a match made in fantasy fan heaven. But Tumak and Loana's prehistoric adventures actually began nearly 30 years earlier in the 1940 version of One Million Years B.C., starring Victor Mature and Carole Landis in the lead roles...and a terrarium full of lizards standing in for the carnivorous (and admittedly unconvincing) dinos.

Directed by Hal Roach, whose copious work in the silent film era ironically made him a perfect match for the dialogue-free material, rumors suggest the assistance of none other than D.W. Griffith behind the camera. But whoever gets the credit, there's a lot of praise to be passed around. From the whirling dervish camerawork to beautiful matte paintings and model-sized cataclysms, the film actually looks more polished than it's more cinematically advanced remake, with a creative stage-bound production design that echoes the best of King Kong's skull island sequences.

Those familiar with the Hammer version will find the story itself remarkably unchanged. Tumak (Mature), part of a tribe of brutal Rock People, is kicked out of the clan by his own father (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.), only to fall into the arms of Loana (Landis) and her kinder, gentler tribe of Shell People. Tumak's anger-issues and bad table manners put him a few rungs lower on the evolutionary ladder, but his survival skills are heralded by all when he fights offs a dinosaur that's been pestering the village. Jealousy, however, soon sends he and Loana packing, where they fight off even more oversized reptiles, only to wind up back with the Rock People, whose crude lifestyle is in desperate need of an upgrade.

Both films end with a volcanic eruption, but Roach's staging has the edge. In fact, the bubbling lava and heaving landscape shots were recycled frequently by other productions looking to save a buck. It's a real showstopper that almost makes up for the phony "lizard-saurus" special effects used throughout the rest of the film. Similar to later efforts like Irwin Allen's The Lost World, even small children would be unconvinced by slapping a dorsal fin atop an alligator or monitor lizard. But the scenes are photographed so well, with some amazing compositions that put our cave people in jeopardy, one is able to appreciate the technical skill that went into overcoming the budget limitations.

That said, One Million B.C. never looks cheap; it's a lavishly designed production from start to finish. Even the modern-day prologue, involving a team of Alpine explorers stumbling to safety inside an archeological cave site, starts the movie off on an atmospheric note. Relatively rare in its complete form, this newly restored print from the UCLA film archives will be a revelation for most fantastic film fans. The hi-def transfer is so clean and detailed, it's like finding a complete T-Rex fossil in your backyard. Extras include a large still gallery and well-informed audio commentary by Toby Roan.