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Hammer's 100th film, and it did extremely well at the box office - for two good reasons. Firstly we have dinosaur special-effects by Ray Harryhausen, which along with Valley of Gwangi has formed the template for dinosaur movies of today. Secondly we have Raquel Welch in a fur bikini; indeed this movie really made her career. The movie begins with a brief history of the world's creation, and we meet the cavemen of the Rock tribe, and the brothers Tumak (Richardson) and Sakana (Herbert). The tribe is brutal and there are many grievances during the struggle for primitive power. Tension reaches such fury that Tumak is banished after a clash with the leader.
 

He embarks on a journey of discovery, and encounters a huge lizard (not animated, some cause of controversy), a brontosaurus, and huge spider, before collapsing senseless on a remote beach. There, by the sea, is some of the Shell tribe, hunting for fish. They spot Tumak and begin to help but a giant archelon, or sea turtle, is making its way to the sea. After a battle, the turtle escapes. Tumak is looked after by Loana (Welch). She takes him back to her tribe, who are clearly far more advanced and civilized than his own. One day Loana is fishing in the tribe's village when they are attacked by an allosaurus (sublimely animated). Tumak, though uncivilized, proves his worth and strength by killing it. Though his action has displeased the Shell people. They don't seem used to violence or his kind, and Tumak is shunned. Loana accompanies him on his next journey - there seems to be an attraction there.
Wandering far, they encounter a massive Ceratosaurus that attacks a Triceratops in a furious battle of teeth and tails. They wander back into the Rock tribe's territory and Loana meets them - again there are altercations.
 

Bathing one day, Loana gets snatched into the air by a Pteranodon, who drops her bleeding into the sea after it is attacked by a Rhamphorynchus. Tumak believes her dead, but she has survived the ordeal.
In further clashes with the jealous Rock tribe they meet again, and fight for each other before the whole land is engulfed in a volcanic climax.
A truly entertaining stone-age epic which looks gorgeous, and has a perfect setting of pure fantasy. No actual dialogue to speak of, but this only seems to add to its chic appeal. This was followed up with When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth and Creatures The World Forgot, also by Hammer; the latter more appropriately should have been Creatures Hammer Forgot!

 

Creatures to look out for:

Trivia:

• There was a scene with a Brontosaurus being attacked by villagers that never made it to the final film, Michael Carreras decided that the sequence wasn't necessary.

• The film uses two live creatures an iguana and a hairy spider, Ray is asked over and over about these two un-Harryhausen creatures and he confesses that they were his idea..at the time he felt that the use of real creatures would convince the audience that all of what they were about to see was indeed real.

• As there were no active volcanoes in the Canary Islands they had to construct an 6-7 foot high volcano in the studio, the eruption lava explosions and lava flows were composed of  a mixture of wallpaper paste, oatmeal, dry ice and red dye...