When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1971)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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

Val Guest directed this third prehistoric based Hammer studios film, with fine F/X by Jim Danforth & Roger Dicken. The story involves a beautiful tribeswoman(played by stunning beauty Victoria Vetri) who was targeted for human sacrifice but escaped by the timely intervention of nature. Now on the run, she later finds romance with another tribesman, as they must dodge hostile tribes and dinosaurs in order to survive. Like Raquel Welch before her, Victoria Vetri is the star attraction, and goes farther being unclothed than Welch did! Just as silly and historically absurd as its predecessors, Miss Vetri makes it watchable. Note that the DVD(a double feature) was withdrawn from circulation because it mistakenly used the uncut(Nudity) British version instead! This is the only version worth watching however, so perhaps Warner Brothers will one day re-release it through their archive collection.

"When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" is a follow up to the successful "One Million Years BC". It lacks the sweeping sense of an overpowering and savage primordial landscape, even though it was shot in the same location. The setting here is more mundane, much less foreboding, occasionally even idyllic in appearance.Human presence on the planet is more assured in this movie compared to "One Million Years BC". It looks like humans are on the verge of mastering their environment, and there is never a sense that basic survival is at stake. The biggest crisis involves interactions between individuals, and individuals verses groups. When the two tribes meet up, they are cooperative and have already been on friendly terms. There are stirrings (and seizures) of religious feelings, which include elaborate funeral rites and celebrations, and most importantly, sacrificing a blond girl to whatever heavenly body (sun or moon) seems the most threatening phenomena at the moment.As in "One Million Years BC", a distinction is made between blondes and brunettes. In this movie, blonds are considered evil. The movie opens with several young blond cavewomen set to be sacrificed to the sun at dawn by the rock tribe. But times are a-changing, the moon is coming into being and its birth disrupts the environment. One of the blond cavewomen, Sanna, escapes the sacrifice, falls into the sea, and is rescued by a handsome member of the coastal tribe. From this point the plot is reminiscent of a 1960s bikini beach party, shot through with jealousy. And if nothing else, "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" is a gourmet feast for bikini watchers.The opening narration says, "It is the beginnings of man living with man." They forgot to mention it is also the beginnings of witch hunts! The story boils down to a personal conflict between Sanna and the dark-haired women of coastal tribe who want to make her a scapegoat, and the obsessed rock priest who is determined to sacrifice her. Men control religion, and fight effectively, but it is women who drive this movie. Unfortunately, the story is uneven and lags in many places. The same made up language is used for dialog as in "One Million Years BC", but since there is much more social interaction in this movie the constant banter gets tiresome as the movie progresses. The music is often light and playful, which disrupts the power of the drama.The dinosaurs do not have powerful impact on the story, even though they look great. The plesiosaurus attack and the chasmosaurus attack are excellent dinosaur scenes. The giant rhamphorhynchus attack is too derivative and lacks a connection with the story. In this movie, dinosaurs are defeated or neutralized by man in almost every instance in which they come in contact. Sanna even manages to tame a dinosaur during her exile, but this potentially amazing feat ends up with only a mediocre effect on the story.This is a moderately enjoyable caveman movie. I appreciate it for dealing with primitive religious concepts, and savor the emphasis on heavenly bodies.