Rainey Dawn This one had some good special effects for it's day - you can see this kind of special effects used for a few years in Hollywood after this one was made - a far cry from the CGI of today.The story is heartwarming. It's about how the "primitive" humans may have survived and a romance between two people from different tribes that fall in-love with one another. Loana's (Carole Landis) tribe seems more advanced with their use of jewelry, their manners, the way they treat one another etc... while the man she falls for, Tumak (Victor Mature), seems to come from a less advanced group - he's a bit more brutal. Loana teaches Tumak quite a few things including: sharing, gentleness, and love.Akhoba (Lon Chaney Jr.) is the father of Sakana and Tumak. He's a wise man but still has quite a bit he could learn from Loana's ways.It's a good film if you like movies on "cavemen" or prehistoric themed films. I quite enjoyed it.8.5/10

mark.waltz This will never be a rival to "Jurassic Park" or even "The Lost World" in the history of films about dinosaurs, but for what the creators of this fun yet silly adventure do makes it worth seeing. The audience is expected to suspend all disbelief in believing that enlarged wild animals of today could be compared with giant animals of the pre-historic time. As told to a group of cave explorers (including a lederhosen wearing Victor Mature), this takes all the people seen in this prologue and transports them back to caveman days where men battle each other as well as nature. The camera is really the star here, enlarging these animals to appear to be dinosaurs, huge snakes and even a woolly mammoth (obviously just an ordinary elephant) and making them appear even greater in size than your usual Geiko gecko.After battling his cave chief, pre-historic he-man Victor Mature is pushed off a cliff, fortunately falling into sand, and setting out on his own to find his own tribe to rule. He battles an elephant (supposed to represent a woolly mammoth) and after floating through a swamp (as giant lizards who obviously are congested and can't smell him swim by), he finds himself a new home where he battles other he-men cavemen for the affections of pretty blonde cave girl Carole Landis. There really isn't too much of a plot other than to explain how these ancient peoples could possibly survive with the elements around them. For that aspect alone, the film is really interesting, even though it is obvious that you can't take science fiction to any lower element of fiction than how this ends up being portrayed.

tavm Just watched this classic Hal Roach production on the TCM site. It's the story of a man and woman and how they get their previously enemy tribes together. Actually, what I just said made the movie sound simplistic which, despite the prehistoric setting, it's not. In fact, I was surprisingly enthralled by the story, the acting of Victor Mature and Carole Landis (though Ms. Landis is also good eye candy), the fights of the "dinosaurs" (actually lizards, alligators, and armadillos), and the exciting special effects concerning the volcano eruption. Roy Seawright deserves mega-kudos for that last sequence and possibly for Mature's fight with what looked like a model dinosaur worthy of Willis O'Brien. Also loved the music score that was played throughout. That score might have broken whatever monotony the slower scenes may have had. So with all that said, I'm recommending One Million B.C. for anyone interested in these old-fashioned effects movies.

Michael_Elliott One Million B.C. (1940) ** (out of 4) Prehistoric tale of a member (Victor Mature) of the Rock people who is kicked out of the group after standing up to their evil leader (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Soon he finds himself with the more peaceful Shell people but various battles are about to follow. This here is basically a remake of D.W. Griffith's Man's Genesis and its sequel Brute Force. Both of those shorts are better than this film but there are some very interesting ideas here. It's worth noting that Griffith himself was hired to oversee the production of this movie but apparently him and Roach had a falling out after the legendary director thought he was being brought in to direct. One can only wonder what Griffith would have done with the film but Roach or his son weren't the right choice. I loved the idea at how they pretty much made a silent film as there is very little dialogue throughout. The only problem is that they don't know how to do a silent and this makes the picture drag along at several spots. What does work however are the wonderful special effects, which still hold up fairly well today. The volcano erupting is the highlight of the movie but the battle scenes are well done too.