Prehistoric Women

Starring:Martine Beswick, Edina Ronay, Michael Latimer, Stephanie Randall, Carol White, Alexandra Stevenson, Yvonne Horner, Sydney Bromley, Frank Hayden, Robert Raglan, Mary Hignett, Louis Mahoney, Bari Jonson, Danny Daniels, Steven Berkoff, Sally Caclough
Director: Michael Carreras
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Customer Reviews:

nice double feature.......2005-11-16

prehistoric women is a good copy widescreen not shure why they haven't put everything on one side with the feature its only a 90 min movie.
the witches is a good copy but its leterbox the black border all around but the pict is uncentered so one side has only a thin line instead of the full border.
its a nice way to collect hammerhouse movies i wish all of them were available as doubles saves space and easier to collect them. they need to run a hammer special at halloween on tv like they did tales from the crypt.

Women in fur bikinis and Joan Fontaine with a kooky coven.......2004-04-10

Anchor Bay Entertainment continues re-issuing the lesser-known Hammer Studios films in the economical 'twofer' format with this release of Prehistoric Women (1967) aka Slave Girls and The Witches (1966), aka The Devil's Own.

Prehistoric Women, written, produced and directed by Michael Carreras, is certainly the lesser of the two films here. Using sets from the film One Million Years B.C. (1966), Prehistoric Women tells a confusing and utterly pointless tale of David (Michael Latimer), a jungle hunter who stumbles on to a tribe of scantily clad, fur bikini wearing prehistoric woman, dominated by the attractive, but cruel, brunette Queen Kari, played by Martine Beswick. There are no men present, but later we find out they are all sequestered in a nearby cave, chained and forced to make weapons and such for the women. The story involves David perusing prey into land deemed sacred by the inhabitants, according to a legend involving a white rhino. Queen Kari maintains rule, along with a group of spear wielding brunettes, over another group of women, all blonde, who are slaves. Queen Kari desires David, but David desires one of the blondes, Saria (Edina Ronay). As the brunettes force various blonde slave women into sacrificial marriages with local demon spirits, the blondes plan to rebel, with David's assistance, taking his arrival as a sign that some ancient prophecy involving the white rhino can now be fulfilled. If you like half nekkid women dancing around in fur bikinis, then look no further, because there is a lot of that here. If you like a strong plot, good characters, and a coherent story, then you're in the wrong place. Like some of Carerras other projects where he got more involved in directing and writing, instead of just producing, like The Lost Continent (1968) and Shatter (1974), Prehistoric Women is a mess of pointless plot threads, sloppy and disjointed characters, and odd and choppy dialogue. The film finally ends with what Carerras must have thought to be a shocking conclusion, but it was more predictable than anything else. Certainly not the best Hammer Studios outing, but it does have the half-nekkid women, if nothing else.

The Witches (1966) looks like spun gold next to Prehistoric Women, but is really a decent suspenseful mystery horror film starring Joan Fontaine as Gwen Mayfield, a teacher who, while working at a mission school in Africa, runs afoul of a local witch doctor and suffers a nervous breakdown as the witch doctor uses his voodoo magic to torment the woman. Returning to England, Gwen takes a position as head teacher in a school in a small English town, only to find out the town has its' own coven of witches, and she soon finds herself in the middle of some bad mojo. Fontaine plays her part well, despite the fact that this once Academy Award winning actress has settled for a part that she probably would have passed on in the prime of her career. The movie moves along well, slowly building tension as the witchcraft element becomes more pronounced, and sinister happenings increase, but falls apart a little near the end as we get to see the coven in action. They appear quite silly, dancing, bumping, grinding, chanting incomprehensible gibberish, while enjoying a sumptuous meal of dirt and muck, all being overseen by the head witch, dressed in colorful robes and wearing what looks like a lit candelabra on her head. Michael Carreras had nothing to do with the writing or directing of this film, and it shows. The film was helmed by another director, a more capable director in Cyril Frankel, who later went on to work the Hammer television series Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984).

Anchor Bay Entertainment puts out a real bargain here, seeing how the movies, previously released on DVD separately, cost more for those individual releases then they do in this two-disc set. Not only that, but you get everything included in those previous, individual releases, with regards to the movies and special features. The disc with the film Prehistoric Women on it has the movie on one side of the disc, with special features on the flip side. Special features included TV spots, a theatrical trailer, television promotional spots, and a World of Hammer episode titled Lands Before Time. The Witches disc has the film and special features on the same side of the disc, and includes a theatrical trailer, television promotional spots, and a World of Hammer episode titled Wicked Women. Both movies are presented in wide screen anamorphic, and this duel release also contains nifty little reproductions of promotional material for the films, with the back of the cards listing the chapter stops of the respective films. All in all, a great way to fill out your Hammer movie collection, and save a bunch of money in the process.

Product Description

In the year One Million B.C., two tribes of dimwitted cavemen prepare for war against each other, with hysterical results. The beautiful and provocative Senta Berger stars in this uproarious spoof of all cavemen movies.

Customer Reviews:

classic comedy.......2005-01-12

This movie, or film, is a comedy about the dawn of civilized man - mainly cave men learning how to be civilized - and the creation of society. It is in the form of the old Greek comedies with funny but insightful dialogue and characters. This probably stems from the fact that it was made in Italy, which stems partly from Rome, which stems partly from Ancient Greece. It also has a touch of simple foolishness and campy style that may or may not be to your liking. To me anyway,
it is a timeless, low grade film that is worthy of cult classic status. However, it is probably too unknown to ever receive this attention.

Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women

Average customer rating:

Classic science fiction stuff
Fun to laugh at...
The boys never meet the girls
If you can't make it campy enough the first time...
Voyage To The Planet Of Telepathic Vulcanism

Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women
Starring: Judy Cowart , Margot Hartman , Pam Helton , Paige Lee , and Mary Marr
Director: Pavel Klushantsev
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet
Las Vegas Hillbillys
The Jayne Mansfield Story
Too Hot to Handle
Promises! Promises! (Amazon.com Exclusive)

ASIN: B0000AGWND
Release Date: 2003-10-07

Customer Reviews:

Classic science fiction stuff.......2006-05-26

Its easy to understand why people dont like classic older movies,
no budget, bad acting, black and white...but for those who have
seen this movie and others 20 to 40 years ago, these movies were
gold, cheap yes, but they stirred the imagination of many, and better movies came out later. Even if this movie is almost a duplicate of the first voyage to a prehistoric planet, i still watched both with delight. The story, the monster, the robot and
greatest of all the weird atmospheric music.
I still love the stuff, too bad only so much got made.

Fun to laugh at..........2006-04-04

One of my goals in life is to watch every piece of cinematic schlock from the twenty years before my birth...roughly 1959 to 1979. It's more realistic than breaking Wilt the Stilt's record (no, silly, not the 100 points...) or dropping acid and running around the State Department scaring foreign diplomats. I doubt I'll ever even have a panda bear as a pet. So I figure this one's my best shot, have at it. This particular film is a recut version of "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet", itself a recut and dubbed version of a Russian flick called "Storm Planet". Now, "Storm Planet" or "Planeta Bur" is supposed to be good, but I can't say for sure, never having seen it. What Bogdonavich does here is the old Roger Corman trick of using a narrator (himself in this case) to make sense of, well, a story with holes big enough to drive a convoy of Hummers through. Basically, two cosmonauts and a robot crash on Venus. A second group of three cosmonauts is deployed to rescue them. Venus, it seems, is similar to prehistoric Earth, with dinosaurs and men in rubber lizard suits. Oh, and telepathic mer-woman in bellbottoms who worship a rubber pterodactyl that looks to have been bought at Family Dollar. Problems arise when the cosmonauts kill said dollar store rubber pterodactyl vis a vis the fact that said Venusian mer women worship him. Not to worry, soon they find a new idol...the robot, who is junked by volcanic lava. You a witty person, with witty friends, who likes to drink? Really? Me too. You may just enjoy this film with company then. Might I suggest the Tree Line Sci-Fi 50 film pack, which contains both "Voyage" films, instead of blowing a third of the price on just one movie? Yes indeedy.

The boys never meet the girls.......2006-03-13

I am fond of bad science-fiction films, but this is just too much. I can't recommend this one, unless you put it on fast forward. So what if you can't hear the dialogue? You're not missing anything. Just watching it is sufficient enough, if "sufficient" means guys in six-feet-tall Godzilla suits, man-eating plants with 40 tentacles, a robot named John, a flying car that doubles as a submarine, and a rubber pterodactyl. And, darn it, the guys never meet the girls, although the girls see the guys, who they don't seem to like very much, which is why they try to zap them with thought-waves. And some doozies those girls are, too. Although they seem to spend most of them time in the sea, biting chunks out of raw fish, their make-up, hair and eyelashes (all very '60's) remain perfect. Not really worth watching, especially since the very washed out "color" is really annoying.

If you can't make it campy enough the first time..........2006-01-22

In 1965 Roger Corman and a small gang of others took a Soviet movie, added some scenes with Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue, and created a reasonably serviceable science fiction movie titled "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet." There were some strange moments and a few funny moments, but the movie was a reasonably campy, low-budget science fiction film. Apparently someone (Corman perhaps) decided the movie was insufficiently schlocky and gave it one more shot.

In the original movie we see two groups of men wandering around Venus. The first group crashed and is trying to get rescued. The second group of men is trying to find the first group of men. As both groups wander around they encounter a cheesy looking reptilian bird, a deluge, and an erupting volcano. In this movie Corman provides an explanation for these happenings; an explanation that probably would have been better left unexplained.

It turns out that there were a bunch of blond Barbie clones wandering the planet with telepathic powers and excessive chest development. These women, who spend a lot of time lying around with 60s-looking pants and shell tops, walk around acting like a coven of witches with too much makeup, false eyelashes, and too little in the way of prehistoric attributes. Their hair is, of course, perfectly styled, in spite of the fact that they spend a lot of time in the sea. Mamie Van Doren, one of the three M's of the 50s and 60s (Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe included), is the leader of the Venusian blonde babes, who include a cluster of women who may have been so embarrassed by this movie that most of them never appeared in a film again.

The movie switches between the men and the women, who (a rare-for me-plot spoiler here!) never meet each other. The women perform some mumbo-jumbo ritual, and some catastrophe hits the men. I was wondering in "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet" why all these things happened right at the particular moment.

This movie was completely unnecessary. If "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet" was unbelievable, this movie is pure fantasy. I am sure director Peter Bogdanovich looks back on his first feature(?) film with some fondness as well as with some embarrassment. If you buy this turkey be sure you have your sense of humor handy.

This movie was also titled "The Gill Women" and "The Gill Women of Venus," though gills were never evident to my disbelieving eyes. Now you have three movie titles to avoid. Let's hope no one ever gets the idea to remake this thing.

Voyage To The Planet Of Telepathic Vulcanism.......2005-12-06

Now I like theatrical cheese as much as the next person, but this is a moldy piece of stinky gouda. This film is essentially a bunch of often-seen stock footage (most of which came from behind the Iron Curtain) shown in glorious sepia and white. The box says the film is in color, but the reality is generally otherwise. This is a real chore to get through even for devoted fans of bad movies.

The plot, as much of it as there is, concerns three groups of voyagers to Venus, who find giant man-eating flowers, pterodactyl-like flying things (the earlier reviewer was spot on in his comparison to "The Giant Claw," which is, tragically, a much better movie), and the most ridiculous six foot tall tyrannosaurus creatures wrestling around in mud with astronauts (and a robot). About 35 minutes into the movie we finally see the women, headed up by Mamie Van Doren, who generally sing like Sirens, and incant for volcanic eruptions to thwart the intruding astronauts. The astronauts have particularly silly and incongruous equipment, especially their atomic powered flying car (that also doubles as a submarine), and are dubbed into English with some of the worst dialogue in film history.

The whole mess is narrated in flashback by one of the astronauts who, of course, is in love with a woman on Venus, and pines for her in a plot reminiscent of "Nude on the Moon," which, even more tragically, is also a better movie than this.

For mind-numbing bad film exposure this is tough to beat, but I still give it two stars for the audacious compilation of film from so many sources into a finished work that almost makes sense. Watch it at your own risk, because only the strong survive.

Average customer rating:

If your interested in DVD transfer quality read this
I Love This Hilarious Campy Movie.
Beware of this one, Bwana...
Defines "camp classic"
Slave Girls of the White Rhino!

Prehistoric Women
Starring: Martine Beswick , Edina Ronay , Michael Latimer , Stephanie Randall , and Carol White
Director: Michael Carreras
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00000IBRQ
Release Date: 1999-04-27

Amazon.com

Deep in the African jungle, great white hunter David Marchant (Michael Latimer) discovers a secret Amazon society where blondes don't have more fun. Captured after trespassing on the sacred grounds of a dangerous tribe of albino-rhino worshippers, he escapes execution by entering a hidden land where women in fur bikinis have enslaved the men, and the brunettes are served by subservient (and quite buxom) blonde slaves. Naturally David falls for cleavage-endowed Saria (Edina Ronay), who believes he is their legendary savior, while the vicious, dark Queen Kari (Martine Beswick) decides to make him her own personal servant to cater to her... every need. Director-producer Michael Carreras (who also wrote the film under the pseudonym "Henry Younger") reused leftover sets from One Million Years B.C. and never leaves the confines of the studio for this campy bit of jungle-woman cheese, which threatens to become overwhelmed by its claustrophobic atmosphere. We get tribal "hoochie-koochie" dances, a Vegas floor show by the blondes, sacrifices to the "devils of the darkness" (with such regularity you have to wonder how they haven't run out of candidates), and Queen Kari takes a milk bath à la Cleopatra. Beswick is the only performer who hits the right note of overheated melodrama; the other cast members seem to be taking this goofy claptrap far more seriously than it deserves. Beware the white rhinoceros! --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

If your interested in DVD transfer quality read this.......2005-09-14

This review will be fairly short and sweet,as lots of other reviews cover the film etc.
Anchor Bay do not have a good track record when it comes to the quality of transfers of films made by Hammer.

Prehistoric Women is also unfortunately a poor quality transfer.
If your viewing on a progressive display like a PC,LCD or a Plasma Screen then the problems are very noticeable.On an ordinary TV using an interlaced display (most people) then the creases will be ironed out.So really you should view this title on your standard television.
On a progressive display you want as close to a true filmic experience as possible.
In the brighter sections the image is probably just about acceptable,however it lacks overall clarity.In dark scenes (the true test of a good transfer) and there are quite a few,there are noticeable and jarring artifacts and what I term misting (clouds of vapour seem to appear in dark areas and detail fades away).
It generally spoils the viewing experience.The one plus and its a bit of a let down with such a poor transfer is that the film is presented in the original cinemascope aspect ratio of 1:2.35
And you can tell the process used was cinemascope because the optical faults (like a folding effect at the edges of the screen)are left intact.This was a typical problem with Fox cinemascope lenses.It is most obvious during camera pans.
So if you are going to view this film make sure you watch it on a standard TV using an interlaced display.Magically all the irregularities dis-appear.It won't be a true filmic experience (apart from cinemascope) and the resolution and textures will be less pro-nounced,but think back to 30 years ago and an image like this on your TV would have brought the neighbours over.

I Love This Hilarious Campy Movie........2005-09-13

So one day I decided to rent a Hammer film, and I came across one called Prehistoric Women. I wasn't sure if I wanted to rent it till I read this from the blurb on the back: "David Marchant runs through the split in the temple wall and enters a prehistoric world where he meets the striking blonde Saria, who is one of several fair-haired tribeswomen oppressed by a rival group of dark-haired women led by the evil Queen Kari."

So I rented it, hoping I might pick up some pointers on how to oppress fair-haired tribeswomen. Turns out, when this chap David Marchant goes back in time via the ancient African temple, he lands in this tribe of brunette warriors who have the same designer as Xena and who keep blonde slaves who have the same designer as the Viking women in Roger Corman's "The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent". (In that "Viking Women" movie, you could spot the villainess instantly, because she was the only brunette.)

Turned out the men were all chained in this cavern doing hard physical labor. There was no visible result of their labor, but it was certainly grueling. I'll be moving there as soon as I can pack up some things to trade with the local brunettes to ensure my acceptance by the tribe.

Anyway, Queen Kari, who hasn't seen a clean-shaven man in years, promptly presses Marchant into stud service. Marchant, however, is evidently a gentleman, because he refuses to, er, replenish the gene pool of the gorgeous brunette queen wearing skimpy furs because he prefers the gorgeous blonde slavegirl wearing skimpy furs. Some guys are just picky. As a penalty, he gets tossed into the cavern with the other men.

Meanwhile, the blondes plot to overthrow the brunettes. Turns out trying to escape is pointless, because the area where this tribe lives is surrounded by a really fierce tribe that captures all escapees in return for the occasional blonde. Which seems like a perfectly reasonable exchange to me. While the blondes are plotting, Saria asks the others, "Where is he?" "Who?" the others ask, as if there's been more than one male outside the cavern since the movie started.

They decide to ask him to help them overthrow the brunettes. "He wouldn't betray me," Saria says. Blondes. So at Saria's request, Marchant makes the huge sacrifice of joining the gorgeous brunette queen in her chambers. The scene goes like a sort of reverse bodice-ripper, a codpiece ripper. The strapping dark-haired alpha female smacks the hero around a little, forces a couple of rough kisses on him, enjoys his feisty resistance which she can tame at her leisure, and shoves him onto her sleeping furs.

In the next scene, however, Saria cannot endure seeing Kari parade her new arm decoration around and blurts out the entire plot. (Blondes.) So he gets tossed back into the cavern, and Saria gets picked to be the next offering to the fierce tribe.

But it's too late. The blondes and the men conspire to overthrow the brunettes. All the characters run around the jungle, apparently fighting or something. Matters come to a head when a white rhinoceros shows up. That's the god they worship, you see. Everyone runs away from the rhino but the queen, who stands right in front of it, announcing, "He is our god! He wouldn't hurt us!" Apparently she's been hanging around too many blondes. So the rhino gores the queen, the men and blondes settle down to enjoy a life free of brunettes, and the hero is hustled back through the time-travel portal, where a reincarnation of Saria is waiting for him. The End.

Beware of this one, Bwana..........2004-04-09

I really didn't have high hopes for Prehistoric Women (1967) on the outset, but I never one to shy away from the potential goodness to be had in a film with fur-lined, bikini clad, prehistoric women, so I decided to give it a try. Then I saw the opening credits...produced, written and directed by Michael Carerras?! This is the man responsible for other Hammer Studios bum rides as The Lost Continent (1968) and Shatter (1974). It might as well have said 'Abandon all hope ye who enter here...' Oh well, bring on the pain...

The film stars Michael Latimer as David, a hunter with a conscious, and one who guides less experienced hunters through the jungle in search of big game. After his current client wounds a jungle cat, David tracks it to put it out of its' misery, and finds himself trespassing on sacred land, the Land of the White Rhino. Apparently hunting on these lands by outsiders is forbidden, and after David kills the cat, he's quickly accosted by a group of natives. The penalty? Death...but before the sentence can be carried out, something happens, and David finds himself transported to another land, maybe even another time...the time of the prehistoric women!

After coming across a fair-hair girl in a fur bikini, David and the girl, named Saria (Edina Roney), they're both captured by a group of dark haired women, also in fur bikinis. The two are taken to a populated clearing, and here we meet Kari, played by Martine Beswick. Kari also sports the same type of wardrobe as the other women, but she has more adornments, suggesting she might be higher up in the social food chain. And she is, as we soon learn that she is the queen. So Kari is the queen, the dark haired women are her power base, and the blonde haired women are slaves. Well, that certainly makes things easy to keep track of...but where are the men? A case of spontaneous female population? And all lovely ones at that?

Kari, taken with David, decides to take him for herself, but David has already made a connection with Saria, and, after witnessing Kari's cruelty towards the blonde hair slaves, he's not inclined to fall in with her, refusing to become a willing slave himself. This angers Kari, and she orders him to be thrown in a cave. Within the cave we see chained men slaving away doing busy work, all looking much worse for wear. It was around this time I started getting an ache in my head...

So what happens? Well there is a plot thread dealing with the blonde haired women speaking of rebelling against the tyrant Kari and her group, another plot thread involving the marrying of slave girls to jungle demons as a sort of sacrifice to appease the demons, and yet another dealing with a legend of the white rhino linked with spiritual bondage, none of which made very much sense. There is plenty of dancing and jungle music throughout the film, both men and women, so if that's your thing, you be pleased. It's not my thing, and I got even more of an ache in my head.

The film finally begins to wrap up after awhile (it has a 90 minute running time) and we are treated to a somewhat exciting climatic battle royal involving the brunettes, the blondes, the male slaves, David, supposedly demon jungle spirits...and a white rhinoceros...criminey...I guess if you have really lame and inane plot threads running throughout your movie, it's best to keep throwing different elements at the audience, in hopes that they won't notice how little sense it all makes. It reminds me of a magician, drawing your attention to one hand while doing something with his other hand. Only problem here is both hands, figuratively speaking, contained steaming piles so drawing our attention any which way only further highlighted how lame an affair this really is...oh, I will say the women were nice to look at, but given they were supposed to be of the prehistoric kind, they seemed to be awfully well groomed, despite the obvious lack of personal hygiene products. They also had quite the excellent grasp of English, some even having English accents! So, does David escape this savage land, ruled by half nekkid women? Would he want to? What's the secret behind the legend of the white rhino? Honestly, I stopped caring about much of anything regarding this film long before it this point, but I always try to finish what I start, so I clung on until the bitter end. And it did end, with a twist that was so very obvious and contrived I literally groaned.

Anchor Bay Entertainment provides a good looking, wide screen print here along with a few nice extras. Included is a theatrical trailer, TV spots, and a World of Hammer episode titled Lands Before Time, highlighting some of Hammer's cinematic forays into times long since past. There is also a nice little reproduction of the original theatrical poster for the film inside the DVD case. I'll leave you with a nugget of goodness from the film...after killing a slave girl, Queen Kari commands the other slave girls to dance, to which one replies, "When the heart is heavy, the feet are not light."

Cookieman108

Defines "camp classic".......2003-02-17

Rhino-worshipping jungle brunettes dominate hapless jungle blondes who strive to be free in this fantastic nonsense-movie. For a film with such a simple dynamic, there are a surprising number of diversions from the main plot. These are very entertaining (dances, weddings, catfights) although they're obviously filler, padding out the film to feature length with eye candy. Definitely a late-night or rainy Saturday afternoon feature.

Some reviewers have said that "Prehistoric Women" is missing 16 minutes of footage, but that's incorrect! Actually "Prehistoric Women" is the American version that runs 16 minutes longer (90 minutes) than the 74-minute British release, titled "Slave Girls." THIS IS THE U.S. RELEASE - THE LONG VERSION. Thanks Anchor Bay!

Slave Girls of the White Rhino!.......2002-07-20

Not to be confused with a low-rent American movie of the same name made in 1950, Prehistoric Women was written and directed by Hammer producer Michael Carreras in 1966, on redressed sets left over from Hammer's One Million BC.
Definitely an excuse to find a way to reuse the sets, and no dinosaurs this time around, but the film is so outrageously, unapologetically campy that it's complete bliss.

Terminally sincere great white hunter David touches the sacred horn of the statue of the White Rhino while in Africa, and is transported back in time, where he discovers a tribe of White Rhino-worshipping brunettes, who have enslaved all the blonde women, and sent all the men to an even worse fate doing hard labor.

Martine Beswick is just great as the evil and cruel queen Kari, who chooses David for her love slave. Unfortunatly, David has eyes for innocent blonde slave girl Saria, and....

This flick has everything, wildly loopy Amazon dance numbers, sacficial rituals, catfights, jungle action, babes in fur bikinis, outrageous dialog ("Cruelty is what makes me cruel!"), and a climax where the White Rhino comes to life (who cares if it moves like it's rolling on wheels....besides, no real rhino could have such an wonderfully phallic horn). Beswick puts a lot more into the role of Queen Kari than one would expect from this sort of movie--she definitely has more commanding presence (in more ways than one) than Raquel Welch, for example.

It's obvious director Carraras didn't take any of it with an ounce of seriousness, even though it's all played as though it is. His original working title was "Slave Girls of the White Rhino", which I think is a much better title than Prehistoric Women. Still, a sheer, delerious delight.

Customer Reviews:

Learn How Being Chased By An Elephant Can Spark Creativity.......2006-05-16

This film is relentless. Not only is it badly scripted and acted, but also it has some of the worst production values ever. The print used for the DVD transfer is choppy and grainy, and while the movie claims to be in color, I count really only two colors in the film: gray, and slightly darker gray. In fairness when fire is depicted on screen you can see a hint of orange cast, but that's about it. Parts of the print are so dark it is very difficult to see what is actually going on, but enough about the film's good points.

This is a kind of primitive story of indentured servitude, rebellion, and revenge, and boils down to men versus women. In the beginning of the film we are introduced to the cast by an anonymous narrator, who unfortunately drones on and on through most of the film. We see that the heroine of the film, Tigri, and other women have to dance under the spell of a full moon and they just don't know why. (A village elder explains that they need men.) Through a few intergenerational flashbacks we understand that the women fled from the men after a woman threw a rock at a man. Since that time opposite gender contact has been strictly forbidden on both sides.

The male lead, Engor, enters the picture in a big way: he goes tiger hunting using sticks and a pit. He slays the tiger and later the girl's pet panther (which is obviously a very young and small cat.) Remember in 1950 that animal cruelty laws did not exist as they do today. The way they actually treat these cats is reprehensible by today's standards (although some of the panther wrestling is quite bogus.) Ultimately, Engor gets hurt by the panther and the women vow vengeance.

I could go on about the plot twists, but suffice it to say that both sides take prisoners, Engor discovers fire, Tigri explains how levers work (really), and all of this is an indirect result of the hilarious scene where Engor gets chased through the jungle by a bull elephant. There is a fight with a python, a fight with a big hairy ogre, and many episodes of infighting within the groups. They also learn rudimentary barbecuing skills.

The sole reason that I gave this film two stars (I had originally considered only one) is due to the scene where Tigri is attacked by a flying dragon, which is described by the narrator as "the scourge of the skies," but in fact looks a lot like "The Giant Claw" from the movie of the same name (if you have not seen "The Giant Claw" go and order a copy now!) I am not sure what this flying creature was (the focus and clarity of the film make it hard to examine), whether it was a model made of plaster and cardboard, or was a duck with a snood and beak taped on, but either way, this is one of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes in film history. You will be pleased immensely by the comic resolution of the flying dragon crisis.

As an added annoyance, the soundtrack features a lot of drum (bongo) music playing at every opportunity. There are several pointless scenes where women dance to this music, including a very poor ceremonial wedding dance, and overall the percussive effect is much like being at an Allman Brothers concert. There are no bonus points for guessing how the film will end: it ends exactly as you would expect, with a midnight mass marriage ceremony involving (you guessed it) a lot of dancing and some stupid customs.

This movie is really terrible, but does have a few fun moments. It is pure camp, and in the right mindset it can be quite enjoyable. This is inoffensive (feline torment aside) dumb fun, and is a prime example of the genre of bad caveman films that were so popular in the 1950s.

A Re-imagined Ancient History.......2006-03-10

I have to give this movie credit for creativity in imagining a human past that never happened. We see a group of cave people make fire, learn how to cook food, use levers, and apparently invent the curling iron and makeup. In between all this excitement, prehistoric women defend themselves from evil men, a giant, and various critters, including what appears to be a duck masquerading as a pterodactyl.

We learn that a group of women, their little girls and the Wise One (Janet Scott in her third, and next-to-last, role) are making their way from the men who have mistreated them. The nine foot tall giant Guadi kills the women for food, leaving the children and the Wise One.

The little girls grow up, as little girls tend to do, turning into hot jungle babes. The hot jungle babes discover men in their woods and capture them, treating them like scum. The men, apparently having been Cave Scouts, make fire and threaten the women with it, taking over. There happens to be a coincidental attack by a giant flying thing that sometimes looks like a pterodactyl and sometimes like a duck with a weird head dress. Unfortunately, based on what we currently know, pterodactyls did not exist at the same time as man. No matter, perhaps scientific thought is wrong and this movie is right. Perhaps it is another example of intelligent design.

Soon after the men take over for the women, one of the men accidentally discovers cooking after he throws some meat on the fire. This same guy also discovers burned food, thus establishing a dinner tradition.

One of the hot jungle babes is Tigri (Laurette Luiz, who was in more unnoticeable movies until the musical "Flower Drum Song" in 1961) starts falling for one of the jungle guys, Engor (Allan Nixon, who later had a role in that great classic of bad music, "Mesa of Lost Women"). There is hanky panky going on between the other jungle babes and the other men that the women had previously captured.

Eventually, the jungle guys decide that it is time for everyone to go to their home in the mountains. Fortunately, the guys have fallen for the hot jungle babes, and the babes convince the men to stay in the jungle, with its friendly kitties (tigers and leopards), giants and ducks disguised as pterodactyls. The rest is, as they say history, and maybe a shot gun wedding (only shot guns had yet to be invented, so perhaps there were "spear" weddings).

Some of the jungle babes and guys did have other, greater roles. Lotee (Joan Shawlee) became a regular on television, and had roles in "Willard," "Irma La Douce," and "The Reluctant Astronaut," among dozens of other appearances. Kama (Dennis Dengate) made his final appearance in the Clint Eastwood movie "Hang `Em High."

The real difficulty with this movie is the point of the movie. I am unable to understand why the movie was made. There is no dialogue because the characters speak Cavemanish (a rare dialect of the French language, but about as understandable), so the movie is narrated from beginning to end. I think I would have liked the movie better except for the appearance of the non-contemporary pterodactyl and the discovery of how to cook and burn food. I neglected to mention that earlier in the movie one of the hot jungle babes shows the muscular, and stupid, cavemen how to move a rock with a lever. Archimedes would have been proud. I also neglected to mention that the women had nice hair that appeared to have been permed and curled, which seems a bit strange in prehistoric times. The women also wore makeup, though that was easier to accept given that most movies use makeup regardless of the era.

Essentially, this movie is about a past that never existed. The acting is generally silly, and the plot matches. I recommend this movie only if you are a connoisseur of bad films, and preferably a connoisseur of bad films about prehistoric people. Good luck!

My Dream Come True!..........2005-08-04

OK, some cave-babes are treated as nothing more than slave labor for the men in their tribe. This leads them to rise up and flee. The women are happy and free in the wilderness. Then, the day comes when the wise old woman of the bunch tells them they need to track down some males or face extinction. Enter the dashing young he-men of the story! The gals take them by force, enslaving and emasculating the poor saps. Then, the men get the upper hand by slaying the "dragon" (sort of a big pelican) and the roles are reversed. Now, the men subjugate the women once more. Along comes the giant Gwaddi (a big hairy guy w/ more beard than face), and the group must battle together for survival. Gwaddi is slain and peace and harmony reign. PREHISTORIC WOMEN isn't quite as good as WILD WOMEN OF WONGO, but it is enoyable. We get to see how both fire and the use of levers started! Watch and learn...

So bad it's good?? You be the judge...........2004-03-19

The only thing going for this movie is the girls and their outfits and that's it,but what do you expect from a cheap movie??Bad effects,bad acting and so on...THE perfect movie for MST3K....Rent first,then buy,but hey,it's only 7 bucks or so,right???

Don't die with Guati on your lips!.......2003-11-12

This is a classic 50's bad film, so bad it's hysterical. And at a running time of slightly over an hour, even if you hate it, it's over fast. Every cliche of the genre, and then some, is exaggered to unintentionally comic effect. If you like this kind of thing, you will love "Prehistoric Women."

See two tribes of clean, well groomed savages discover the basic principles of science in a couple of weeks! Thrill to the flight of the duck-a-dactyl! Cringe from the giant Guati and wonder if that poor guy got paid anything over scale! Get a sandwich as the girls dance and know not why!

As an aside, modern audiences will be amazed that this was once considered racy fare, perhaps because of the bathing-suit-like fur outfits sported by the dubious "beauties" in this film. Hubba hubba!

Sci-Fi Classics 4-Movie Pack (Horrors of Spider Island; The Wasp Woman; Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet; Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women)
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For this Price...

Spiders and wasps oh my

Sci-Fi Classics 4-Movie Pack (Horrors of Spider Island; The Wasp Woman; Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet; Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women)
Starring: Sci-Fi Classics 4pak
Manufacturer: Mill Creek Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Sci-Fi Classics: The Astral Factor/The Galaxy Invader/Battle of the Worlds/Unknown World

Sci-Fi Classics: Assignment Outer Space; Laser Mission; Blood Tide; Brain Machine [4-Movie Pack]

Sci-Fi Classics: King of Kong Island/Bride of the Gorilla/Attack of the Monsters/Gammera the Invinc

The Killer Shrews

First Spaceship on Venus

ASIN: B000ARXFR8
Release Date: 2005-11-08

Customer Reviews:

For this Price..........2006-01-23

This collection of four 50s/60s schlock films might be worth buying if you like watching movies that verge on being awful. If you have ever wandered how bad movies can be, here is a good selection of to find out. However, there are, sad to say, even worse movies than these.

"Horrors of Spider Island"

A couple is hiring a bunch of dancers to go to Singapore. After some mildly racy scenes at the beginning of the movie (as in you see some panties), everyone hops on a twin engine propeller plane to head for Singapore. Somewhere along the line the plane gets four engines, and then it crashes in flames. Miraculously, the dancers and the couple survive. The pilots, of course, conveniently died.

Everyone survives to reach an island where they quickly discover a professor in a giant spider web, which yields the original German title, "Ein Toter hing im Netz," which is, roughly translated, a dead one hung in the net. Sadly, that scene was probably one of the high points in the movie. Soon women are shedding clothes, but the only living male on the island wanders off to be attacked by a giant spider. The giant spider was probably mutated by the uranium that may have been on the island, which is what the professor was seeking. Remember that in the 50s and 60s radiation explained nearly everything.

The food starts to run out and things are looking grim when a couple of fellows show up. Then there is steamy romance, the spider guy appears again, there is some running around and screaming and yelling, spider guy kills a couple of people, the movie ends, and you wonder what the heck it was all about. This movie is just too bland and boring to be very interesting. The picture quality is also poor.

For those who like trivia, this movie has apparently been released under a variety of names according to imdb:

"Ein Toter Hing im Netz"
"A Corpse Hangs in the Web"
"Body in the Web"
"Girls of Spider Island"
"Horrors of Spider Island"
"It's Hot in Paradise"
"The Spider's Web"

"The Wasp Woman"

We see scenes of bees at the start of this movie, and then a scientist-looking character, Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark), captures a wasp nest. The excitement is so intense you can just feel it. Our scientist is fooling around with wasps while he is supposed to be working on royal jelly. The scientist gets fired (duh!) and encounters Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot in her last movie role; apparently "Wasp Woman" was the kiss of death for her movie career), the aging head of a cosmetics company. When I say aging, I mean she is in her 40s. She is very attractive, but apparently insufficiently attractive to sell cosmetics. Mr. Zinthrop convinces Janice that he can make her young by making a guinea pig young.

Mr. Zinthrop is involved in an accident and ends up being stuck in bed. Janice decides to start taking shots of royal jelly a bit quicker than Mr. Zinthrop had been giving them to her. Janice gets young really quick, but occasionally she gains a black face, claws and a nasty buzz in her voice. When this occurs, she tends to kill people and eat them, which most people would likely consider a serious side effect of Mr. Zinthrop's shots.

I would like to tell you that there are redeeming characteristics to this movie, but unless you are a hard-core Roger Corman fan, you should probably avoid this movie. The movie waits too long for the wasp woman to show up. When she does show up, Corman made up for the cheesy costume by using out-of-focus photography and brief flashes of the wasp woman. The ending was unsatisfying also. The wasp woman put up a really poor fight. After the big husky guys she killed and ate, you would have thought she could have put up a bigger fight at the end. Oh well. Just remember, there are lots of other cheesy movies waiting for you to watch.

"Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet"/"Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women"

In 1965 Roger Corman and a small gang of others took a Soviet movie, added some scenes with Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue, and created a reasonably serviceable science fiction movie title "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet." There were some strange moments and a few funny moments, but the movie was a reasonably campy, low-budget science fiction film. Apparently someone (Corman perhaps) decided the movie was insufficiently schlocky and gave it one more shot.

In the original movie we see two groups of men wandering around Venus. The first group crashed and is trying to get rescued. The second group of men is trying to find the first group of men. As both groups wander around they encounter a cheesy looking reptilian bird, a deluge, and an erupting volcano. In the second movie Corman and director Peter Bogdanovich provide an explanation for these happenings; an explanation that probably would have been better left unexplained.

It turns out that there were a bunch of blond Barbie clones wandering the planet with telepathic powers and excessive chest development. These women, who spend a lot of time lying around with 60s-looking pants and shell tops, walk around acting like a coven of witches with too much makeup, false eyelashes, and too little in the way of prehistoric attributes. Mamie Van Doren, one of the three M's of the 50s and 60s (Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe included), is the leader of the Venusian blonde babes, who include a cluster of women who may have been so embarrassed by this movie that most of them never appeared in a film again.

Spiders and wasps oh my.......2005-09-04

Horrors of Spider Island

Garry's friends show real flare

This film has many original themes that are played out in the movies of today. For those that watched "Total Eclipse" you remember Damsel Washington sniffing hair from a concealed location. Yep Gary (Alexander d'Arcy was born as Alexander Sarruf in Kairo) did it first. You have seen peeking throw a bush or from a tree at skinny dippers well it is here also. How about things that bite in the night? Yep.
-----------------------
Gary is taking a dance troupe to Singapore. We get to see them audition. On the way the plane crashes in the ocean. Now it is just Garry and the women. They spot an island and setup house. We know they are not alone. It turns out to be a "radioactive" Island. Something is lurking in the bushes and waiting to bite. This something is not Garry; or is it?
---------------------
This movie is so well known and universal that it has many names:
Ein Toter hing im Netz (1960) [A Dead One Hung in the Net]
Body in the Web (1962)
A Corpse Hangs in the Web (1960)
Girls of Spider Island (1960)
Horrors of Spider Island (1965)
It's Hot in Paradise (1962)
The Spider's Web (1962)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Wasp Woman

Maintaining that wasp waist

Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot) head of a cosmetics company was told the she needs to stay young to promote the product. What can she do? Enter garage scientist Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark) with a dubious formula made from wasp royal jelly. He explains that "just a little dab will do you." She gets greedy and shoots up with the extra strong stuff. This gives her a BUZZ and can have biting consequences.

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

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Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women
Starring: Margot Hartman , Paige Lee , Mary Mark , Mamie van Doren , and Aldo Roman
Director: Derek Thomas
Manufacturer: Retromedia
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000B6COES
Release Date: 2005-10-11

Johnny Legend's Deadly Doubles Vol. 3: Prehistoric Women / Spies-A-Go-Go

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INFO

Johnny Legend's Deadly Doubles Vol. 3: Prehistoric Women / Spies-A-Go-Go
Starring: Johnny Legend's Deadly Doubles
Manufacturer: Legend House
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000NQ28QK
Release Date: 2007-05-29

Customer Reviews:

INFO.......2007-05-31

Johnny Legend's Deadly Doubles Vol. 3: Prehistoric Women / Spies-A-Go-Go
Johnny Legend's Deadly Doubles Vol. 3: Prehistoric Women / Spies-A-Go-Go
Johnny Legend presents a brand new Double Bill of Mondo masterpieces. One extremely rare cult classic from the early 50s and one insane hodgepodge from the mid-60s. Both in brain-snapping color! In Prehistoric Women, Tigri and her stone-age girl friends hate all men, but realizing they are a necessary evil, capture some for potential husbands. Engor escapes and in his travels, discovers fire. This comes in handy later, after he has been recaptured by the women, when he drives off a giant (who looks a lot like Johnny Legend!)
Spies A-GoGo, filmed by Vilmos Zsigmond AND Laszlo Kovacs and directed by James (THE SADIST) Landis AND featuring Richard "JAWS" Kiel, is an insane musical spy spoof in a world of its own. A Russian spy bearing a rabbit with a vial of deadly bacteria arrives at a dude ranch with the intent of destroying America by releasing the rabbit on the continental divide. He must contend with a cadre of intercontinental counter-espionage agents and a rock-and-roll singer who is really a secret agent! Thirty years ahead of AUSTIN POWERS!

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Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

Manufacturer: Synergy Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000REWYOE
Release Date: 2007-05-29

amazon.com

Astronauts landing on Venus encounter dangerous exotic creatures and almost meet some sexy Venusian women who like to sunbathe in hip-hugging skin-tight pants and seashell bras.

Average customer rating:

Classic science fiction stuff
Fun to laugh at...
The boys never meet the girls
If you can't make it campy enough the first time...
Voyage To The Planet Of Telepathic Vulcanism

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women
Starring: Judy Cowart , Margot Hartman , Pam Helton , Paige Lee , and Mary Marr
Director: Pavel Klushantsev
Manufacturer: Retro Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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