When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth

Hammer Films reworks the formula that made One Millions Years B.C. a big hit (buxom cavewomen in animal skin bikinis, macho cavemen in loincloths, animated dinosaurs) for this 1970 sequel/knock-off. Playboy Playmate Victoria Vetri (aka Angela Dorian) stars as Sanna, a blond beauty in a tribe that sacrifices blondes to the sun god. When a sudden storm whips up, Sanna falls into the sea and is rescued by a rival tribe of fishing folk, and mighty fisherman Tara (Robin Hawdon) falls in love with her. But Sanna is hunted by her own people, hounded by the jealous women of the fishing clan, and adopted by a mother dinosaur and her pup. More historically fantastic than your usual cavemen-fighting-dinosaurs movie, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth ostensibly tells a tale of how the Sun caused great solar storms as it created Earth's Moon. The original story was developed by acclaimed sci-fi author J.G. Ballard (Empire of the Sun), but apart from the Moon fantasy, his ideas were mostly tossed out by director Val Guest for a more familiar plot of warring tribes, outcast heroes, prehistoric superstition, and scantily-clad women getting into fights. Jim Danforth's stop-motion dinosaurs and other creatures (including a giant crab) are impressive and earned the film an Academy Award nomination, while the location shooting in Spain's Canary Islands gives the film appropriately prehistoric-looking landscapes, but this is essentially a slapdash movie with a silly story and an incomprehensible language. The original American release was rated G but this restoration features the unrated international version that has brief nudity. A minor cult film making its debut on Blu-ray, this is an optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)