WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH [1970 / 2017] [Blu-ray] [Warner Archive Collection] [USA Release] Enter An Age of Unknown Terrors, Pagan Worship and Virgin Sacrifice!
After Raquel Welch conquered the screen in ‘One Million Years B.C.,’ Hammer Studios followed up with ‘WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH,’ written and directed by Val Guest and based on a story by J.G. Ballard. Victoria Vetri stars as Sanna, rescued from ritual sacrifice by Tara [Robin Hawdon], a member of a rival tribe. Tara’s survival coincides with the mysterious formation of a new "fire" in the sky: the moon! Sanna's old tribe blames her for this affront to the sun; Sanna flees their wrath and Tara follows. Their shared adventures loom as large as the giants who once ruled the earth!
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1972 Academy Awards®: Nomination: Best Effects and Special Visual Effects for Jim Danforth and Roger Dicken.
FILM FACT No.2: Director Val Guest's screenplay was based on a treatment by J. G. Ballard author of “Empire of the Sun.” But like Hammer Films other prehistoric films, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth anachronistically portrays the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic era from about 252 to 66 million years ago living alongside Homo sapiens of the late Quaternary period about 200,000 years ago. The film's characters use a language that was specially written for the film, albeit of only a dozen words or so, a frequent one being “neekro,” which means "kill", and also "akita" which is heard many times. Exteriors were shot on Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. Locations included Maspalomas beach, Ansite Mountain, Amurga, and Caldera de Tejeda. The stop-motion creature effects were created by Jim Danforth, assisted by David W. Allen and Roger Dickens. The opening credits attributed the “screen treatment” for the film to critically acclaimed writer J.G. Ballard, misspelled onscreen as “J.B. Ballard,” and the screenplay to British science fiction, horror, and thriller veteran director Val Guest. Due to lack of time and money, and a violent altercation between Jim Danforth and James Carreras, many scenes were cancelled, including one that featured giant ants. Instead, stock footage from ‘The Lost World’ film was used. The film had its world premiere on the 1st October, 1970 in London with a U.K. general release on the 25th October, 1970. The film was released in the United States debuting in San Francisco on the 10th February, 1971. The film was released on DVD as an exclusive from Best Buy with a G-rating, but was quickly recalled because it was the original uncut version and contained nudity; it is now a collector's item. The uncut version was also released on Blu-ray in the United States on the 28th February, 2017 and the DVD release was on the 4th April, 2017 by Warner Archive Collection.
Cast: Patrick Allen (Narrator), Victoria Vetri (Sanna), Robin Hawdon (Tara), Patrick Allen (Kingsor), Drewe Henley (Khaku), Sean Caffrey (Kane), Magda Konopka (Ulido), Imogen Hassall (Ayak), Patrick Holt (Ammon), Jan Rossini (Rock Girl), Carol-Anne Hawkins (Yani), Maria O'Brien (Omah), Connie Tilton (Sand Mother), Maggie Lynton (Rock Mother), Jimmy Lodge (Fisherman), Billy Cornelius (Hunter) and Ray Ford (Hunter)
Director: Val Guest
Producer: Aida Young
Screenplay: J.G. Ballard (treatment) and Val Guest (screenplay)
Composer: Mario Nascimbene
Costume Designer: Carl Toms
Special Visual Effects: Jim Danforth
Cinematography: Dick Bush (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 99 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Hammer Films / Warner Archive Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: The film ‘WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH’ [1970], which starred Victoria Vetri, who was the Playboy Magazine's 1968 Playmate of the Year. This Dinosaur film was in the Hammer Films Cave Girl franchise, which included ‘One Million Years B.C.’ [1966]; ‘Slave Girls’ [1967] and was followed by ‘Creatures the World Forgot’ [1971]. Hammer was the kind of mid-level studio that would try to strike while the iron was hot. After their initial ’50s Frankenstein and Dracula movies, they made a ton of sequels of both. They also made a string of mummy films, Psycho-esque thrillers, general vampire films, and sci-fi chillers. But of course they made their biggest box office bona fide hit with the film ‘One Million Years B.C.’
The synopsis of the film is about tribe on a cliff who are about to sacrifice three blonde women. Three priests, wearing dinosaur hides are about to kill them for their Sun God, but one of them, Sanna [Victoria Vetri], escapes and jumps off the cliff. She is rescued by Tara [Robin Hawdon], a member of a rival tribe. Her survival coincides with the mysterious formation of a new "fire" in the sky: the moon! Sanna's old tribe blames her for this affront to the sun and Sanna flees their wrath and Tara follows.
Every now and again, a small tribe sacrifices some blond women to their god, the sun, in return for protection from the many creatures that prey on them. Sanna, one of the sacrificial offerings, escapes when a freak storm interrupts the latest ceremony. She’s found by Tara who takes her to his seaside tribe, a tribe which is more advanced than her own. However, their romance is threatened by Ayak, who’s also interested in Tumak, and Sanna’s tribe which comes looking for her.
Like its predecessor, ‘One Million Years B.C.’ it of course includes a great many stop motion dinosaurs and attractive women in fur bikinis and of course the basic plot is of the dawning days of humanity. ‘WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH’ was never as popular as its predecessor but is considerably more popular than its successor, the film ‘Creatures the World Forgot,’ which abandoned dinosaurs entirely in favour of simple story synopsis.
But what is really good about ‘WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH’ in particular, is the dinosaur stop-motion footage is beyond excellent, and that is definitely the reason this movie is worth a watch. There are some truly great sequences designed by effects photographer Jim Danforth and it ranks right up there with the legendary Ray Harryhausen’s and his stop motion film techniques. But Jim Danforth and his team created sequences of Chasmosaurus and Rhamphorhynchus and even a giant anaconda. And there’s a quick shot — perhaps as an homage to Ray Harryhausen of a real lizard dressed up to look like a dinosaur.
So all in all, I would say ‘WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH’ is still an enjoyable dinosaur film, just don’t watch it with any young children, because Hammer Films were trying to up the sex angle in the film to contend with the bigger budget American films and of course decided to make this film more sexual and titillating, by deciding to make the fur bikinis even more revealing, and show actual nudity and sex scenes, and in doing so, made it feel much more like an exploitation film.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Image Quality – Warner Archive Collection presents us with a stunning 1080p image and is helped by being shown in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The grain effect is present but is very stable, and only really pronounced during the film's visual effects sequences. But most of all the, the detail is really beautiful and allows us the audience to take in all of the impressive creature effects work as well as some of the more furry attributes of the prehistoric costumes. Also outstanding is the colour rendering, and are all very well balanced and very natural looking with some bright primary colours. When the credits appear at the start of the film, you feel things are not going to look good, colour wise, but as soon as the credits are over everything starts looking terrific until a creature comes into view, but sadly, during some of these optical effects, the colours can look slightly bleached. Flesh tones are appropriately well-tanned and t black levels are very solid throughout the film and offering up a decent sense of depth to the image presentation without any negative issues to speak of. So overall, for this dinosaur Hammer Films 1970 released, it still looks good and so all in all, Warner Archive Collection did a really good professional job.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Warner Archive Collection brings you just one standard 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio experience and is pretty basic and a little underwhelming at times. The prehistoric human’s grunts and ughs come through with a decent audible clarity, even if you have no clue what they are saying, still that is what you get when viewing a prehistoric film of this genre. The music film score by Mario Nascimbene is really good in a subtle way, but is enhanced in the same volume with the more natural and subtle sound effects work provided for the film. The only problem I experienced is when any big action sequences in the film, like the dinosaur roars and sometimes when there is any wind, the sounds have a slight shrill and tinny audio effect, and so causing some slight audio distortion, but this was probably due to the original recording elements at the time of the original film release. But despite some negative aspect of the audio experience, it is still a good prehistoric film to view, so well done Warner Archive Collection.
* * * * *
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Theatrical Trailer: [1970] [1080i] [1.78:1] [2:44] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH’ and it is one of the most over the top camp dinosaur film trailer I have ever viewed.
Finally, Hammer Films preceded with two other prehistoric film ventures, ‘One Million Years B.C.’ and ‘Slave Girls,’ but followed up with ‘WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH’ and remains a very entertaining cult classic dinosaur feature film for fans of this prehistoric genre. It features some wonderful stop-motion animated dinosaurs and other creatures that hold up really well, if not better, than many of its contemporaries. Regardless of which version you are familiar with, it is a very playful and enjoyable film in many ways. Warner Archive Collection treatment of this film ‘WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH’ on this Blu-ray disc is top notch. But sadly it would have been nice to have a selection of special features, like an audio commentary, and especially a look behind-the-scenes documentaries; still the quality of the Blu-ray disc is some consolation. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
