Considering how much worse this movie could have been, I'm a bit surprised, what with old Hollywood taking on prehistoric times with the well-scrubbed likes of hunky Victor Mature and nubile Carol Landis. Frankly, both look like they just stepped off the pages of Photoplay, even if their fashion attire is a bit dated, to say the least. But whatever the expected Hollywood nonsense, the underlying story is a good one, with lessons even for today.Apparently, the Rock people are early ancestors of our modern rugged individualists, even if their table manners leave a lot to be desired. No sir, no one here depends on anyone else. Catch dinnertime among these no-nonsense Rock people where the pecking order is strictly enforced—it's the roughest guy first, then the hunting dogs, then the rest of the guys, and finally the women, all grabbing what they can. Maybe that also accounts for why so few kids are seen among them. Anyway, everyone jealously guards his own hunk of meat since somebody else will grab it if they can. And better not get injured because if you do, you'll have to take care of yourself. No medical insurance here. But one thing about this tribe, they're tough as nails. Then there're the Shell people, probably forerunners of modern day European socialists. They all eat out of a communal vegetable pot, even passing plates of food from one to another. Just as importantly, each eats in peace knowing his neighbor can get more from the pot instead of grabbing someone else's. Then too, there's leisure activities, such as small group singing that's more like synchronized grunting, along with etching on rock walls for later archaeologists to find. So, since they all seem to get along with one another, it's not surprising a ton of kids are running around. The trouble is the tribe's terrorized into group huddles by one of those big lizards Hollywood was so fond of. What the Shell folks need is a dose of the Rock people boldness. And what the Rock folks need is a dose of Shell people civilization.Good thing for both tribes that Hollywood's got a Neolithic version of Romeo and Juliet that eventually brings the two groups together. But then what can you expect when hunky Tumac (Mature) from the Rock people meets up with the winsome Loana (Landis) from the Shell folks. Just goes to show, I guess, that no matter what, biology trumps all else, especially when all you're wearing is a bear skin. Still, I would like to know just how Tumac gets such a smooth shave—and I do mean smooth shave-- when the other Rock guys don't. But then how else could we recognize TCF's newest heart throb if he didn't. At the same time, I'm wishing I was born a lot, lot, sooner so maybe I could meet up with a prehistoric babe like Loana. I mean Las Vegas showgirls in their skimpy costumes have nothing on our great-great-great… (you get the idea) grandmothers.But then, if I were born a lot, lot sooner, I might meet up with one of those scary big lizards that seem always fighting with one another or I might get blasted by a volcano or swallowed up by an earthquake. Thanks to the screenplay, it's just one prehistoric hazard after another, and I'm thinking the special effects crew really deserved their Oscar nominations-- especially since there's no digitalized computer to fill in the blanks. All in all, I guess it's just as well that I'm knocking around in the 21st century where my biggest worry is commuter traffic at rush hour.Anyhow, skeptics have poked a lot of fun at this epic over the years, and truth be told, it's not too difficult. But despite the occasional silliness, the importance of learning from others is still more than just a prehistoric challenge.

I find it hilarious that one of the posters here above should think that the Hal Roach Studios in Hollywood, a low-budget factory that usually churned out Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy shorts, and an occasional comedy feature, should have been a nest of gay leftists. Now it's true that back in the 1940s, unbeknownst to their crusty old tight-fisted boss Mr. Roach, someone in the plant might have hired a few inexpensive commies to write the script. Three screenwriters are credited with the screenplay, all of whom disappeared from the industry shortly after the film was made. Their names never appeared on any blacklist in the days when card-holding communists were hunted down. If you want to point a finger at anyone for the saccharine morality of the movie might it not be the influence of that old Kentucky gentleman, D.W. Griffith, the man who adapted "The Clansman" into a movie? No communist he! A fascist perhaps. This film is not so much a pinko/nancy conspiracy as it is an old fashioned Victorian morality tale, just the sort of sugar-coated nonsense that D.W. made in his halcyon days as the acknowledged master of the silent cinema, albeit a world-class cornball. "One Million B.C." is not gay communism, heaven forbid! It's just old-fashioned small town Sunday School Christianity dressed up or down in skimpy costumes. Carole Landis is as always luscious.

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.

(There are Spoilers) The movie starts with a narration by Conrad Nagle about this group of people out to see the sights going into a cave ,during a violent thunderstorm, for shelter. Finding this worldly and wise old man studying the ancient writings on the caves wall the sightseers are then told this fantastic story that he deciphered about what happened back then when it was carved, or written, as we go back in time to One Mllion B.C.Tumet is the bull-headed young son of Akhobo the leader of the warrior-like Rock People who's independence and disobedience towards his father is just too much for him to take. Getting into a fight with the old man during dinner over who gets the biggest piece Tumak is kicked out of the tribe and left on his own to fend for himself in the wild. Being attacked by this woolly mammoth Tumek ends up falling into a nearby stream almost breaking his neck. Found by gorgeous and sexy Loana of the far more civilized and peaceful Shell People Tumak is slowly nursed back to health and to a new world of understanding of his fellow man in that sharing is the secret to surviving in these wild and crazy times. Unlike where the leader takes all and give out the scraps to those lesser in his tribe, like with the Rock People, who are subservient to him.It takes a while for Tumek to get the hang of it in living in a society where caring and looking after your fellow tribesman was more important then how brave strong and victorious your were in taking on and killing everyone who's a threat to you and your tribe.The fact that Tumek's life was saved by the foreign Shell People where he was earlier ostracized into the wilderness to die by his own flesh and blood made him to be more akin with them. Also the fact that he's now in love with Loana, a stranger to his tribe, was more reason for him to feel like that.The movie really gets moving in the last fifteen minutes or so after a number of family squabbles between Tumek and Lnana as well as fights that Tumek has with his former tribe the Rock people. Tumek's father Akhobo is unseated from his leadership position after he was badly injured trying to take down a prehistoric ox and is left a shell of his old self. Tumek in taking back his leadership of the Rock People in hand to hand combat with their new leader instills in them what he learned in shearing the pie, or a form of prehistoric socialism, from the shell People that makes things a bit more bearable for everyone in it.With both the former enemy Rock and Shell people now living in peace together all hell breaks loose with the nearby volcano blowing it's top leading to a massive earthquake with all the wild animals, mostly giant lizards, going bananas attacking each other and the people in the area. Top special effects for it's time back in 1940 make "One Million B.C" a real novelty item. With a very realistic volcanic eruption followed by a heart-stopping lava flow that wipes out just about everything, man and animal, in it's path.It was really a shame that the animal scenes were not supervised by members of the Humane Society back then which lead to most of the lizards in them ending up dead and mangled in the fights they were encouraged to have in the movie. In fact the scenes of the lizards fighting with each other and attacking and killing the cavemen were, unfortunately, so good and realistic that they were incorporated into scores of movies and TV shows over the next thirty years.The movie ends not with Conrads Nagels narration to his captive band of sightseers about the story of Tumek and Loana but with both tribes, Rock & Shell, now living in peace and harmony. As we see them walking into the sunset with their adopted son who's mother was killed, when he was overtaken by the deadly lava flow, after the earth shaking volcanic explosion in the film.