Customer Reviews

Prehistoric Women [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

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.

Anchor Bay's letterbox transfer is great (and is featured on the VHS tape as well as the DVD). The letterboxing is vital for this flick, since for some reason Carreras decided to go against typical Hammer practice and do this one in genuine widescreen Cinemascope....probably because you can fit a lot more prehistoric babes in one shot that way.

All right, We can tell this isn't going to be an award winner just by looking at the title. Prehistoric Women (AKA The Slave Girls) is a bit of mindless candy that lets us look at busty blondes/brunettes in what we guys like to consider their natural habitat. A big game hunter/guide David Merchant (Michael Latimer)is captured by some tribal misfits and is taken to the temple of the white rhino (plaster statue) there, something kooky happens and the native guys freeze when the wall of the temple splits, and Merchant is introduced to a new world where the dark haired women are in control, the blonde women serve them and are sacrificed to the white rhino, and the men are forced to work the mines or something.....See! I told you it was just like puberty! Anyway, the evil Queen Kari(Martine Beswick) is every mans ideal ex-wife, as she tries to force Merchant to be her man. Merchant can't force himself to love her because he is smitten with the beautiful blonde slave girl Saria. The battle begins. Don't forget to watch the trailers at the end. Relive the excitement of being a kid again.

Made on sets left over from One Million BC (although that movie was largely filmed on lacation in the Canaries), this is a silly, campy, sexist and racist little movie that's unfortunately played far too straight for its own good.

Latimer plays a white hunter who, about to be sacrificed by an African tribe, stumbles into a hidden valley ruled by dark-haired white women who keep all the blondes and the men as slaves. Beswick is the evil queen who spends most of the film on heat trying to get Latimer into her bed (at one point she bathes in milk and at another wraps a whip round him as she pulls him towards her bed). Incomprehensibly, the silly man resists her advances and prefers slave Ronay. Common guy - get a life; Beswick is clearly the horniest bird in the jungle.

Apart from this we have a cat fight between Beswick and a slave and the film stops frequently for various dance routines (Beswick does a seduction one for Latimer, the slave girls do one, and a sexy African girl does one at the beginning). There's also "the devils of darkness" (i.e. black guys hidden by animal skins) to whom sacrifices must be made on a frequent basis. At the end, the slaves all revolt, Beswick gets gored by a rhino and Latimer wakes up to discover it was all a dream.

Hammer's decision to go for a PG certifcate unfortunately means that there is no nudity.

It's a mess of a film and one wonders what the intended audience was - in the UK the running time was cut down to 74m so it could be released as a B feature. The video is the full length version and is in the correct Scope ratio. Some of the Amazon comments above confuse this with another movie from 1950 also called Prehistoric Women. This has the alternative title of Slave Girls (the UK release title).

One Million Years BC is much more fun and also has dinosaurs and real locations.

This film is kind of like a cross between Citizen Kane and To kill a mockingbird, only it has amazons in leather bikinis worshipping a phony rhino. Well, actually it is not like that at all, except for the parts about the rhino and the amazons. Now I know there are plenty of people who will turn up their noses at this movie and only pick out the bad. I am willing to bet that most Hammer fans have one film that they know is not really a good film, but it has a special place because you enjoy it. For some people it is probably Lost Continent, Lust for a vampire or even Legend of the seven golden vampires, but for me it has got to be this film. If you have read any other reviews on this film then you know the negatives here, so I want to talk about the positives. They used some of the sets left over from One Million Years B.C. (as well as some of the actors and actresses), so the sets are pretty decent for the budget. This film is not boring, even if you do not like the story you have to admit movees along well. Some people seem to think this film is not as good as OMY B.C. or When dinosaurs ruled the earth, but if you were to take away the special effects and just compare stories, I think Prehistoric women would be heads and shoulders ahead in the story department.

Another thing that most of Hammer's costume epics lack is a strong leading performance. Ursula Andress and Raquel Welch attempted to go through the motions but here we have Martine Beswick who just about steals this movie. Beswick gives a commanding performance (given the situation), without her the film would certainly be average or less. Beswick has to be the best villainess to ever grace a british horror or sci-fi film. The dance scenes may seem silly at first, but give it a few viewings and you may want to stand up and join in or maybe not.

Anchor Bay put together a good looking version with the usual trailers after the flick. The inside notes say that the American version (called Slave Girls) had an extra 16 minutes, so I wonder what was in those extra 16 minutes? It would have been great if they could have included that version like how they included the U.S. version of Legend of the seven golden vampires. Still, this film is an enjoyable one.

If women looked like this in prehistoric days, somebody find me a time machine fast!!. Every girl in this film is gorgeous from blonde to brunette!. The blonde slave girls a very entertaining. And the brunette rulers are dominating. Martine Beswick is beautiful in this film as she is in other films I have seen her in. In fact, I ordered a poster print of her from the scene of her in her lair, lying on her animal fur bed. And what a print it is!!.If you enjoy women of the 60's, this is a must film for you. No Raquel Welch here, but one look at Queen Martine is enough for me to love her just the same!!. Long Live the Fur Bikini!!.

`Beware the lash of the savage goddess - ruler of a kingdom of women - where men are chained... tortured... and made slaves to desire!'

Hammer were infamous for coming up with a title, a tagline and a poster before they ever bothered with anything as mundane as a script, and never was this more apparent than with the truly bizarre quota quickie Prehistoric Women, which spliced their caveman pictures and recycled sets from One Million Years B.C. with the lost city/evil queen aspects of She to results so surreal even for the 60s at their most psychedelic that they almost defy synopsis. Alan Bates imitator Michael Latimer's big game hunter finds himself out of the frying pan and into the fire after a tribe of African natives in rhino masks try to sacrifice him because "Your presence has disturbed the spirit of the white rhinoceros!" when a bolt of lightning sends him back in time where Martine Beswick's evil white rhino worshipping Amazon queen and her tribe of `Dark Ones' (brunettes) enslaves all `Fair Ones' (blondes), who she forces to dance for her or sit on a statue of a rhino before being wed to the `Devils of Darkness,' and imprisons all men in a cavern of chains with Sydney Bromley...

There's no lost city or dinosaurs, but all the other lost world staples are there, from `savage rituals' that look more like bad floor shows at naff clubs (there are almost enough dance routines for it to qualify as a musical) to the obligatory slave revolt and intervention of Mother Nature in a bad mood (well, it rains and there's the odd bit of thunder), though they've rarely seemed quite so insane as in this: you have to wonder what writer-director and Hammer heir apparent Michael Carreras was on when he concocted this one. Even Hammer knew they were on a loser with this one, cutting it by 17 minutes, retitling it Slave Girls and barely releasing it in the UK. The dialogue is as delirious as the plot ("What makes you so cruel?" "Cruelty has made me cruel!" or "He hates you. Why?" "The man he used to hate died last week. He needs someone new.") but credit where it's due to Michael Reed's vivid comic strip widescreen color cinematography. You won't believe what you see or hear, but you'll never quite be able to forget it... especially when the `real' white rhino makes its dramatic appearance on castors in the finale!

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.

Any red-blooded male WILL LOVE this film if you enjoy watching movies. It's a society that you will, at least twice in your life, dream of being in.

If you are a woman you will probably hope for it more than twice. Perhaps it is already reality for you.

I was exposed to this movie via the Hammer Trailer extra DVD included on another DVD and had to order it right away. I've seen this film only once before - probably chopped up on TV. Unfortunately the male lead is never truly dominated by The Goddess Kari -- "yeah" for some of you and a negative for others.

Well, I only judge the films by the quality of the DVD. This one is three stars -- the middle of the lot. Pure mono soundtrack, however it does not fade during loud parts. The picture is not too bad, a nice widescreen presentation at 2:35 to 1 and it's not totally clear but for a 1966/1967 films it sits well with me.

Most ordinary people probably won't like this movie -- and I can tell that already by the reviews, but if you are building a Hammer collection this should be included. I would like to go back in time to see how this film was received when originally released. I can almost hear the guffaws! Personally, I like it a lot and it's one that I will watch more than once per year.

What's the best part of this movie? Martine Beswick -- just like everyone else says! Her appeal is powerful, and the Hammer studios captured it.

David (Michael Latimer) a hunting guide in the jungle must dispatch a wounded leopard. In the process David inadvertency enters the sacred ground of the white rhino. That is a no-no; so David must die. He touches the rhino's horn which opens a door to pre history. We go in with him and the adventure begins.

This part of the Hammer prehistoric collection and has the same feel, including actresses. The story line is consistent and well organized. Of course all the native dances are hokey but what do you expect from a 1967 jungle rendition. One day archaeologist will find that they really did wear fur bikinis.

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