When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
U.S. Theatrical release poster by Tom Chantrell
Directed by	Val Guest
Written by	Val Guest
Story by	J.G. Ballard (Treatment)
Produced by	Aida Young
Starring	Victoria Vetri Robin Hawdon Patrick Allen Imogen Hassall
Cinematography	Dick Bush
Edited by	Peter Curran
Music by	Mario Nascimbene
Production company	Hammer Films
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	1 October 1970 (1970-10-01) (London premiere) 25 October 1970 (1970-10-25) (United Kingdom)
Running time	100 minutes (United Kingdom) 96 minutes (United States)
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Languages	Aboriginal languages English
Budget	£566,000

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (titled When Dinosaurs Ruled the World in the U.K.) is a 1970 British prehistoric dinosaur film written and directed by Val Guest and starring Victoria Vetri. It was produced by Aida Young. The production company was Hammer Films. The third in Hammer's "Cave Girl" series, preceded by One Million Years B.C. (1966) and Prehistoric Women (1967), it was followed by Creatures the World Forgot (1971).

Plot

Opening narration:

A time of beginnings, of darkness, of light, of the sun, the earth, the sea, of man! The beginnings of man living with man, by the sea, in the mountains. The beginning of love, hate, and fear. Man's fear of the unknown. Man's fear lest the sun should leave him, leave him alone in everlasting darkness. A time when the color of a woman's hair condemned her to sacrifice to the sun. A time when there was as yet no moon.

A cliff tribe are about to sacrifice three blonde women. Three priests, wearing dinosaur hides, are about to sacrifice them for their Sun God, but one of the women, Sanna, escapes and jumps off the cliff. She is rescued by Tara and some men on a raft.

Tara takes Sanna to his seaside tribe, who also worship the Sun God. After building a hut for herself, She joins them at a feast and celebration of a successful hunt. A Plesiosaur attacks the seaside tribe until it is lured to a store of oil and burned to death. The feast continues, and a brunette woman, Ayak, is interested in Tara, but he is too fascinated with Sanna. He brings her food. After a ritual fight between Sanna and Ayak in the water, Sanna's former tribe arrives, looking for her. She flees, and her former tribe gives chase. Hiding in a tree, a large Boa sees her but attacks and kills one of the men instead. They think that Sanna is in a nearby cave, but a Chasmosaurus makes its lair there, and disembowels one man before injuring another with a deep gash. Vultures, drawn by the carcasses, attack the wounded man. When Tara seeks Sanna, he finds the one man dead and, after the Chasmosaurus charges him. He is chased to a cliff, where he hides on a small ledge as the Chasmosaurus loses its footing and plunges to its death.

A funeral pyre at the shore is followed by a tribal frenzy during which an enraged Ayak burns down Sanna's hut. Sanna meanwhile, running through a rainforest, sees a reptile, and runs before it notices her. She becomes trapped by a carnivorous plant, and cuts off a portion of her hair in order to escape.

Sanna sleeps in a large Megalosaurus eggshell. The other egg hatches, and the dinosaur thinks Sanna is its sibling. The parent, thinking Sanna is one of its own, brings her a Deer carcass. Sanna, enamored by the beast, plays hide-and-seek with it, and teaches it to sit. She dives into a nearby lake and catches a fish in her teeth. She returns and finds the mother dinosaur in a fight with two men, but she distracts it so they can escape.

While Tara is hiking back to his tribe, he is carried off by a giant Rhamphorhynchus. At its nest, he kills it by ripping its wing, and then knocking it off its nest when it lands. Tara sees Sanna being followed by the dinosaur and assumes she is being chased, but he runs to her and finds she has domesticated it. They reunite at Sanna's cave, where they express their love for one another and have passionate sex.

They are seen by a lookout, however, and when Tara returns to the tribe, he is sacrificed to a Plesiosaur. Ayak cries as he is set adrift on a burning raft to the animal, held in place by another woman and forced to watch. However, when they are gone, he re-emerges from the water, still alive. Seeing they have left and somehow having evaded the beast, he escapes to Sanna.

The tribe is still searching for Sanna, and see smoke from her fire. The two run away into a forest, where Sanna's dinosaur "parent" rescues her, but as for Tara they prepare to burn him again. Giant fiddler crabs kill a few people as the weather grows ominous again. The Moon seems to be forming, and a tsunami looms. Sanna arrives to save Tara from one of the giant crabs, and a raft escape begins to take shape. The tribal leader tries commanding the water to heel, and is swept away and (presumably) drowns. While Ayak is running on the sand, she steps into a trap of quicksand and is sucked down to her death. Giant waves hit the shore, but Tara, Sanna, and a few others survive on a raft. As the waters calm, the survivors stop to witness a lunar eclipse, as the Moon exists.

Cast

• Victoria Vetri as Sanna
• Robin Hawdon as Tara
• Patrick Allen as Kingsor / Narrator
• Drewe Henley as Khaku
• Sean Caffrey as Kane
• Magda Konopka as Ulido
• Imogen Hassall as Ayak
• Patrick Holt as Ammon
• Carol Hawkins as Yani

Production

Writing

Director Val Guest's screenplay was based on a treatment by J. G. Ballard (author of Empire of the Sun). But like Hammer's 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 (±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.

Filming

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 animation creature effects were created by Jim Danforth, assisted by David W. Allen and Roger Dickens.

Release

The film had its world premiere on 1 October 1970 in London with a U.K. general release on 25 October 1970. It was released in the United States debuting in San Francisco on 10 February 1971.

Home video

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 28 February 2017 and DVD on 4 April by Warner Archive.

Reception

Box office

The film was popular at the box office. In the United States the film grossed $1.25 million at the box office.

Award and nominations

The film was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 44th Academy Awards in 1971. It lost to the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Homage and tributes

The special effects are considered a benchmark in portraying realistic stop-motion animation. The film is referenced in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park with a large rectangular banner hanging in the island's visitors' center. It later plays a visibly prominent role in the film's final action sequence.

External links

• When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth at IMDb
• When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth at AllMovie
• Template:BFI