Creatures the World Forgot (1971) dir. Don Chaffey
The Dark-Haired Tribe hunters have had a successful day, bringing down an antelope while only losing one of their number to its mate. But as the tribe is divvying up the meat, The Crone (Rosalie Crutchley) directs their attention to the nearby twin mountains–which turn out to be live volcanoes that erupt moments later. One of the hunters, Mak (Brian O’Shaughnessy) mercy kills the badly crushed old leader, and successfully defeats a challenger to become the new leader.
Their homes destroyed, Mak leads the remnants of the tribe across the desert in search of a new place to live. Despite much hardship and a few more deaths, the Dark-Haired Tribe eventually comes to the dwelling place of the Fair-Haired Tribe. Fortunately, the two tribes manage to establish peaceful relations, and several of the Dark-Haired, including Mak, are able to find mates among the Fair-Haired. (One unhappy couple want each other instead of the mates picked for them, which ends badly.)
Mak’s mates gives birth to fraternal twins before dying. During the ceremony to welcome the babies, another woman suddenly goes into labor when a lightning strike sets a nearby tree on fire. The tribe considers sacrificing the new girl baby, but the Crone intervenes.
The twins grow up into Toomak the Fair Boy (Tony Bonner) and Rool the Dark Boy (Robin John), who are very much rivals. Mak clearly favors the taller, stronger and more competent Toomak, leaving Rool feeling jealous and resentful. The girl baby has grown into the Mute Girl (Marcia Fox) who has unusual reddish hair and is something of an outcast in the tribe (neither of the twins treat her well) but becomes the apprentice of the Crone.
On one of their adventures, the brothers wind up bringing home The Girl (Julie Ege), the last survivor of her own tiny tribe. She winds up becoming the mate of Toomak. When the now-aged Mak dies, the stage is set for the brothers to battle for leadership of the tribe!
This was the last of Hammer Films’ “caveman” pictures with outdoor scenes shot in South Africa and Namibia. It skips the anachronistic dinosaurs and fluent language skills of the previous entry for a slightly more “realistic” approach. Similarly, while the young women are certainly scantily clad, they’re not usually posing like they’re in a men’s magazine.
Because there’s no intelligible dialogue or narration, the characters have to express themselves mainly through facial expression and body language, and you absolutely do have to be paying attention to follow what’s going on.
The scenery is excellent, and most of the animal bits look good, with the exception of a cave bear that is obviously a man in a fur suit because he has to do stuntwork. The lava towards the beginning also looks a bit low-budget.
The main problem of the movie for me is that it kind of meanders, and it’s not until a good third of the way in that the primary conflict driving the rest of the plot is established.
Content note: Lethal violence, including the death of children and animals. Suicide. Attempted rape. Mak’s favoritism towards Toomak is obvious; his parenting skills are dubious. Male and female nudity, and otherwise skimpy clothing for both sexes. I think it would get an “R” rating these days.
This is a decent movie that rewards the attentive viewer. Not recommended, however, for anyone who get bored or distracted easily. Most recommended for fans of “caveman” stories.
