For years the only way I had seen this was from a 200' reel of film from Castle Films and then many years later on a copy I taped from TCM.
Now VCI has made this available and it's a very welcome addition to my Blu-ray collection. Victor Mature and Carole Landis star in this Hal Roach film about two people from different prehistoric tribes that meet and have many challenges together.
The dinosaur footage has been used in countless thousands of low budget 50's sci-fi films, but it's fun to see it complete and unexpurgated here. Mature is good in his role of Tumac, but it's Landis who steals the show as Luana.
the actress who dies way too young at the age of 29 is extremely striking here and brings across a naive energy to her role. Lon Chaney, Jr. is the leader of the violent tribe from which Tumac belongs.
Hammer remade this in 1966 with Raquel Welch and John Richardson in the roles, and I love that film too, but this is the one to watch first, and the Blu-ray presentation has this movie looking fantastic. Everything about this film works, and I highly recommend it.
This was a very ambitious production for 1940.
No comments:
Post a Comment