Selling breathtaking special effects footage to other studios is a profitable business in Hollywood, sometimes as lucrative as box office ticket sales. Producer Hal Roach's April 1940 "One Million B. C." had filmed several reels of footage not used for its original movie. For years after its release, Roach sold these unseen clips by the public to recoup his expenses from the high costs he incurred producing the special effects shots of dinosaurs and slurpasaurs-lizards with attached fins. Roach's shots of an exploding volcano with rock slides were also popular with Hollywood studios.
Film reviewer Stuart Galbraith noticed the expensive production shots seen in "One Million B. C." It "must have at least a hundred individual effects shots, and they're rarely less than excellent," related Galbraith. "It's probably the most ambitious, effects-heavy film made between King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). I can't think of a movie made in-between that combined that volume of work with that high level of quality." Roach's market for such footage stretched from 1943's 'Tarzan's Desert Mystery' through the 1950s in 1953 'Robot Monster' and 'Godzilla Raids Again,' up to 1967's 'Journey to the Center of Time.' The Three Stooges' 1957 'Space Ship Sappy' incorporates clips from the 1940 movie into its short film.
In only his second screen appearance, Victor Mature, 27, received top billing as Tumak, son of Rock Tribe leader Akhoba, played by Lon Chaney Jr. In the follow-up of his much-heralded performance in 1939's "Of Mice and Men." Chaney was disappointed by his role as Akhoba, who gets in a fight with Tumak, and kicks his son out of the tribe. He wanted to emulate his father's make-up skills and designed an elaborate Neanderthal look when the Cosmetic Film Union prohibited him from applying his own make-up.
The Louisville, Kentucky-native Victor Mature had moved to California after business school and acted in the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where he was spotted by a scout for Hal Roach. His first film, 1939's "The Housekeeper's Daughter," elicited a description from one reviewer as "a handsome Tarzan type." Mature said of his caveman role, "I had to 'ugh' my way through that picture." After escaping a mammoth, Tumak is rescued by Lana (Carole Landis), a member of the more advanced Shell Tribe. The Shells take him in, where they face a whole slew of gigantic reptiles and monsters. "One Million B. C." was a boon to Landis' career, opening more opportunities after three years in Hollywood largely uncredited.
"One Million B. C" was heavily criticized by some as excessively cruel to the reptiles used in the film. Movie reviewer Mark Hodgson rips off a litany of brutal scenes where "a crocodile and a gila monster chomp on each other. There's a bear killing a snake and an almost dead gila monster pumping blood. Plus an astonishing shot of a cave/stuntman braining a charging bull with a staff." Most of the animal scenes were deleted when shown in British theaters, whose United Kingdom had strict laws against animal cruelty.
"One Million B. C." also marked the final Hollywood production for film pioneer D. W. Griffith. Roach had hired Griffith in the hopes the retired director would handle some scenes. Griffith did suggest a narration in the beginning, which was expanded into an introductory scene where modern day hikers stumble upon an anthropologist studying cavemen art. The anthropologist tells the story of the movie based on the drawings on the wall. Griffith was involved in the screen tests for the actors, with Mature remembering, "He tested for six months. I don't know what he was looking for. They'd have been better off letting the old man direct the picture. One day, he just wasn't around any more." Griffith claims Roach ignored most of his advice and he withdrew from the project.
"One Million B. C." earned two Academy Awards nominations, one for Best Musical Score and the other, naturally, for Best Special Effects. The movie was updated in 1966 as "One Million Years B. C." with Raquel Welch as Loana and John Davidson as Tumak.
Film reviewer Stuart Galbraith noticed the expensive production shots seen in "One Million B. C." It "must have at least a hundred individual effects shots, and they're rarely less than excellent," related Galbraith. "It's probably the most ambitious, effects-heavy film made between King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). I can't think of a movie made in-between that combined that volume of work with that high level of quality." Roach's market for such footage stretched from 1943's 'Tarzan's Desert Mystery' through the 1950s in 1953 'Robot Monster' and 'Godzilla Raids Again,' up to 1967's 'Journey to the Center of Time.' The Three Stooges' 1957 'Space Ship Sappy' incorporates clips from the 1940 movie into its short film.
In only his second screen appearance, Victor Mature, 27, received top billing as Tumak, son of Rock Tribe leader Akhoba, played by Lon Chaney Jr. In the follow-up of his much-heralded performance in 1939's "Of Mice and Men." Chaney was disappointed by his role as Akhoba, who gets in a fight with Tumak, and kicks his son out of the tribe. He wanted to emulate his father's make-up skills and designed an elaborate Neanderthal look when the Cosmetic Film Union prohibited him from applying his own make-up.
The Louisville, Kentucky-native Victor Mature had moved to California after business school and acted in the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where he was spotted by a scout for Hal Roach. His first film, 1939's "The Housekeeper's Daughter," elicited a description from one reviewer as "a handsome Tarzan type." Mature said of his caveman role, "I had to 'ugh' my way through that picture." After escaping a mammoth, Tumak is rescued by Lana (Carole Landis), a member of the more advanced Shell Tribe. The Shells take him in, where they face a whole slew of gigantic reptiles and monsters. "One Million B. C." was a boon to Landis' career, opening more opportunities after three years in Hollywood largely uncredited.
"One Million B. C" was heavily criticized by some as excessively cruel to the reptiles used in the film. Movie reviewer Mark Hodgson rips off a litany of brutal scenes where "a crocodile and a gila monster chomp on each other. There's a bear killing a snake and an almost dead gila monster pumping blood. Plus an astonishing shot of a cave/stuntman braining a charging bull with a staff." Most of the animal scenes were deleted when shown in British theaters, whose United Kingdom had strict laws against animal cruelty.
"One Million B. C." also marked the final Hollywood production for film pioneer D. W. Griffith. Roach had hired Griffith in the hopes the retired director would handle some scenes. Griffith did suggest a narration in the beginning, which was expanded into an introductory scene where modern day hikers stumble upon an anthropologist studying cavemen art. The anthropologist tells the story of the movie based on the drawings on the wall. Griffith was involved in the screen tests for the actors, with Mature remembering, "He tested for six months. I don't know what he was looking for. They'd have been better off letting the old man direct the picture. One day, he just wasn't around any more." Griffith claims Roach ignored most of his advice and he withdrew from the project.
"One Million B. C." earned two Academy Awards nominations, one for Best Musical Score and the other, naturally, for Best Special Effects. The movie was updated in 1966 as "One Million Years B. C." with Raquel Welch as Loana and John Davidson as Tumak.