Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s Hammer Studios found success with a steady stream of cavewoman movies. Starting with One Million Years B.C. in 1966 Hammer followed it up with the weaker Prehistoric Women which had a blondes versus brunettes plot. The third film they made was 1970’s When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth.

Directed by Hammer veteran Val Guest (The Quatermass Xperiment) and with the Oscar nominated stop motion effects by the underrated Jim Danforth this is another of Hollywood’s anachronistical movies where dinosaurs and humans live together at the same time.

A tribe of sun worshipers is about to sacrifice their blonde women to the sun. One of the women, Sanna (Playboy Playmate Victoria Vetri) flees and escapes the tribe. She finds a another tribe leaving near the ocean and falls in love with Tara (Robin Hawdon). Another tribe member, evil brunette Ayak (Imogen Hassall) is also in love with Tara and fights Sanna for him. Meanwhile Sanna’s old tribe shows up and she goes on the run.

The movie is silly but entertaining and the dinosaurs are cool. The success of this film lead to one more cavewoman movie, Creatures the World Forgot. Like Prehistoric Women it too didn’t have any dinosaurs in it and both films seem to suffer for it.

A few years ago Warner Bros. had accidentally released the uncut internationally version of When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth with the cut versions G-rating. Naturally there was complaints when discovered the G-rated film contained nudity so Warner Bros. pulled the DVDs. Now Warner is releasing the movie on Blu-ray as part of their burn on demand Warner Archive Collection and this time they are making sure that folks know what version they are getting.

Warner’s official release:
Coming, February 2017!
WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1969)
NEW 2017 1080p HD REMASTER
BD50
COLOR – 100 Minutes
ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIO – 1.85:1, 16 X 9 WIDESCREEN
DTS HD-Master English 2.0 Mono
English SDH

Theatrical Trailer (HD)

ADVISORY: This edition of WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH is the original International Theatrical release version which contains nudity.

After Raquel Welch conquered the screen in One Million Years B.C., Hammer Studios followed up with When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, written and directed by Val Guest (The Quatermass Xperiment) and based on a story by J.G. Ballard (Crash). Victoria Vetri stars as Sanna, rescued from ritual sacrifice by Tara (Robin Hawdon), a member of a rival tribe. Her survival coincides with the mysterious formation of a new “fire” in the sky: the moon! Sanna’s old tribe blames her for this affront to the sun; Sanna flees their wrath and Tara follows. Their shared adventures loom as large as the giants who once ruled the earth!

Pretty cool to see this getting a Blu-ray release and uncut!