Creatures the World Forgot

Director: Don Chaffey
Script: Michael Carreras
Cast: Julie Ege, Tony Bonner, Brian O’ Shaughnessey, Robert John, Rosalie Crutchley, Marcia Fox, Doon Baido
Running time: 95.5 minutes
Year: 1970
Certificate: 18

The last of Hammer Films’ prehistoric series, Creatures the World Forgot has mostly been forgotten about by the majority of film watchers, with only Hammer aficionados keeping its Cenozoic ‘candle’ burning. It’s kind of understandable too given that two of its three prehistoric predecessors were One Million Years BC and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), both highly regarded, of their type. Both Creatures and 1967’s Slave Girls have fared much worse on the lists of ‘caveman’ films that people remember fondly.

Probably the main issue that most people had and still have with the film is that its very title is misleading since there are no ‘creatures’ in the film, really, except for a few wild animals, such as a wild boar, a deer and a hyena. There are definitely no dinosaurs, that’s for sure.

So, what’s a prehistoric movie without the threat of giant dinosaurs like then? Well, for one thing, it’s far more realistic since people and dinosaurs never co-existed, or at least there’s no fossil record to corroborate such a notion. But it’s still worth a watch since there’s plenty of interesting people action to witness, even though the dialogue, such as it is, mostly consists of guttural grunts and expansive hand gestures. This can make trying to work out who does what and is what quite tricky.

Plot-wise, there’s not a lot to share, just that one tribe’s chief is killed during a hunt leaving his two antagonistic sons (played by Tony Bonner and Robert John) to vie for his top spot and therefore determine the fate of their tribe. Along for the ride are some attractive prehistoric ladies including the delectable Julie Ege, who the brothers discover in a cave system when they go to rescue one of their own women from a rival clan who live there.

The film takes in plenty of impressive, geologically interesting locations (actually in South Africa and Namibia), and sets, all nicely shot (and lit) by director of photography Vincent Cox, some excellent model work, and a not so convincing cave bear of the ‘man in a tatty costume’ variety. It’s all underscored by a decent musical undercurrent composed by Mario Nascimbene and is action-packed enough to keep audiences awake, especially those who enjoy seeing scantily clad women running away from wannabe suitors/rapists or fighting each other in somewhat hair-pulling fashion. Although when one of the young women screams revealing an amalgam filling in one of her teeth it sadly undermines the historically accurate aspect of the story somewhat!

Creatures the World Forgot is, in fact, more in the caveman subgenre of films, which also includes The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) and The Quest for Fire (1981), rather than in the normal prehistoric sort of movie subgenre. It’s also on the violent side, not stinting on injury detail and bloodshed, which may appeal to more traditional horror movie fans. It’s certainly worth a watch as it holds the attention in a fairly unique way, despite not having any understandable dialogue.

Creatures the World Forgot is being distributed by Indicator on Blu-ray. There are a number of extras on the disc including:

Audio commentary by Sean Hogan and Kim Newman – An interesting commentary that talks about the prehistoric movie subgenre, in general, (starting from One Million BC, in 1941) to more recent films, including the Amicus movies such as The Land that Time Forgot. Creatures was originally going to be another script going by the name of Zepplins Vs Pterdactyl.

Hammer’s Women: Julie Ege (6.5 mins) – Rachel Knightly discusses Julie and gives a potted account of the starlet’s life and career including her turn in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Apparently she, perhaps somewhat unwisely, choice to reject a Peter Seller’s film in order to make Creatures instead…

Signs of Change (25 mins) – Writer Jonathan Rigby talks about the film’s background in some depth, explaining that it was actually shot during the Summer of 1970 and how the idea had originally grown out of a draft poster.

Primitive Rites (26 mins) – Music expert David Huckvale talks about composer Mario Nascimbene and his works, especially relating to the film title in question.

TV spot (1 min) – Poor quality with the focus mainly on Julie Ege.

Radio spot (50 secs) – Emphasis on ‘primitive man versus savage creatures’

Image Galleries – 107 promotional stills; 71 behind the scenes; some of the glamour shots are quite revealing!

Theatrical trailer (2.14 mins) – Emphasises the animal attacks and Ege in her skimpy outfit

Three short films made by director Don Chaffey for the Children’s Film Foundation back in 1953. These are Skid Kids (49 mins); A Good Pull (17.5 mins) and Watch Out! (18 mins). They all feature Peter Butterworth, who later became a ‘Carry-On’ star, and feature lots of slapstick.