When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth

"Enter an age of unknown terrors, pagan worship and virgin sacrifice..."

1970 1h 40m EN

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 97

AdventureFantasyScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

An ancient tribe attempts to sacrifice Sanna as an offering to the Sun god to save their tribe from dinosaurs. Tara, a young man from another tribe, saves Sanna and takes her along with him.

“Enter an age of unknown terrors, pagan worship and virgin sacrifice...”

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Cast

Victoria Vetri
Sanna
Robin Hawdon
Tara
Patrick Allen
Kingsor
Drewe Henley
Khaku
Sean Caffrey
Kane
Magda Konopka
Ulido
Imogen Hassall
Ayak
Patrick Holt
Ammon

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Val Guest
Writers: Val Guest, J.G. Ballard
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

56 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

CRAFT

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Val Guest, shot by Dick Bush. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mario Nascimbene. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Peter Curran shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Victoria Vetri and Robin Hawdon and Patrick Allen carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Enter an age of unknown terrors, pagan worship and virgin sacrifice...".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0066561 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Val Guest directs. Dick Bush behind the camera. Mario Nascimbene scores. Peter Curran cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

156 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
3Directed by Val Guest, shot by Dick Bush. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Mario Nascimbene. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Peter Curran shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Victoria Vetri and Robin Hawdon and Patrick Allen carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Enter an age of unknown terrors, pagan worship and virgin sacrifice...".
8IMDB entry: tt0066561 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 97 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
10Classified under 13 themes, including "tsunami", "stop motion", "prehistory", "prehistoric creature".

The technical file

Cinematography: Dick Bush
Original score: Mario Nascimbene
Editing: Peter Curran
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): G
IMDB: When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)

Also by

Val Guest

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Community reviews

What people are saying

whitsbrain2024-01-30
★ 5/10
This sat in my Watchlist for a long time. It's not been available to stream anywhere. Because I'm a nut for stop-motion effects, dinosaurs, and maybe even for cave women, I coughed up the $20 for the blu-ray and watched it. It's not a good movie. There are lots of barely clothed cave people shouting "AKEETA!!!!!" every other word. It's uncertain what that word actually means because all of the actors apparently just made up a language as they filmed. Basically, Sanna and Tara form a bond and everyone else chases them around. If caught, they will be killed because Sanna (Victoria Vetri) was supposed to be sacrificed, escaped, and has made the sun angry or some such thing. In the end, there's a happy ending as the moon is formed from the sun (???!!!), and everyone is killed by a massive tidal wave except Sanna and Tara, and a swinging couple that they've befriended. The stop-motion effects were very well done by Jim Danforth. There were a couple of lesser effects where they glued fins and stuff to a lizard, crocodile, and Komodo dragon, and I'd like to think that Danforth had nothing to do with those misfires. I'm assuming it was done by some other scrub who was forced to do so by cost-cutting executives. In summary, this was not much of a movie, but it was fun to watch. I liked the effects overall, and was very impressed with Victoria Vetri and Magna Konopka, for reasons that might be obvious, but that's my business.

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