Valley of the Dragons

Your basic RKO-style jungle adventure movie, but put together with almost no money or imagination. Danova and MClory put some life and some fun into their characters, but this movie's fate was sealed when they decided to use lizards with attatched fins for the prehistoric "dragons". In fact, it's hard to imagine that there weren't a few reptiles injured or killed in the making of this movie. *********SPOILERS******* At least it's got a happy ending, because our heroes don't seem too sorry to be spending an indefinate amount of time in the prehistoric world (it's part of a comet's tail.... don't ask, just accept it) with their lovely companions (one blonde, one brunette of course). Below the standards of good B-filmmaking.

An 82 minute movie that's about 82 minutes too long. Two 19th centuries rakes who are about to duel to the death are swept into some sort of space and time vortex and end up on a distant planet inhabited by tribes of battling people and a lot of larger than life lizards. The lizards are meant to be dinosaurs, but they're not convincing at all. The stock footage taken from earlier films doesn't help either. Cesare Danova and Sean McClory are the leads and Danielle De Metz plays Nateeta, a sexy cave-woman. It's written and directed by Edward Bernds and based on a Jules Verne story (we know that because the opening credit scroll tells us that...TWICE). The loud and intrusive music score is by Ruby Raksin. Interestingly, there are NO dragons in this movie.

Good light entertainment. No CGI, thank God, but some may not like a movie without CGI, non-stop violence, blood, gore, profanity, and sex but this is a movie that leaves one with the 'feel good' after watching. Without CGI actors had to actually act, special affects guys had to have real talent, not just a new software program, and props guys also had to be creative and insightful... The use of baby alligators dressed up like a dimetrodon to fight a Komodo Dragon filmed as huge dinosaurs showed the best that technology had to offer at the time. The entire family can watch this one without and 'Oops' moments.

In this sci-fi fantasy, based on a Jules Verne story, two 18th-century men are preparing for a duel when they find themselves caught in the tremendous tailwind of a passing comet. They get sucked onto the comet's head where they find a strange world inhabited by dinosaurs and cave men. The interweaving of new footage with stock shots from One Million B.C. (and Rodan!) is pretty clever. The human story line is the movie's weakest aspect. Albeit Joan Staley as Deena takes off her prehistoric sunsuit and lo and behold she is wearing a Stone-Age bikini! The film is at its best with the prehistoric creatures that were real lizards edited in to look like dinosaurs . I must admit that I did enjoy "Valley of the Dragons". Overall, a bit of a guilty pleasure.

This was one of the very first dinosaur movies I ever watched. When I was a kid I loved the a lot of the scenes, especially the ones from the volcanic eruption. Little did I know at the time that most of the footage was "borrowed" from the original "jurassic classic" One Million B.C. (1940). Also, I didn't find out until several years later that this film was based on a work by the master of science fiction, Jules Verne. This is an okay film for lovers of B movies. Too bad that they don't really show it on television anymore.

Jules Verne's name is shamelessly and regularly dropped in and around this Movie, but none of that matters. What is at stake here is its ability to draw in the Kids with Giant Monsters and Scantily Clad Girls. There is a ton of that seen here, but a lot of it had been on Screen before as it unabashedly clips Scenes from other Movies. If you can forgive its Plagiarism this is a fast moving Movie with a few of its own quite interesting Shots. There are plenty of Lizards in the Background and some of them are quite brutally disposed of as they menace and mangle everything in sight. Also in sight is an underwater Cheesecake Scene that had the Boys howling in the 1961 Theatres. An Entertaining piece of Schlock is fondly remembered by its now Grown Up (or have they) Audience, but is just below Mid-Range for this type. Its familiarity is its weakness, but there is enough Cool Stuff to be forgiving. Its an easy Movie to make Fun of but also an easy Movie to have Fun with.

This is another movie I'd been after for years and recently obtained a copy off ebay on the Colombia Classics label. 2 men having a duel somehow end up on a comet when a storm breaks out. This comet contains a prehistoric jungle and strange creatures (more on them later). They also make friends with natives (cave men and women) and find love too. But they also have to fight off unfriendly, missing link creatures. Now to those prehistoric creatures, these are mostly lots of giant lizard stock footage from One Million BC. We also see Wolly Mammoths, Mastadons and a giant spider. I found this move enjoyable and great fun to watch. Rating: 3 stars out of 5.