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Prehistoric Women (1950)


Cast:

Laurete Luez is Tigri
Allan Nixon is Engor
Joan Shawlee is Lotee
Judy Landon is Eras
Mara Lynn is Arva


What the box says:

Tigri (Laurette Luez), a stone-age beauty, teams up with her friends to kidnap some hated male specimens to be husbands and slaves. One, named Engor (Allan Nixon), makes his escape and in his journeys learns to make fire. When he is recaptured by the women, he uses flames to drive away a dragon that threatens the tribe. This apparently makes the women that men are not so bad after all. Tigri and Engor subsequently wed and set of to get a start on civilized living.


Plot:

The omniscient narrator explains of prehistoric jungles, etc and how the prehistoric romance of Engor and Tigri (the woman leader of her tribe.)

Tigri's tribe broke off from another tribe that had been enslaving them.. The women took their daughters off and flourished for years under the leader of Tanna. Eventually, Guadee, a 9 foot Neathdrathal monster killed Tanna, Tigri's mother. The tribe escaped...

15 years later, Tigir is leading the tribe. The tribe decides to search for husbands.

Elsewhere, a number of men are trying to catch a tiger or panther when the women attack them.


The secret group that taught Xena all her fighting skills...
However, Engor is able to escape though wounded and returns to the tribe.

The women are starting to use men to clean the village.

Engor heals for weeks before heading out to rescue his friends and vows to enslave the women tribe, too. In the jungle, an elephant chases him which causes him to drop his club. Later, he starts rebuilding a new club. Sharpening some rocks, Engor accidentally starts a fire and learns of the numerous uses of fire like a torch.

The women are relaxing.

Engor spots Guadee and hidess from it. Later, the women catch him and is taken to his captured friends. Several women are casting eyes at the newly caught man. However, Tigri wants the first choice of Engor. Another woman, Arva, disobeys Tigri which leads to a catfight...until Tigri defeats her.

Later, Tigri forces Engor to try to move a big rock around. However, it is too big for him. She demonstrates the power of leverage which must be better than muscle power...

Day before, the wedding ceremony, the menmust escape or be enslaved as the women's slaves/hubbies...Engor starts another fire before a flying dragon (Korax) attacks the village.


Now isn't that an intimidating flying monster?
Engor is able to use a torch to drive the Korax away. This practically has the women automatically serving the men. Of course, men accidentally discover the flavor of cooked meat.

Engor wants to return to his tribe and decide to take the women with them. In the jungle, the Guadee chases them. They hide in a cave too small for the giant Guadee except to try to poke a stick at them. He drags a roick over the entrance. The men make torches to attack Guadee.

Engor versus Guadee. The others are able to set a fire circle to entrap them inside. Luckily, Engor escapes. However BBQed Guadee ensues.


Good thing the heroes learned how to cook meat previously. Guadee, the other white meat...

Tigri wants Engor to return to the women's tribe, and he agrees. These men and women are getting along. The wild women marry the men. Let their joy ensue according to the narrator.


What I say:

Back in the dawn of time after dinosaurs and cavemen according to One Million BC, there had to be some time before the aliens started building the ancient wonders. This is set with tribes but not the excellent cavemen-dinosaur-engineering of the Flintstones or the Quest for Fire. Well, between those differences, the prehistoric tribe movie existed. Wild Women of Wongo had an island a separate tribes of women, men, and ape men.

Technically, the women broke off into their own tribe years ago. Later, the women ran off to grab their men and use them for domestic chores and to help them continue the family trees. Eventually, one guy learns something that allows him to lord over the women...Yes, he discovers the power of cooking meat. The narrator does add in a few messages of his own about the "weaker sex." Not going to try and decypher the PC gender messages in that.

The early 1950s aren't known for many movies where women kidnap men even for any time. Some of the jungle girl movies at least tried to have the Sheena or Jane of Tarzan feel. The cavewomen haven't had much of any kind of matter in prehistoric movies. The 1960s hadn't rolled by to give everyone the One Million Years B.C. Raquel Welch bikini look.

Even with a low budget caveman movie, it is expected to have more than just a couple of stock scenes with jungle animals. A giant caveman popping up is an insult to a far better believable caveman monster: Richard Kiel as Eegah. This movie has a large hairy guy for the monster. Well, Guadee could poke a stick in a cave's entrance or to roll a boulder in front of it which almost elevates his IQ above most of the men.

Most of the understandable audio is from a narrator. The second most audio is just a bit of grunting. Think it safe to say, we all knew that English wasn't spoken back at that time. The narrator practically reading the minds of everyone does get annoying even for such a short movie. Wasn't paying much attention to see if there was any attempt at dubbing, and the narrator was just used because the audio on the actors went bad.

A guy heads off to rescue his friends. Along the way, he discovers something that will revolutonize the world. This discovery allows him to eventually break the boundaries between him and his captors. Why does that almost sound like so many other movie plots? Take a generic enough script it can be written into almost any era.



2 1/2 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"This is Loti."
"It seems women were women in those days."
"Tigri orders the women to feed their men."
"Strangely enough, the swan dive was invented before the swan."
"Suddenly, Ahd falls unconscious. Engor and his tribesmen are amazed to see that they've been attacked by members of the weaker sex."


Morals of the Story

Prehistoric women had great hair.
Black bears should be leashed
Slingshotting is considered a long distance attack
Suitable spouses need good teeth
Prehistoric women love to break into ceremonial dances.


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