In a prehistoric world devoid of dinosaurs, two brothers from a tribe of cavemen battle for leadership and the affection of a woman.
After the leader of a Stone Age tribe, Mak (Brian O’Shaughnessy), is killed during a hunt, his two sons are thrown into a violent conflict. The fair-haired Toomak (Tony Bonner) and the dark-haired Rool (Robert John) engage in a brutal struggle for dominance over the tribe. Their rivalry is further inflamed by their competition for a woman, Nala (Julie Ege). As they battle each other, the tribe must also contend with attacks from rival clans and survive the constant threat of natural disasters in a harsh, primitive world.
This Hammer Film production is a notable departure from the studio’s previous prehistoric adventures, such as One Million Years B.C. and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. The picture deliberately omits the stop-motion dinosaurs that were central to the earlier films, focusing instead on a raw and violent story of human conflict. Director Don Chaffey populates the film with bloody tribal battles, seismic upheaval, and a sense of raw spectacle. While writer Michael Carreras attempted to ground the story in some anthropological detail, the result is an energetic and grim adventure that uses its African locations to build a bleak, unforgiving vision of the dawn of man.
Production Co: Hammer / 92 mins / 1971
Director: Don Chaffey
Screenplay: Michael Carreras
Main Cast: Julie Ege (Nala), Tony Bonner (Toomak), Brian O’Shaughnessy (Mak), Robert John (Rool), Marcia Fox (The Mute Girl), Rosalie Crutchley (The Old Crone)
