WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET (1966)
Article 3593 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-30-2011
Posting Date: 6-16-2011
Directed by Arthur C. Pierce
Featuring Wendell Corey, Keith Larsen, John Agar
Country: USA
What it is: Space adventure

The admiral of a space fleet goes against orders by embarking on a rescue mission for a ship under his command that crash-landed on an unexplored planet.

This is one of three movies that are easy to confuse with each other, the other two being VOYAGE TO A PREHISTORIC PLANET and VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN. This is the only one of the three that didn’t pillage PLANETA BUR for footage; most of the footage was shot specifically for this movie. To its credit, the movie tries at least a little bit to be about something; the subplots involving the Centaurians does hint at some commentary about prejudice, but if the movie has anything significant to say about the subject, it gets lost in the mix. The bottom-of-the-barrel special effects I can forgive; the dull story, bad dialogue, mostly ineffectual acting, turgid pace, painful comic relief and general hangdog air are what sink this one. Even the title is a cheat; there’s only one woman, and those expecting anything in the way of dinosaur action will have to put up with one easily-killed big lizard. The other two movies may have cobbled their best footage from PLANETA BUR, but at least that footage was interesting. All in all, this one is pretty pathetic.