the audience applauded

Crappy film

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Another movie to tap into the fertile imagination of Jules Verne, the 1961 production "Valley of the Dragons" is loosely based upon - or maybe we should say inspired by - Vernes' story "Career of a Comet". It begins in the 19th century, when a Frenchman named Hector Servadac (Cesare Danova) and an Irishman named Michael Denning (Sean McClory) are about to have a duel (over a woman). But a comet makes contact with Earth at that precise moment, and Hector and Michael are swept up, along with a large chunk of Earths' prehistoric past, and deposited on the moon. The two men agree to put aside their differences, in order to survive, and end up dueling with ancient beasts, dealing with primitive tribes, and romancing cave babes Deena (Joan Staley) and Nateeta (Danielle De Metz), respectively.This is a fair diversion. There's nothing special here, but nothing overwhelmingly bad either. Even if done on a low budget (and heavily dependent on stock footage from "One Million B.C." and "Rodan"), it still manages to be just amusing enough for this viewer to stick with it. The attractiveness of Staley and De Metz doesn't hurt at all, and Danova and McClory deliver reasonably engaging performances. The black & white photography and atmosphere are respectable, while the special effects, largely consisting of trick photography designed to make ordinary animals seem huge, are passable. The action drags for a portion of the running time when our heroes are wooing their ladies. However, there is a mighty fine swimming sequence.The climax may very well be comprised of this stock footage, but that doesn't make it any less exciting. Some of the moments are horrific as humans and animals alike fall victim to a major volcanic eruption.Harmless stuff overall, if also unmemorable.Six out of 10.

One of the cheaper adaptions of Jules Verne for the big screen occurs with this film Valley Of The Dragons. Unless those ancient pteranodons are the dragons, there's really no mention of them.Sean McClory and Cesare Danova are a pair of 19th century adventurers ready to fight a duel over the affections of a woman who no doubt as they figure later on was egging it all on. An earthquake erupts and these two are swept up in it and transported to the head of a comet upon which a prehistoric society still thrives complete with other animals of the Cenozoic age.In no time flat these two wind up leading a pair of feuding tribes and bring them together. And they both get a pair of women companions as there is little other recreational activity.The footage from One Million BC is once again recycle for another imitation film. Valley Of The Dragons is even shot in black and white no doubt to better integrate the prehistoric footage.It's an interesting concept, but brought to the screen in a cheap knockoff manner. The science is also quite suspect a little below the standard of Jules Verne.

This film is so entertaining from the moment it starts that finding out through research that some of the footage was from "One Million B.C.", it didn't diminish the impact of the film for me. I was going to call my review "The Night of the Big Iguana", but I wanted to instill the point of view that having seen "One Million B.C." and this at different points in my life, I didn't even notice the difference. Only one thing in the film made me roll my eyes, and that was the silly looking underground people. But there was nothing else to laugh at, even after the premise of a comet leaving the two men about to duel all alone (as the others are whiffed away in some sort of Event Horizon) and come out of it as friendly as the Geiko gecko.I'm not really a follower of science fiction to the point where I can call myself an expert on the genre, so I had to simply accept what the two men realized had happened and just go along with the flow with that explanation and enjoy the sight of large creatures they had to hide from. Sure, it is really silly that the Frenchman (Cesare Danova) floats down the river on a palm raft as large creatures (including a snake and lizard) pass right by him as if they didn't want to disturb his nap. It is easy to overlook faulty parts of a storyline when it is presented so entertainingly. Only George Pal and Ray Harryhausen were doing successful films like this at the time, and this one wasn't either one of their talented thumbs.Fortunately, the romantic involvement between the two men and the cave women they found was subtly done not to overshadow the pre-historic nature and science fiction elements of the film. Young audiences of today might not appreciate it (to quote the son of a friend who watched "Godzilla" and told his dad that it was a man in a lizard suit.) But for those of us who remember the double creature feature (and no computer animation), it remains a lot of fun.

This movie was on fairly regularly when I was a kid; my cousin and I would frequently watch it together (she didn't share my enthusiasm for the animal skin-clad women, but she loved a scene where one of the cavemen gets eaten by a dragon). It was years later that I saw One Million B.C. for the first time; I knew it was hailed as a classic, but while I found it enjoyable (I fell in love with Carole Landis), VOTD still held more of a mystique for me. I have since looked for it in various video rental places with no success. It seems that these days even the networks aim for more sophisticated fare and overlook simpler joys like this. Just because the movies have graduated to Jurassic Park shouldn't mean that we can't suspend our disbelief for a brief period. VOTD should not be allowed to become extinct!