Four years after One Million B.C. made Raquel Welch a star in a fur bikini, Hammer Studios tried again with Victoria Vetri in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. In the end, the movies are barely related in terms of story. They’re actually the same movie, borrowing almost all aspects from each other except for Jim Danforth’s superb stop motion which would land him an Oscar nod.
With no dialogue to speak of other than a repetitious, 27-word caveman vocabulary, When Dinosaurs Ruled doesn’t offer much of anything on a human level. The actors fail to fully convey the story through their actions. At times, you’ll only realize there’s a chase, but for what reason is unknown. This is hardly historical accuracy at its finest, so it might as well have introduced actual dialogue in order to offer a more cohesive and interesting tale.
Even with Vetri on screen, the true visual highlight is Danforth’s animation. The stop motion used here is extensive, on screen for long periods of time to draw the viewer into the action. Dinosaurs are well crafted and unique, perfectly coming to life with a careful touch of the hand (and classic camera tricks).
Sadly, other visuals fall flat. Numerous scenes are obviously on a close sound stage, particularly many of those in the water. A sequence with two lizards fighting is stock footage from the awful Lost World 1960 remake which is probably why Danforth lost the Oscar to Tora! Tora! Tora!. A fight between two cavewomen in the ocean is embarrassing and purely for show.
One Million B.C. was hardly a great film either, but it was tolerable with a story that was simplistic enough to grasp for the full running time. This is mostly exploitation with some phenomenal stop motion that’s worth fast forwarding to. 
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