Very disappointing...

Sorry, this movie sucks

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

The plot of Prehistoric Women (AKA Slave Girls. AKA Scream of the Haunted Ferret) is mighty strange as it encompasses an English hero discovering a lost world of warring women, strangely masked men who constantly lurk in the trees, not one but two rebellious uprisings, a conclusion that I could not begin to adequately explain, and a timewarp lark that ups the weirdness scale in what is already a weird tale. Oh, and there are many, many dance numbers (complete with ensemble choral chanting) throughout the film. Indeed, there is dancing and chanting aplenty. Thus, as one may surmise from this overview, at one level the film is total rubbish, a factor exacerbated by its setting within the confines of a most unconvincing jungle, but it is still amusingly compelling, a factor 100% the result of Martine Bestwick, who is nothing short of glorious. Of the latter point, I did wonder why the stoic hero, David, was so resistant to her carnal demands! So, Prehistoric Women (AKA Slave Girls. AKA Scream of the Haunted Ferret) is a 1960s Hammer curio for sure, but it is worth catching, if only to witness the majestic Kari, before her tussle with a wheeled fibreglass member of the rhinocerotidae family, of course.

Prehistoric Women is easily one of Hammer films worst efforts quality-wise, but since it's really an excuse to simply show off as many sexy, fur-bikini clad beauties as possible, who cares? No doubt it would help if one could have seen this on the big screen, around age 14 or so.In summary, hero David Marchand(Michael Latimere) is captured by tribesmen(apparently in British-controlled Africa somewhere), and is about to be slain when he's transported to the lost world of the brunette and blonde Amazons presumably by a lightning strike. The brunettes are led by remarkably evil Queen Kari(the remarkably sexy Martine Beswick), who unfortunately is exceptionally cruel a ruler - the brunettes hold all the blonde's in slavery having once been their slaves, if memory serves correctly. There does not seem to be a great many males left; what there are are kept in a cavern-prison chained up save, I assume, for the lucky few chosen for breeding stock from time to time.Our hero falls for blonde slave girl Saria(Edna Ronay), although he somehow resists the very evident charms of Queen Kari, who wishes him for her own(subservient) mate. He resists her, though, making one wonder seriously about his hormone levels, and is tossed into said-dungeon. Predictably, a slave revolt happens aided by a mass-escape of the surviving men. The tribe's White Rhino God appears during the mayhem at the climax, which leads to unfortunate results for Queen Kari when she tries to bow down to the beast.Somehow, David Marchand finds himself back in then-modern times, and - surprise - a blonde beauty he meets at a train depot is Saria!(or her reincarnation?) Many plot elements are not very clear as others have noted with glee, so one is never sure exactly what has really happened to Marchand. Of course, one imagines this film wasn't meant to be taken terribly seriously at all, but it would be fun to see the restored version if that is what's now available on disc. I rate this six stars simply for the display of beauty on hand, not for any intrinsic filmatic qualities. I shouldn't be surprised if many dark-haired ladies who somehow happen to view this cult film enjoy(maybe secretly) seeing the blonde's endure such rough treatment, though...

In 1966, Hammer studios gave the world its cave-girl classic One Million Years B.C., which featured a bevy of fur bikini-clad beauties, including the pneumatic Raquel Welch and the lissom Martine Beswick. The next year, obviously unwilling to consign a wardrobe full of skimpy animal-skin costumes to the skip, they also made Prehistoric Women (AKA Slave Girls), a ridiculous jungle adventure which saw Beswick once again playing a wildcat with a nasty streak.Written and directed by Michael Carreras, Prehistoric Women is technically one of Hammer's weakest efforts: a poorly scripted studio-bound clunker with an unbelievably daft plot and some mind-numbingly bad performances. However, it is also one of those rare films that manages to be consistently entertaining simply thanks to its unrelenting awfulness.Michael Latimer plays David Marchand, a jungle guide who is taken captive by savage, white rhinoceros worshipping natives who intend to sacrifice him to their god. Just as he is about to be killed, David touches their sacred rhino statue, which freezes time and opens a doorway into a kingdom where a tribe of big-breasted, brunette beauties, led by the heartless Queen Kari (Beswick), have enslaved a tribe of equally-buxom blonde babes.After falling for a slave girl named Saria (Edina Ronay), and witnessing Kari's cruelty, David vows to help the blonde women overthrow their oppressors, a task made all the more difficult when he is clapped in irons for spurning Kari's sexual advances.Featuring loads of native song and dance numbers to pad out the action (including a nifty solo routine from Beswick, who might not be the prettiest of Hammer's women, but certainly has one hell of a hot bod!), the occasional cat-fight, a gloriously naff jungle battle, and a silly surprise ending that makes no sense whatsoever, this film is sheer nonsense from start to finish. But it's fun nonsense, which earns itself a rating of 6/10 from this easily pleased viewer.And, if nothing else, I did learn a vital lesson in jungle survival: never bow down in front of a charging rhino (even if it looks like it is made from papier-mâché and is being pulled along on a trolley!).

There can't be many films sillier than "Slave Girls" (a.k.a "Prehistoric Women"). This absurd farrago from the folks at Hammer is an attempt by them to wring a few extra profits out of the sets and costumes from their earlier hit "One Million Years B.C." Scripted, produced and directed by Michael Carreras, "Slave Girls" is a film that invites derision wherever it is seen – Maltin refers to it as "idiotic", while Halliwell calls it "feebly preposterous". What neither of them remembers to mention is that the film retreats so far into its own outlandish unreality that it somehow rises above – (or should that be sinks below?) – criticism on normal terms. The film exists in two versions – the British cut running for approximately 74 minutes, and the longer 90 minute American version. This is a review of the American cut.In Africa, a game hunter called David Marchant (Michael Latimer) is organising a leopard hunt for his safari party. Unfortunately, the leopard is injured but not killed by an over-eager member of the party, so Marchant feels obliged to follow the animal into dangerous tribal territory to perform its mercy killing. He is discovered by the tribe whose territory he has trespassed into and they take him away to be killed in front of their idol, the White Rhinoceros. During the sacrificial ritual, a strange lightning bolt opens a crack in the cave wall and Marchant escapes through it. However, his problems have only just begun, for he finds himself going through some kind of time warp into a past dimension. Here, a tribe of dark-haired women have total control of the region and keep fair-haired women as slaves for their personal gratification. The leader of the dark-hairs is the cruel and treacherous Queen Kari (Martine Beswick). She wants Marchant to be her mate and even offers to share power with him if he accepts, but he is appalled by her tyranny and refuses. One of the blonde slaves, the beautiful Saria (Edina Ronay), senses that Marchant might be able to liberate the enslaved fair-hairs from Queen Kari's terrible rule, so she sets about persuading him to join them in their struggle for freedom."Slave Girls" has a cult following, and from a brief description of its plot it's not hard to see why. Films like this don't get made very often!?! The most incredible thing about the film is that it is so deadly serious – not a single tongue to be found in a single cheek despite the sheer lunacy on display. Latimer as the hero is hopelessly wooden, but the two central female parts are played with admirable gusto by Beswick and Ronay. If they feel any sense of embarrassment in performing their roles – and surely they must – they hide it with remarkable courage, and enter fully into the spirit of things. The photography is technically quite good, and Carlo Martelli's melodramatic music adds an earnest sense of drama to the ridiculous proceedings. "Slave Girls" is an almost impossible film to review because it bears all the hallmarks of a 1-out-of-10 bomb, yet to rate it so lowly seems grossly unfair. It deserves two stars for sheer courage, another for its leading female performances, and one more for technical proficiency. Awful it might be, but at least it's ENJOYABLY awful!