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!
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!