Women of the Prehistoric Planet is a 1966 American science fiction/action film directed by Arthur C. Pierce and starring John Agar.
Plot
A spacefaring crew from an advanced civilization is preparing to return home after an extended voyage. The crew includes "humans" and "Centaurians". The Centaurians have been rescued from their home planet after a catastrophic event, not explained in the movie, has devastated their planet. They are being brought back with the spacefaring explorers with an expectation that they will be assimilated into their new parent culture. One of the ships in the fleet is hijacked by a few of its Centaurian passengers and crash-lands on a prehistoric planet in the "Solaris" system. Countermanding orders, the rest of the fleet returns to search for survivors after the crash. In the film's "twist," by the time that the rescuers are able to return to the planet, they are encountering the descendants of the original crash survivors - explained in a simplified version of time dilation. Linda, a Centaurian from the rescue ship, falls in love with Tang after he saves her from drowning. After fighting with the planet's indigenous species, Tang and Linda are marooned on the prehistoric planet - and the latter is revealed to be the captain's own daughter. In the film's coda, this savage and primitive planet is revealed to be Earth.
Themes
are the film's overarching theme, although its approach to the subject has been typically criticized in retrospect.
"... a blatant social commentary on race relations. Even though the screenplay tries to preach fairness, some of the subtle signals send contradictory messages. The crew members of the Cosmos are portrayed as superior. The Centaurians as inferior. The crew are clearly all-white. They dress in tidy white uniforms with snappy cravats. They are in control, follow orders, and are concerned for others. The Centaurians are "rustic," Their outfits are sleeveless. Their men are hotheads and trouble makers.. Even the "progressive" notion of Tang being the mixed-race son of a "white" and a Centaurian, is undermined by his apparent comfort at being a cave man. Subtle signal: "They" are savages at heart.
"The real subject matter of the film is race relations, with the "Centaurians" all being played by Asian actors and the "Humans" all played by whites and the message is that different races can and should get along. This is a noble sentiment of course, but the movie around it is both incredibly clunky, unintentionally condescending and has an incredibly lazy twist at the end."
Reviews
gave the film one and a half stars. The film has an 18% rating on the Rotten Tomatoesweb site. Other reviewers have assessed the film as a "bomb" and described it as "Typical bad sci-fi... with horrid special effects."
DVD releases
The MST3K version of the film, accompanied by a short introduction by actress Irene Tsu, was released by Rhino Home Video as part of the 'Collection, Volume 9' box set. Englewood Entertainment released a videotape version, and later DVD version, of the original, uninterrupted movie.
Poster
Women of the Prehistoric Planet's provocative film poster features the tagline "It's a battle of the sexes as savage planet women attack female space invaders" and depicts a blonde and a brunette in a catfight. However, there are no "planet women" in the movie, as the only female Centurian does not originate from the prehistoric planet. Nor does the film contain any scenes of women fighting each other.
