at theaters: april 5, 1940

Opened in movie theaters 73 years ago today:

ONE MILLION B.C. (Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Lon Chaney, Jr.; directed by Hal Roach, Hal Roach, Jr.)

Review: “Mr. Roach, in a word, has created a masterpiece of imaginative fiction, probably no more fanciful than the monsters which practising paleontologists have been known to recreate from fossil thigh bones or less. He has been assisted by an alert special-effects department, which makes giant saurians sit up and bark like trained seals, and by a cast which, though without a single “name,” in the Hollywood sense of the word, is nevertheless the tops in pre-history. You are almost certain to like something about “One Million, B. C.”—if no more than the third cave man from the left, in the Rock number, who looks like Harpo Marx, or just the fact that there is no dialogue, just gestures and unetymological grunts.” —The New York Times, April, 1940

Trivia: D.W. Griffith, the original director, quit and had his name removed from the credits (imdb.com)

Recognition: Oscar nominations for music, special effects

movieDate: january 8, 1877

ON THIS DAY in 1877, at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory, Crazy Horse and his Oglala Lakota warriors fought their final battle against the U.S. Cavalry. This event was portrayed in the 1955 film, CHIEF CRAZY HORSE, starring Victor Mature.