it's only Teenage Caveman...

I sometimes envy kids these days, with movies on demand and access to just about anything they want to watch at any time.  before all of this, seeing a movie in the tv guide you wanted to see became an EVENT.  spending the night at a pal's house on a Friday evening in preparation for movie was a great thing to do.  reading comic books, playing games outside, having a good dinner... even if the movie wasn't great it was memorable.

this happened with this fine and underrated (and sadly titled) movie Teenage Caveman (1958), along with many other movies.  my friend Dale (now Ronald) and I watched it and many others on Friday nights.  these were aired on "Sci-Fi Flicks" on KWGN Channel 2 out of Denver CO.  one of the schedulers there had to be a genre fan, we got a lot of great movies shown.

before the movie, there was an episode of The Outer Limits, which was usually far better and lots scarier than any following movie that was aired.  this was good thinking, as it made said movie a lot more frightening.  well, at least to a couple of nine year old kids!

this stars a young, but not teenaged, Robert Vaughn giving a fine and earnest performance as the rebel with a cause, wanting to know why things are the way they are.

this of course was lost on us at the time, as we wanted to see cavemen vs. dinosaurs.  that was not to be, but it was a good movie anyway, with an ending more grown up eyes might see coming a mile away, but at least a surprise to me!

there were a few "monsters" in it, courtesy of stock footage from One Million, BC (1940), something that was passed off in many movies as a "dinosaur battle" when it was just lizards rolling around with each other.

there was a brief glimpse of some unknown sauropods, but this was about all the dinosaur action we got.  anyone know what movie this came from?

I really liked the movie then, and still like it to this day.  it's available on DVD and the title was reused for a forgettable newer version.

one of the cool things is that the She Creature makes a quick cameo appearance late in the film.  just the speculation on that monster alone was worth staying up late!

thanks Dale, for all the monster memories!  we'll talk about Minya some other time...