A 1967 Hammer Horror film written and directed by Michael Carreras, made to capitalize on the popularity of the previous year's One Million Years B.C. both by reusing the costumes and by casting Martine Beswick (i.e. the brunette cave woman who wrestles with Raquel Welch in that film) as the evil Queen Kari. Her performance is one of the few reason this movie is still remembered today.
The plot sees Great White Hunter David Marchant (Michael Latimer) captured by hostile natives in modern day Africa after disturbing the spirits of their temple. He winds up touching the statue of their god (a white rhino) and is sent back in time to where the same god is worshiped by a tribe of pale-skinned brunette women, who keep their men as slaves and have also enslaved another tribe of blondes. Marchant falls for Saria (Edina Ronay), one of the blonde slavegirls. David helps to spark a revolt, which sees Queen Kari dead. Marchant proclaims his love for Saria, but she spurns him, saying that he is not part of her world but assuring him that her love for him will last forever.
Marchant suddenly returns to the present, where the statue of the rhino god is destroyed, thus confirming another prophecy which sees David freed. He is uncertain if he dreamed the whole thing until he realizes that he still has the necklace of Queen Kari that Saria refused to accept as a token of his love. He returns home, still confused, until he is introduced to a young woman named Sarah who is the spitting image of Saria.
Prehistoric Women contains examples of:
- Adventurer Outfit: Colonel Hammond is dressed in a classic safari suit and pith helmet.
- Censor Suds: When Queen Kari addresses David from her bath, her modesty is preserved by copious foamy bubbles. Exactly where a prehistoric queen got access to bubble bath is a question
probably best not thought about too much. - Dark Is Evil: The brunettes are cruel, wicked people (although the dialogue indicates that they are, to some extent, repaying the treatment they received when they were the slaves of the fairhaired people).
- Evil Laugh: Queen Kari
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: The blondes are good. The brunettes are evil.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Saria.
- Fanservice: Absolutely full of it.
- Fantastic Racism: Blondes are considered inferior by the ruling tribe of brunettes.
- Fantasy Keepsake: Once back at the camp, David wonders whether it really was a dream or he had really traveled back in time to reunite a lost African tribe and end a million-year-old legend. As he cleans himself, he discovers the white rhino brooch in his pocket, proving some truth in his experience.
- Fur Bikini: The women of the ancient tribe all dress in fur bikinis: the brunettes in dark furred ones and the blondes in light furs.
- Giant Animal Worship: It is not clear if the white rhino the tribe worships is actually a god, or merely a unusually large rhino.
- Great White Hunter: David Marchant
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Queen Kari kills the slave girl who stands up to her by impaling her on a roasting spit. Queen Kari later meets her fate with the white rhino's horn into her heart.
- Instant Knots: The captain of the Amazons who captures David neatly ties his hands together with a single flick of her whip.
- Lady Land: David is thrown backwards through time to an ancient kingdom ruled by Queen Kari. All of the men have been enslaved, and the brunette women rule over the blondes.
- Made a Slave: After David rejects Queen Kari's advances, she has him put in shackles and cast into a cave with the other male slaves until he changes his mind.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It is not clear if the white rhino the tribe worships is actually a god, or merely a unusually large rhino.
- Ms. Fanservice: Saria and Queen Kari
- Naked First Impression: David's first sight of Queen Kari is her emerging naked from the pool where she has been bathing. Scenery Censors prevent the audience from getting anything more than Toplessness from the Back.
- Nubile Savage: Every woman in the movie, practically.
- The Old Convict: When David is Made a Slave, he is chained to an elderly slave who tells David of how it all began.
- Produce Pelting: After Queen Kari orders the slaves food tipped on to the ground, the rebellious slave girl picks up a cooked chicken and hurls it at her.
- Reincarnation Romance: At the end of the movie, David confesses his love for Saria, but she moves away and tells David that her love for him will always remain. She leaves David alone in the rain, along with the statue of the white rhino. As if hypnotized, David moves forward and touches the rhino's horn as lightning strikes. Returned to his own time, David rejoins his Native Guide and they return to camp. David is surprised at how little time has passed for the guide. Once back at the camp, David wonders whether it really was a dream or he had really traveled back in time to reunite a lost African tribe and end a million-year-old legend. As he cleans himself, he discovers the white rhino's brooch in his pocket, proving some truth in his experience. David is then asked to greet some people from London. To his amazement, one of the guests is the image of Saria. The guest then introduces herself as Sarah.
- Rhino Rampage: Queen Kari later meets her fate Impaled with Extreme Prejudice on the horn of the rampaging white rhino.
- Scenery Censor: During David's Naked First Impression of Queen Kari, strategically placed vegetation prevents the audience from seeing anything more than Toplessness from the Back.
- Sigil Spam: Both the prehistoric tribe and the modern day one have plastered the symbol of the white rhino all over their territory.
- Whip of Dominance: Both Queen Kari and her guard captain use whips as weapons to assert their dominance over the slaves.
