the audience applauded

Absolutely brilliant

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

At 1 hour long,this movie is another Roger Corman disaster. With almost no time to fill,the movie still drags and is mind-numbingly boring. Anytime it's not a tight shot of 2 people,it's them walking on the same path. Some of the monsters are OK but some are silly. The way the cave people talk is extremely lame.They can't figure out the concept of naming people but can call people things like "the fair haired boy".Of course,the teenagers look to be about 40.There obviously weren't any real teenagers in the 50s. The only thing more amazing than the terrible acting is the fact that this movie even got made. There is one redeeming quality,a good twist at the end.

***SPOILERS*** Roger Corman film about prehistoric man and what obstacles he faced back in prehistoric times and how he eventually overcame them.It took the rebellious and searching for the truth symbol makers-Leslie Bradley-son played by the young and energetic Robert Vaughan to finally find what it's really all about in what's beyond the great river where the monster who kills with one touch rules. Denied to go beyond the great river by caveman leader the black bearded one, Frank DeKova, the intuitive son of the symbol maker together with his fellow teenage cavemen travel there anyway with one of the the cave people the blond boy who can't float, Beach Dickerson, ending up dead by drowning in a nearby stream. It's the black-bearded one who then demands that the son of the symbol maker be put to death from not only breaking the law of the cave clan but being responsible for the blond boy's tragic death! After his dad, the symbol man, convinced the black-bearded one to give his son a second chance he despite risking his life for a second time goes beyond the land of the great river to find out what all these BS stories about the monster who kills with one touch is all about. It's when the son of the symbol maker finally confronts the monster that he realizes that he's in fact not trying to kill anyone but warn him and his fellow cavemen about what really happened way back then, in pre prehistoric times, and not let it happen again!***SPOILERS*** It was in fact the black-bearded one who in the end took out the monster who kills with one touch, by cracking his skull open with a boulder, which totally destroyed his made up stories about the monster being and indestructible God. It also had an outraged son of the symbol maker do in the black-bearded one with a arrow to the chest in him keeping the monster from telling the truth about what happened way back then and what exactly he had to do with it. Fortunately for the cave dwelling clan the dying monster had a book that exists thousand of years before man developed a written language and printing press to explain what really happened and why the world is in the sorry shape that it's in today in what seems like the year one million years B.C. But don't expect the cave people to be able to understand what the book is telling them since they, in not being able to read English or an other language, have no idea what's written in it!

Even dependable ace director Roger Corman wasn't able to turn this dud into something steadily worth watching. It stars THE MAN FROM UNCLE's Robert Vaughn as a 26-year-old "boy" who defies his tribe's law by daring to venture forth "beyond the river" to the other side, where he is met by quicksand and a few silly creatures. It's an hour or so of tedium, but we do get a hearty laugh in seeing Robert Shayne looking ridiculous as a bearded caveman in sheepskin and sporting a Shemp Howard haircut. The ending of the film is at least interesting, though it's not worth the trip to make it that far. * out of ****

I thought this film was actually pretty good. The writing is done well. It is very "B" rated, but don't let that tell you all about this film. The plot twists and turns and you will think you have the hang of it, then you won't. Please, take the time to see this, you may like it.