Cavegirl: Sarah Chalke

Here is Canadian actress Sarah Chalke in a very good cavegirl outfit from the show Scrubs. As I have never seen the show I have no idea why she is dressed as a cavegirl but she looks pretty good in her outfit!

Cavegirl Art 12: Cartoon Cavegirl

This cartoon was by regular Playboy cartoonist Dink (Leo) Siegel (1910-2003) and appeared in the November 1964 issue. Oddly, it's quite hard to find any information about him on the net other than that he was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He worked for many other magazines as well as Playboy (for whom he contributed for over 25 years) including Good Houskeeping, Life, Cosmopolitan and the Saturday Evening Post.

Much prehistoric fiction (such as Jean M Auel's books) feature inter-action between early Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals and no doubt this was the inspiration for this cartoon. Or not. Anyway, the cavegirl dinosaur co-existence pre-dates One Million Years BC by two years.

Plastic Cavegirl: Cro Magnon Woman

Box art

Alternative legs and arms were included

In 1971, American plastic model kit manufacturer, Aurora launched arange of prehistoric kits. Some, like the Woolly Mammoth, were quite good and some were not so good. These were snap- -together models that, in theory, didn't need any glue.

They were largely popular, I suspect, because of the rather striking box art. I'm not sure who did the prehistoric range paintings. Top illustrator James Bama (now a hugely suceesful artist specialising in Western themes) did all their Horror personalities kits so may have done these. The original painting for Cro Magnon Woman sold on eBay about two years ago for $2,000.

Frankly, the kit itself, sculpted by Bill Lemon, is rather disappointing and even though it turns up on eBay reasonably often I am not tempted! It is in 1/13th scale and includes alternative legs and arms. It may have been based on Aurora's controversial The Victim kit from their Monster Scenes range. This so outraged Americans at the time that they picketed the company's New York factory asking for it to be withdrawn. They re-named it instead as Dr Deadly's Daughter.

Although the kit purports to be (pre) historical and the little plastic plaque included reads "Cro-Magnon Woman. 40,000 years ago in France. Late Pleistocene Time" the inclusion of a two headed snake rather militates against this!

Post Apocalyptic Cavegirls: She Wolves of the Westeland.

She Wolves of the Wasteland (1988) (original title Phoenix the Warrior) was a dirt cheap all female version of Mad Max. In the future all men have died out leaving only ravening lesbian women to rule (it sounds like parts of Vancouver). One woman becomes artificially impregnated in order to bear a male child and another warrior is assigned to protect her.

The Turkish Video cover showing the film under its original title

The Only (semi) nude scene in the film, sadly

Generally, this seems to be not that well regarded even by people, like me, who like trashy movies. There doesn't seem to be enough nudity in it (a lost opportunity, surely, with a planet full of lesbian gangs) and the sets are very poor, I gather. Oh well, I might still pick it up on Amazon and see what it is like. It does co-star one Peggy Sands, who is better known as Canadian Playboy Playmate Peggy McIntaggart. Unusually, Peggy became Playmate (January 1990) after the release of the film. Usually a girl is a Playmate first and then makes trashy B movies. If she does wear a fur bikini in the film it could justify a pictorial feature on her.

The film does certainly have a fur bikini poster and at least illustrates the rare example of Post- Apocalyptic cavegirl.

Cavegirl Art 11: Cavegirl on log

This wonderful painting by Frank Frazetta works for all sorts of reasons. In the background the tropical island looms in the mist in a most sinister way; threatening shapes could conceal all sorts of nameless terrors. Although we can't see her face, Frazetta's masterful rendering of her back and shoulder muscles show that she is looking at the island. As her log is being paddled past it rather than towards it this gives a nice sense of trepidation. The log she is astride is covered in nasty-looking, mouldy encrustations, contrasting with the girls smooth, pale skin. In the middle distance some flying creatures flock. Are they just seabirds or something more reptilian? The clunp of rushes on the left balance the solid shape of log and girl and counterbalance the shadowy island. Without them the painting would be over-heavy on the right. The cavegirl herself has a nicely unkempt fur loincloth and an engagingly primitive necklace of teeth.

Or does it work because it is just a painting of a girl with a fantastic arse with a huge gnarled object between her thighs?

Whatever, we give it 9/10

Cavegirl: Raquel Welch from Men Only

Raquel in Men Only April 1966

It's far too long since I posted anything on here but this will change over the next few months as I have assembled a lot of material to share with the world!

To get us off to a good start I present a few more pictures of Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC. Now, most Raquel pictures on the web are the same but I don't think I have seen these before. They come from the April 1966 issue of Men Only.

Men Only is one of the oldest men's magazines; first published in 1935. In 1966 it carried a mixture of stories, articles, humour and some not very racy pin ups. After a long and venerable history by 1966 it was struggling against pushy, glossy Penthouse (first published in 1965) and within five years would be bought by Paul Raymond as the first rung in his adult magazine empire and re-launched as the main competitor to other UK rival, Mayfair.

A very fine, damp Raquel

There are two nice studies of Raquel and a few interesting behind the scenes shots. The film hadn't come out at the time of the article so very little was made of any dinosaurs as these were no doubt still being brought to life in post-production by Ray Harryhausen.

Raquel looks fantastic; even in a car park!

Some of the cast smoking themselves to extinction

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth DVD

I recently picked up the 2008 release of the Hammer double bill Moon Zero Two (1969) and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970).

Amber Dean Smith

Moon Zero Two, Hammer's highest budget film, was an oddity; an early attempt to make a SF Western (see also Outland, The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Firefly). It is outside the scope of this blog but did feature one of the few film performances of Amber Dean Smith, the first ever Penthouse Pet of the Year (1966).

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, however, is the second greatest Cavegirls in Fur Bikinis film ever! The film starred former Playboy Playmate of the Year (1968), Victoria Vetri, meaning that the double bill features one each of the yearly choices for the two great men's magazines.

We see a lot more of Victoria because the DVD I bought was the one released last year in the US which erroneously inlcuded the orginal, uncut version of WDRTE, but with the wrong rating on the box. As a result the DVD was withdrawn and the prices of those still in circulation has shot up. This is the first time the uncut film has been available, albeit briefly, on DVD. I would imagine it would be a lot cheaper to re-package the DVD than cut it but then there are usually cost ssues with submitting films for certification (in order to be able to change the cover) so they may not bother.

There will be several forthcoming entries on WDRTE, therefore. I will look at the movie itself and of course the trio of splendid cavegirls: Victoria Vetri, Magda Konopka and imogen Hassall.