Valley of the Dragons
Valley of the Dragons
| 31 October 1961 (USA)
Valley of the Dragons Trailers

In 1881 Algeria, an American soldier and a French aristocrat are about to have a duel over a woman when a comet hurtling past the Earth draws them into its gravitational pull. The men find themselves transported to the moon, where they discover a prehistoric civilization inhabited by reptiles and humans.

Reviews
FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Kingkitsch "Valley of the Dragons" is a real scrapbook of other, better movies. Finally available in a very nice DVD print from Columbia Classics, VOTD reveals itself to be the second half of a sci-fi double bill aimed at kids in the early 60s. VOTD is strictly a potboiler patched together from other films Columbia had access to, as well as stock footage. Columbia hoped to cash in on the Jules Verne craze that had seen great success with Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954) and 20th Century Fox's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1958). Verne's "Off on a Comet" was pretty much forgotten, so Columbia seized on the title and added an astonishing number of things harvested from other sources in hopes to make the money the aforementioned films harvested. It didn't work, and VOTD ended up on an endless loop in second-run theatres and died a quiet death on TV "Chiller Theater" offerings until vanishing in the late 60s. Seeing this oddity again after so many years is why popcorn was invented. It's earnest, yet silly. The production values are not bad, and the story is as flimsy as they come. Earthmen are swept onto a passing comet, discover they're about to become lunchmeat for "dinosaurs", run away from flaming oatmeal spewed out by a volcano, and find hot babes on said comet. Love conquers all and leering commences as the two former enemies realize they have seven years to fool around with the hot babes before maybe getting off the comet when it passes Earth again.The "dinosaurs" are the stock variety lizards with fins glued on their backs and blown up via rear projection. Many have wandered over from the classic "One Million BC" (1940), as have a bunch of mangy mastodons. The erupting volcano and the hot oatmeal returns from that spectacle as well. There's a really unpleasant scene featuring a giant kinkajou attacking and really eating a snake. Rodan (1956) wanders over from Japan and makes a few peek-a-boo appearances. The giant spider/bug is from "World Without End"(1956). The Morlocks from MGM's "The Time Machine" (1960) show up, although the faces have been changed and lack the glow-in-the-dark eyes. And so on. All that aside, VOTD isn't a bad way to spend a few minutes, and there's some cheesecake and a loose bikini top in an underwater swim sequence. This is poverty row movie-making at it's finest. Be warned though, if you making a drinking game of this by taking a shot every time you spot something from another B-movie monster mash, you'll be stinking drunk by the 45 minute mark.
Woodyanders Hector Servadac (dashing Cesare Danova) and Micheal Denning (likable Sean McClory) are about to participate in a duel when they suddenly thrust by a comet into an alternate universe where they are forced to set aside their differences in order to survive in this strange and dangerous new world.Writer/director Edward Bernds relates the enjoyable story at a steady pace and maintains an engaging sincere tone throughout. The leads play off each other well and display a nice natural chemistry. The tight and eventful script delivers a wealth of cheerful $1.50 thrills such as savage cavemen, ferocious giant lizard beasts, hostile woolly mammoths, albino cave mutants, a volcanic eruption (of course), and even a big rubbery spider. Moreover, there's some mighty delectable distaff eye candy in the fetching forms of beauteous blonde Joan Staley as the feisty Deena and comely brunette Danielle De Metz as the sweet Nateeta. The cheap special effects and obvious copious use of stock footage from other films both give this picture a certain endearingly rinky-dink charm. A fun little flick.
Chris Gaskin This is another movie I'd been after for years and recently obtained a copy off ebay on the Colombia Classics label.2 men having a duel somehow end up on a comet when a storm breaks out. This comet contains a prehistoric jungle and strange creatures (more on them later). They also make friends with natives (cave men and women) and find love too. But they also have to fight off unfriendly, missing link creatures.Now to those prehistoric creatures, these are mostly lots of giant lizard stock footage from One Million BC. We also see Wolly Mammoths, Mastadons and a giant spider.I found this move enjoyable and great fun to watch.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.
Brian Washington This was one of the very first dinosaur movies I ever watched. When I was a kid I loved the a lot of the scenes, especially the ones from the volcanic eruption. Little did I know at the time that most of the footage was "borrowed" from the original "jurassic classic" One Million B.C. (1940). Also, I didn't find out until several years later that this film was based on a work by the master of science fiction, Jules Verne. This is an okay film for lovers of B movies. Too bad that they don't really show it on television anymore.