Valley of the Dragons

Here is a movie notable mainly for its unabashed stealing of special effects monsters from other movies. The thefts were from such masterpieces as Cat Women of the Moon, One Million B.C., and a Japanese movie I saw in my youth: Rodan. What surprised me was how good some of the monsters were. I mean, though they were obviously medium-sized lizards, when they’re doing battle I sometimes couldn’t figure out how they did it. One monster is an alligator, but he has a big sail on his back like a dimetrodon. How did they get that fin on him, so tightly that even when he rolls over the damn thing stays in place and there is no sign of a join? Epoxy? Sadly, this is the only interesting question in the movie, which claims to be based on one of the sillier novels of Jules Verne, Off on a Comet. A comet grazes the Earth and somehow scoops up a big hunk of landscape with people on it, uninjured. There are grotesque Neanderthals and “cave men” with, of course, one lovely blonde among them. Oh, it’s just too stupid to waste any more time on it.