Movies about the stone age are - with the honourable exception of Annaud's "Quest of Fire" - usually rather silly. Think of comedies like "Caveman" with Ringo Starr, monster movies like "One Million Years B.C." with Raquel Welch, or the unfortunate "Clan of the Cave Bear" with Daryl Hannah. The much older b/w flick "Teenage Caveman" was a real surprise therefore, remarkably ambitious for a B movie. Young Robert Vaughn, a few years before "The Magnificent Seven", stars as a caveman who is challenging the elders of the tribe by trespassing the forbidden lands beyond the river. In their belief, the cave people must stay near their cave; they shall neither cross the river nor the desert, because their forefathers left the "Word". Vaughn is restless, after his first trip to the forbidden lands he repeatedly says "I still wonder..." and takes a second trip there. The elders decide the penalty for breaking the law twice must be death, and send a hunting party after him. What they all discover in the land beyond the river is however not what the Word of the forefathers said... (oh, it's hard sometimes to write a spoiler-free review and don't tell too much!) "Teenage Caveman" has an unusual philosophical edge to it, asking questions like "why are we here" and "what is beyond our world", and it makes clear that curiosity and restlessness are the driving forces for mankind's progress. Vaughn's Caveman is not satisfied with the answers the elders give him, he says "I still wonder...", and shouldn't we too sometimes? Only annoying point is the monster scenes, as the cheapo lizards (I refuse to call them dinosaurs) seem to be cut in between from different movies.
Review of Teenage Cave Man
