In 1940 Carole starred in the prehistoric adventure One Million B.C. She plays Loana, a beautiful cave girl who falls in love with a caveman
from another tribe. Victor Mature plays a rough cave man named Tumak
who must learn to get along with Loana's tribe. They also co-starred in I Wake Up Screaming and My Gal Sal. Carole does not speak one line of
dialogue in the entire movie. There is a narrator but the actors only
grunt and gesture. The cast includes Lon Chaney Jr, Conrad Nagel, and
John Hubbard, and Jean Porter (she and Carole shared a dressing room). Producer Hal Roach chose Carole for the role of Loana because she looked best
running in the skimpy costume. This was her first starring role in a big
budget film.
One Million B.C. was filmed in California and Nevada from
November 1939 until early 1940. Special effects were used to make small
lizards look like prehistoric animals. Hal Roach and his son Hal Roach
Jr. directed the movie after D.W. Griffith quit. During filming Carole had a brief romance with Hal Roach Jr. The movie's tag line was
"UNBELIEVABLE! The World at the Dawn of Time!". One Million B.C. was
released on April 5, 1940. Carole's sister said she had never seen her as happy as she was at the premiere. The movie was a modest hit and the publicity from the film made her a star. Despite some bad reviews it got two Academy Award nominations (special effects and
musical score). One Million B.C. was re-released as "Cave Man" in 1952 and was remade in 1966 with Raquel Welch and John Richardson.
Carole and Victor Mature
Carole on the set
