In 1940 Carole starred in the prehistoric adventure One Million B.C. Carole is Loana, a beautiful cave girl who falls in love with a cave man from another tribe. This was the first movie she made after signing with Hal Roach studios. Victor Mature plays a rough cave man named Tumak who must learn to get along with Loana's tribe. They also costarred 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. Carole got the role of Loana because she looked best running in the skimpy costume. This was her first leading 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 started a brief romance with Hal Roach Jr. The movie's tagline was "UNBELIEVABLE! The World at the Dawn of Time!". One Million B.C. was released on April 5, 1940 and it was re-released as "Cave Man" in 1952. The movie was remade in 1966 with Raquel Welch and John Richardson. One Million B.C. was not a hit but the publicity made Carole a star. Despite bad reviews it got two Academy Award nominations (special effects and musical score).
Carole said of her role in One Million B.C. "I'm studying English, French and Italian, and I've studied voice for years. I sang with orchestras before I entered motion pictures. Honestly, I can do a few other things besides wearing a skimpy fur costume. This picture is a lot of fun and I'm tickled that I got the part. But after it's over I want people to sort of forget that I was the girl in the animal skirts."
* One Million B.C. has not been released on DVD but you can watch it for free at TCM
