Captive Women 1952 Written by Jack Pollexfen and Audrey Wisberg, directed by Stuart Gilmore. An early post-apocalypse film that was released in the UK under the name 3000 AD which was also one of the original options for the US title. It was rereleased in 1956 as 1000 Years From Now. Stuart was mostly an editor, he directed 5 films, this is the last, and followed that with a handful of TV episodes. His editing career continued on until 1971 when he died. His last edit job was on The Andromeda Strain. I've seen quite a bit of his work.
The movie is set 1000 years in the future, there's been a nuclear war and the human race has suffered. Most of them died and survivors have been eking out a living as best they can. The locals are divided into three main groups, the Norms, the Upriver People and the Mutates. None of them are pals. The Mutates are disfigured due to radiation. They follow the Christian Bible, the Norms don't.
The Norms live across the river from the Mutates and even though they live in a tunnel from before the end times, they don't know about another tunnel that runs under the river. The Mutates use the tunnel to escape when raiding their neighbors. The Upriver People are short on women and they want to conquer the Norms and get their women. All three tribes have people who are secretly plotting against their own tribes. All that creates a lot of tension in the land and the son of the chief of the Norms is tired of the killing. He saves the life of a Mutate man and that helps him later on.
It's a short movie, barely 64 mins, and it's well packed with story. I enjoyed it. It's not a great film, in fact, it's a bit goofy, which I don't mind. In it's favor, it moves quickly and there's usually something going on. I liked the tunnel sets, they were effectively used and well shot. The cast does a good job for the most part, no real big names, Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Gloria Saunders and Ron Randell are the leads. One of my favorite character actors, William Schallert, is one of the Mutates. There's a link above, you can see it on YouTube. Some might enjoy it.
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