As I recall, this was one of many films where the distributor actually rented the movie theatre to show the film. The theatre chain got a fixed rental fee for showing the film, and the distributor took the box office receipts. There were a series of these types of films in the early 1970's that were shown in American theatres this way.
shareIn the UK in 1971 it had a regular nationwide cinema release as the lower half of a double bill with 'The Railway Children'. The distributors were MGM-EMI.
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There were no scratches on the print of it that I ran at the cinema where I was then a projectionist in January, 1972. It was in excellent condition. For the UK cinema release, it was edited down to 54 minutes.
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I thought it was excellent and still do and that it was far more interesting than "The Railway Children" which it supported on the double bill. Even my boss at the time remarked that it made you think about mankind's origins. I have the DVD of it, but it has been badly transferred and the music on it wows a lot. It didn't wow like that on the actual film. I also bought the original soundtrack LP on Polydor with its wonderful score by Peter Thomas and I still have it.
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