SHE and SHE and SHE and SHE and THE VENGEANCE OF SHE (film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

[Philip De Parto]

The following Reviews are reprinted with permission from

THE MT VOID
11/07/25 -- Vol. 44, No. 19, Whole Number 2405

= = = = = = = = = 

SHE and SHE and SHE and SHE and THE VENGEANCE OF SHE  

Mini Reviews, Part 26 (film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

SHE (1911): This is the fourth film version of H. Rider Haggard's
novel, but (I believe) the first surviving one. It is also only 24
minutes long. The title character is played by Marguerite Snow.

I suppose one should be pleased that the title card for the
location refers to a rock called the Negro's Head, as opposed to
what one might have expected in 1911. The rock also looks more
like a Mount-Rushmore-style carving that a naturally formed rock,
though the novel describes it only as "a peak ... shaped like the
head of a negro" and "a great rock cavern like the head of an
Ethiopian." (Unless some sloppy typesetter replaced "carved" with
"cavern" and the error never got corrected.)

This version claims the fire itself has changed, causing "She" to
grow old. It also announces this on a title card *before* we see
the sene--talk about ruining the surprise!

Released theatrically 26 December 1911.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001877/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/she-1911>


SHE (1925): The title character is played by Betty Blythe. Her
first film  was in 1916, her last was MY FAIR LADY in 1964, making
her career almost as ageless as Ayesha. (Ironically one of her
early films was the 1921 FAIR LADY, no connection.)

This is feature-length (the IMDb says 69 minutes, but it is
actually about 95 minutes), so we see more characters than in the
1911 version: Ustane, Billali, and so on. (There appear to have
been two more short versions in 1916 and 1917, now apparently
lost.)

Leo Vincey's father says of Leo, "His birth cost me his mother's
life," as though everything mattered only as it affected him.

Leo Vincey looks a bit foppish, but that may just be the different
time (and acting style).

Here the rock is the Ethiopian's head.

This adds a bit of raciness when Ayesha steps into the flame--she
removes her clothing (which presumably would not survive the
fire), but her "very long and convenient hair" (as Raymond
Chandler would have said), and then the flames (actually colored
streamers) manage to conceal all the naughty bits (or "the
Midlands", as one character calls them in MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS).

Released theatrically 21 June 1925.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016338/reference>


SHE (1935): This was produced by Merian C. Cooper and written by
Ruth Rose, so the language of the cave dwellers sounds a lot like
that of the Nias islanders. Also, the giant gate is from KING
KONG, and Max Steiner did the music. And the contemporary love
interest is played by Helen Mack, who was in SON OF KONG. The
title character is played by Helen Gahagan, later Helen Gahagan
Douglas, who went on to serve in the United States Congress. (She
also coined Richard Nixon's nickname, "Tricky Dick".) It also has
Nigel Bruce, who plays a bumbler long before he took on that role
in the Sherlock Holmes films.

In this version Leo Vincey is from an American branch of the
family (to explain the accent, I suppose). (By the time of THE
WOLF MAN, apparently only a few years in America was enough to
change someone's accent.)

Another change is that Ayesha's land is in the Russian polar
regions rather than Africa. (H. Rider Haggard probably spun a few
times in his grave over that.) Her realm is also very Art Deco.

This depiction of Ayesha was the inspiration for the Wicked Witch
in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES.

And at the end there is a sacrificial ceremony, where the
participants dance around in a circle, sometimes shot from an
angle that reminds one of Busby Berkeley numbers, or the June
Taylor Dancers on the old JACKIE GLEASON SHOW. What with that, and
the language, and the gate, there may be more of Cooper and Rose
than of Haggard in this version.

You can tell this is post-Code: Leo doesn't talk about waiting for
Ayesha's reincarnation, but settles down with Englishwoman Tanya,
who makes a sappy speech about home and family. And Holly suggests
that while it might have been an overdose of radiation, it also
might have been the hand of God.

Released theatrically 12 July 1935.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026983/reference>


SHE (1965): This is the fifth version of the story. Apparently the
1935 version was considered definitive enough to discourage any
remakes. Then again, in the sound era, the push for remakes of
films every few years seemed to have died out. (However, sequels
became more popular.) The title character is played by Ursula
Andress, with her voice dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl (who also
dubbed her in DR. NO).

This is Hammer's version, so naturally it starts out with Holly,
Leo, and Job in a bar with a lot of scantily clothed belly
dancers. After a somewhat gratuitous bar fight, the three of them
go off in search of a lost city in the Mountains of the Moon. This
looks at least somewhat more Egyptian than the 1935 Art Deco
version.

As with the other versions, the residents of Ayesha's city are
pretty much Caucasian (or vaguely Middle Eastern), while the cave
dwellers are definitely black. How the very blond Ursula Andress
is passed off as Egyptian is not clear.

In this version, as in the 1925 version, Leo *does* enter the
flame, and so he is now immortal and Ayesha is dead.

Released theatrically 18 April 1965.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059710/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1068459-she>


THE VENGEANCE OF SHE (1968): This starts with a truly lame theme
song. (Ever since Dmitri Tiomkin realized he could make extra
money if there was a theme song that could be marketed as a
single, we have been subjected to a varying quality of theme songs
in movies. James Bernard based his themes on the titles, but
didn't put words to them.)

Anyway, this starts out in the "then-present", as Mark dubbed the
period contemporaneous with when a movie was made.

Carol, a rather spaced-out woman endowed with "busty substances"
(as Peter Cook and Dudley Moore would say), is hitchhiking and is
picked up by a sleazy truck driver who tries to rape her, but his
truck mysteriously puts itself into gear and runs over him.

She wanders to a port on the Riviera, and swims out (in her
underwear) and boards a yacht owned by George (played by Colin
Blakely, who played Matthew in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS). She is
apparently being mystically drawn to Kuma (with the help of spooky
music) to become Ayesha, and George's friend Philip goes with her.
The usual stuff happens, with some political plotting thrown in,
and eventually Carol breaks out of her trance just in time to
avoid being forced into the flame, and Killikrates (whose name was
Kallikrates in SHE) decides eternal life isn't worth it and
commits suicide by entering the flame a second time. Meanwhile
Carol gets her long gown caught on something, so Philip rips it
loose, conveniently leaving just enough skirt on her to pass the
censor's board.

There's very little of Haggard left in this one.

Released theatrically 1 May 1968.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063765/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_vengeance_of_she>

[-ecl]