Movie Monday: She

This week's movie is...yep, one more time with She!

After watching the 1935 version, and then the 1982 version, it only seemed fitting to try what's arguably the most famous movie adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's novel, the 1965 version made by none other than the legendary Hammer!

She opens with a title card that says "Palestine, 1918", but before you worry this is going to be some dry, historical film, the film makes its intentions known from the first shot:

...woo, belly-dancers!

As a bunch of comely girls dance around, we are introduced to our main characters: Leo Vincey (John Richardson), manservant Job (Bernard Cribbins), and Professor Holly, played by the always-delightful Peter Cushing:

Amid talk of an adventure expedition, Vincey spies a gorgeous young girl in the bar named Ustane (Rosenda Monteros) and within a few minutes he's already gotten pretty chummy with her:

Later when they are alone, Vincey and Ustane start mashing, but its interrupted when someone conks him on the head--turns out the whole thing was a trap! And the guy doing the conking is none other than Hammer's go-to bad guy, Christopher Lee as She's priest and right-hand man Bilali:

When Vincey wakes up, he is entranced to meet "She" (Ursula Andress), who promises Vincey riches and, even more enticingly, love, courtesy She herself:

Our three heroes set out into the desert, and the film at this point becomes veddy veddy British--despite all the dangers and death they encounter, there's a whole "stiff upper lip" Gunga Din-feel to it, interspersed with Vincey's visions of She, drawing him deeper and deeper into the desert.

Eventually they make their way to the hidden city of Kuma (with Ustane having genuinely fallen for Vincey), where She talks of the flame of eternal life. She is a despotic ruler, tossing slaves into a pit of flame when they disobey her, much to the disgust of Holly and the rest.

Andress looks great as She, but the closest we get to anything really titillating is when She and Vincey have parallel dreams, and the former writhes around in her bed. Unfortunately her sheets seemed permanently affixed:

Unfortunately for She and Vincey, Bilali wants the secret of immortality for himself, as reward for his faithful service. He doesn't want this interloper stealing his thunder, but when he tries to jump into the flame and become immortal, She stabs him with a spear:

She and Leo enter the flame, with the latter becoming immortal! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have the same effect on She (hasn't she seen the other movies?), and the centuries of life catch up with her all at once:

She dies, and the flame flickers out, leaving Leo immortal. He promises that even though he doesn't know when the blue flame will be seen again, he will be there, so he can undo his immortality. The End!

This version of She has a great credit, right at the end:

...it's not Maria Quasimodo, but "Oo-Bla-Da Dancers" is still pretty good!


Thankfully, this version of She is much more akin to the 1935 one, in that its a fairly-rousing, well-produced adventure film. There's lots of location shooting here, indicating Hammer had some money to spend, and the sets (especially those in Kuma) are quite striking.

Ursula Andress looks great, but of course that's why she's in the movie. She doesn't have much to do beyond that (and occasionally throwing some poor bastard into a flaming pit), but having the always-dependable Cushing and Lee in the movie helps fill the space.

Having the movie end with Leo being immortal--and sort of promising he's going to go on more adventures--is a nice hook for a sequel, and Hammer apparently intended to make one, producing The Vengeance of She in 1968. But apparently at the last minute all references to She were removed, making that film more of a remake than a sequel.


There are even more film versions of She--Wiki lists productions from 1908, 1911, 1916, 1917, 1919, and 1925! The last one is available on DVD, and maybe some day I'll pick that up just for curiosity's sake. But for now I think Movie Monday needs to walk out of the ol' blue flame and try something else next week!