Customer Reviews

She

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 1935 production of Rider Haggard's fantasy
about an immortal queen of a land hidden in the
Himalayas is, like the original KING KONG, an
interesting historical specimen of the stories,
the characters, the acting, and the technology
of the interbellum Golden Age of Hollywood.

The First Act is getting into the queendom.
The queen falls in love with a handsome member of
a scientific expedition that stumbles into the
mountain fastness, and decides to keep him as
consort. The Third Act is getting out, as earthquake
destroys it all like another climactic escape of Jame Bond.

Shangri-La evokes the primal myth of Eden.
KING KONG has a subtext about the id oppressed by
polite society. If there is more to SHE than
a Saturday matinee action serial, I missed it.

I remember Ursula Andress in a subsequent remake
that I must buy when its price comes down to a
ticket and bag of popcorn.

(this is the colourised but still 1935 version of the film)this movie
is very stunning visually.there is a lot of spectacle involved.the
movie is very stylish,but for me lacks much substance or depth.it does
get cheesy at times,breaking into weird dances that to me look
ridiculous,even absurd.i thought the acting was very good,and i think
the movie had a good moral at the end.i won't reveal what that is
here,but i will say it is even more relevant today.anyway,i certainly
didn't hate the movie,but i didn't love it either.it has its merits,and
also its drawbacks.i think She deserves a 3/5

Legend Films and RKO Pictures present "SHE" (July 12, 1935) (95 mins) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) --- now in COLOR and Glorious Black and White --- "She," adapted from H. Rider Haggard's timeless tale, starring the imposing Helen Gahagan as She (Who-Must-Be-Obeyed), the eternally beautiful ruler of the lost kingdom of Kor --- Helen Gahagan, in her only film, is striking in her portrayal of She, a woman as tragic as she is blessed - to whom others' paltry, transient lives mean nothing --- Randolph Scott, as the direct descendent and physical embodiment of She's long dead lover, brings a believable good performance in a role that calls for top of his form energy. Nigel Bruce is very fine, as usual, this time playing the scholarly friend accompanying Scott on the search for The Flame --- Helen Mack is well cast as the young lady who finds herself caught up in the adventure --- The only film appearance of Gahagan, a noted stage and opera star who later entered the political arena as Helen Gahagan Douglas --- "She" represents Depression Era escapism at its very peak.

Under Lansing C. Holden (Director), Irving Pichel (Director), Merian C. Cooper (Producer), H. Rider Haggard (Book Author), Dudley Nichols (Screenwriter), Ruth Rose (Screenwriter), Roy Hunt (Cinematographer), Max Steiner (Composer (Music Score), Alfred Herman (Art Director), Van Nest Polglase (Art Director), Vernon Walker (Special Effects), Benjamin Zemach (Choreography) - - - - This film exists today only because silent film star Buster Keaton had a copy of the original print stored in his garage, which he gave to film historian Raymond Rohauer for preservation --- The sets, costumes, etc. were all prepared for a color film. At the last minute, RKO pulled Merian C. Cooper's budget, and so, he was forced to shoot the film in black and white. Friend Ray Harryhausen and Legend Films later colorized the film as a tribute to Cooper.

the cast includes:
Helen Gahagan ... She
Randolph Scott ... Leo Vincey
Helen Mack ... Tanya Dugmore
Nigel Bruce ... Horace Holly
Julius Adler ... High Priest
Ray Corrigan ... Guard
Jerry Frank ... Guard
Arnold Gray ... Priest
Lumsden Hare ... Dugmore
Samuel S. Hinds ... John Vincey
Noble Johnson ... Amahaggar Chief
Jim Thorpe ... Captain of the Guard
Gustav von Seyffertitz ... Prime Minister Billali
Bill Wolfe ... Priest

BIOS:
1. Randolph Scott (aka: George Randolph Scott)
Date of birth: 23 January 1898 - Orange County, Virginia
Date of death: 2 March 1987 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

2. Helen Gahagan
Date of Birth: 25 November 1900 - Boonton, New Jersey
Date of Death: 28 June 1980 - New York, New York

3. Nigel Bruce
Date of Birth: 4 February 1895 - Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
Date of Death: 8 October 1953 - Santa Monica, California

4. Ray Harryhausen
Date of Birth: 29 June 1920 - Los Angeles, California
Date of Death: Still Living

BONUS FEATHERS:
1. Audio Commentary by Ray Harryhausen
2. Interview with Ray Harryhausen
3. Film Process with Ray Harryhausen
4. Additional Scenes
5. Legend Films Trailers
6. "She" Trailers

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on DVD --- stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out Legend Films where they are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 95 mins on DVD ~ Legend Films Video. ~ (11/28/2006)

The actor who played She did not seem to portray the she I had in mind. I read this story as a little girl, or rather it was read to me. I remember She being the most beautiful woman on earth. This did not come across in the movie. At lot of illustration and characterization was left out. I did like the campy dance sequence in the movie, very strange and eerie. The music that went with it was ominious and quite effective. The stage sets were quite good, yet the story is taking place in the cold north, rather than Africa. She does convey an icy distance in her stance so I give the actor points for that, yet it is just lacking in story and plot to really hold my attention. Randolph Scott was handsome yet his acting looked very much like acting. I liked Tanya's eyes, they were really sparkly. The threesome, Scott's character, his sidekick, and Tanya, a girl who they met in Antartica, who had been abused by her father, went on a trek to find the eternal flame that bathed you in a mythical fire of youth. When the flame reverses itself the effects are quite good. The avalanches are pretty neat and the chase scenes in the frozen mountain glaciers are fun to watch. All and All not heartily recommended but not to dissuade you either. By all means read the book, it is exceptional.

Lisa Nary

This is a marvellous retelling of H. Rider Haggard's story of "Ayesha, or She Who Must Be Obeyed". The colourization is wonderful; and, the interviews with Ray Harryhausen are fascinating, as the pioneer some of the best known Special Effects ever used in film.
Although, the screenplay edits the three books in the "She" series ["She", "Ayesha", and "Wisdom's Daughter"], it remains faithful to the spirit of the original. Some of the mystical aspects have been down-played, perhaps to save on production costs: at the time, the film cost & lost a fortune.
If it had been released in colour, instead of B & W, when the studio cut the budget, it might have topped the creator's "King Kong", at the box office.
Fortunately, it can be seen, now; and, like all history, managed to survive, in someone's garage, before being rediscovered, and restored; lucky for us.
SheShe - DVD

Saw this movie a long time ago...there was adventure...cannibals....creatures and
mysterious people living inside a mountain. Now that i have found this film again
i would say this version with Helen Mack beats out other versions. The sets the
acting and the newly restored color bring more life to this classic that i taught
possible. Even with some minor problems with the film as stated by others...i
still think this is a great film for its time.

O.K. it was adjusted a lot.

Leo Vincey (Randolph Scott) all grown up is fresh back from the U.S. So he does not have to have an English accent. His dying uncle points to a portrait of a 500 year old Vincey in a Prince Valiant haircut that is the spitting image of Leo. Then with old sci-fi equipment in the background he is told a tail of radiation and a woman that will live for ever; Doctor Watson (oops) Horace Holly is standing by.

For readers that are familiar with the book, you are in for some laughs. Because the Vincey explorer was only five hundred years ago all the majors can speak English (or pigeon English). There is a native scene right out of Kong and a second with a sacrifice and a ritual dance. Can it be that this is the same director, Producer Merian C. Cooper, known for King Kong?

On a more serious side the eternal questions posed in the book were replaces with a love story made for two.

Helen Gahagan is a rather unique name so I looked it up in Ephraim Kats "The Film Encyclopedia"; turns out among other things She was married to Melvyn Douglas, was the author of "The Eleanor Roosevelt we Remember" (1963). A Democratic congress woman. And was defeated by Richard Nixon in her bid or a Senate seat.

A goofy old-fashioned action film produced by Meriam C. Cooper, the brains behind the1931 smash "King Kong." Randolph Scott stars in this slightly tweaked adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's novel (in the book, the action is set in Africa; here it's in the Antarctic). Anyway, the basic plot is that a dashing young Anglo-American adventurer heads off in search of a magical fountain of life, but when he arrives at its hidden temple, it turns out the guardian is an immortal hottie (played by Helen Gahagan), who believes that our hero is a reincarnation of her long-lost lover. The first half of the film is kind of rickety and slow-moving, but once the films starts zipping to its crescendo, things get pretty fun. There's a big, silly dance number (half modern dance, half Busby Berkeley revue, with kooky ethnic elements), and some really cool special effects -- including a jumping-over-the-chasm scene that may seem familiar to fans of the first "Lord Of The Rings" film. Acting wise, this flick is campy at best -- it's not Scott's best effort (and I *like* Randolph Scott!), and Gahagan is kind of a dud; she's just not very convincing as an irresistible(...)-- couldn't they have gotten Bette Davis or Marlene Dietrich instead? Still, it's a fun film... definitely worth checking out!

After reading H. Rider Haggard's enthralling work, I had to see this movie to see how it stacked up--especially since it's regarded as the best of the 11(!) versions to date--but was disappointed as it's unfaithful to the book in some big ways. A glaringly obvious change was the shift in locales, from hot equatorial East Africa to the frigid Arctic! It's puzzling why the movie powers that be did this--could it be it was more convenient for them, more cheaper, did they think it was more dramatic, or suited better to Helen Gahgagan's glacial regal beauty and chilly demeanor? They should have stayed with Africa since it evokes images of a wild, untamed pagan land ungoverned by laws of man or civilized society which is more suited to the story's Freudian theme of man's fear and loathing of an all-powerful, dominant female, than a sterile iceland, which admittedly doesn't take much away from but doesn't add anything either--although the barren Arctic landscape does lend an eerie air of beautiful stasis, which could be seen as an atmospheric, symbolic parallel to Gahagan's lofty position of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed (to her terrified subjects; her name is Ayesha, pronounced AH-SHA), an awe-inspiring b**tch goddess of eternal youthful beauty and deadly coldness. This film has the distinction of being Broadway star and Mrs. Melvyn Douglas' only film, especially since it's a legendary character from a literary masterpiece and she certainly lived up to the part physically as painstakingly described with her perfect brunette beauty--but her performance leaves one cold since she doesn't possess the mesmerizing persona, charisma and intensity integral to She. On to the story--Ayesha is a 500-year old queen of the city of Kor who was madly in love with John Vincey, an Apollo Greek God lookalike, but lost him when she impulsively murdered him out of jealousy. Later she discovered the mysterious Flame of Life, which gives eternal life, youth and beauty if you bathe yourself in it, which of course she did (who wouldn't!). But talk about too little, too late--with her beloved gone, all the regretful and mourning queen can do is wait however long it takes until he's reincarnated. Boy, does she have an impossibly long wait and becomes a monstrously cold and heartless ruler whose very name evokes terror--but she's still a sympathetic character because she's capable of love (though only for ONE man!) and it's the long, lonely agonized centuries of waiting that's made her cruel.

The wooden but amiable Randolph Scott plays Leo, descendent of and deadringer for John Vincey, who journeys from England to the Arctic with his scholarly mentor friend Horace Holly (Nigel Bruce) to find this secret city with its promise of immortality. Once there they're joined by their guide's cute and sweet waifish daughter Tanya (Helen Mack), who's smitten with Leo. Of course they find Kor and news is brought to Ayesha at once about this John Vincey lookalike, and she knows her long wait is over. Unfortunately there are obstacles to her much-awaited "reunion"--though Leo finds her intriguing and undeniably beautiful and buys the "fact" he's John Vincey reincarnated, he's smitten with Tanya also and turned off by Ayesha's cruelty and ruthlessness. The likely possibility of getting scorned by her great love yet again unleashes her unearthly fury and brings to mind that cliched saying of "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," which is appropriately ironic here since it's the very Flame of Life that turns into the flame of death for Ayesha when she bathes in it a second time and turns into a ghastly wrinked old prune! I felt some of the soul of Rider's work was missing here, but there's enough substance and merit to make it worthwhile viewing--such as the hauntingly atmospheric B&W cinematography which is simply beautiful, evocative Max Steiner score, breathtaking and unreal sets, spectacular special effects that still stand up to this day, and an endearing performance by Mack, who exudes wholesomeness and warmth. Although it's considered inferior to this one, I prefer the 1965 Hammer Film-Ursula Andress version as it's more faithful in regard to the locale, names, ending and other details, as well as being quite good too!

Strange, camp, and ornate. Most of the King Kong crew returns with some well-done special effects, great music, absurd dance numbers, and human sacrifice. Fascinating and very entertaining.