She

• Directed by Robert Day
• April 18, 1965 (UK) / June 9, 1965 (US)
• Based on She: A History of Adventure (1887) by H. Rider Haggard

An archaeologist and his two companions are led to a lost city in East Africa that is ruled by a queen who offers immortality to the one that looks like her long dead lover.

I caught the tail end of this version of She (as well as an accompanying promo film for the movie when it was originally released) on TCM many years ago. There was enough there that it intrigued me, but I found actually trying to find it for sale or just to watch it again somewhere was a bit of a trick. Lo and behold one day I just looked up and there it was sitting on a shelf at a local used retailer.

She is an adventure film about a beautiful immortal woman who has waited thousands of years for her love (who she murdered) to come back to life so she can spend eternity with him. That there says emotionally unstable but She Who Must Be Obeyed Ayesha (Ursula Andress) is portrayed as a rather stable if not cool individual. I personally would have liked to have seen her done a little bit more crazy. You kill your boy toy and then wait for him to come back? Crazy!

And what would a Hammer Productions like this be without greats Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee doing something in the film? Peter Cushing I don’t think quite ever got the respect he deserved. The man was a great performer and if you don’t believe that look up the film Biggles: Adventures in Time. It’s a cheesy film but he delivers his lines in perhaps the finest dramatic form you will find. He turned his part into high art.

His work here as Professor Holly is no different. He’s the father figure to a trio of British ex-pats living in Palestine following the events of World War I. He’s not the macabre threat which is what I’m more used to with him. He’s the conscience of the group and especially of the individual that Ayesha is ultimately after.

Leo (John Richardson) the lover boy who appears to be the reincarnation of a very Caucasian Egyptian high priest very much wants to live forever. Party all day, sleep all night, and never grow old. Holly as the conscience says that immortality is appealing to the young but to an older gentleman such as he it lacks that same appeal.

I really wasn’t expecting two diametrically opposite philosophies to be explored to any extent in what amounts to a proto-Indiana Jones adventure film. Yet here we are. That is what begins during that exchange. We got a nice examination of both philosophies considering what type of film this is.

Christopher Lee is the villainous current High Priest Billali and as much of an overarching threat as we get in this movie. He only really becomes dangerous towards the end when the prospect of immortality is being offered to our young hero Leo as he feels he is owed it and kind of has a thing for Ayesha. Can you blame him?

The problem I have is that this whole turn didn’t seem really built up much if at all until the closing quarter or so of this film when things needed to be wrapped up. He was cruel and mean but there was no indication that he had his eyes on anything other than his next figurative paycheck.

The cantina at the beginning. I’m a little uncertain how Billali or anyone in that lost city knew to go to that particular establishment in order lure the group to the mythical city of Kuma. It’s kind of alluded to that Billali knew Leo would be there but I was also given the impression that this was some thing that the high priest did regularly which makes little sense.

Job (Bernard Cribbins), the final member of Leo and Professor Holly’s trio, really does nothing in this movie and you can be forgiven for forgetting he exists. He is comic relief and completely inconsequential. A goofy sidekick needs to be given something to do.

She had the feel of a good adventure film. The sets were great. They look like they belong in ancient Egypt. What I’m bothered by though is why were Ayesha’s soldiers dressed like Romans? The shots were usually distant, and the camera didn’t linger on them too much but these were clearly costumes from a sword and sandals epic. They spent a good budget on this whole film but they could not afford something that looked like it might be an ancient Egyptian soldier?

She is a good film. It feels as much a film serial as it does a movie in and of itself. If you have a chance to watch this one, I suggest you do. You won’t be disappointed!