The 1935 film version of H. Rider Haggard's classic Victorian Lost Race novel She stars the great stage actress Helen Gahagan as She-Who-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. This was her only film role, as she afterward became a congresswoman.

Randolph Scott is Leo Vincey. Also starring Helen Mack as Tanya Dugmore, Nigel Bruce as Archibald Holly, & Noble Johnson as the Amahagger chieftain. The producer, Merian C. Cooper, also produced Willis O'Brien's King Kong.

The goddess-like She is encountered on an Arctic expedition from the upper Asian peninsula. She's film-set world constitutes an art deco masterpiece. The film's design is extraordinarym & ut received an Academy Award nomination for its choreography.

It required thousands of stunt extras & enormous sets. The special effects by Vernon Walker were state of the art for the day. The volcanic snakepit scene was swiped by Stephen Spielberg for Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom.


The 1964 version for Hammer Films stars Ursula Andress in the title role. Also starring are Peter Cushing (Holly), John Richardson (Leo Vincey), Bernard Cribbens (Job) & Christophere Lee (Billali) -- all the Hammer bigshots. The film's score was by James Bernard who did many horror films.

A classic of tackiness, Ursula is the tyranical Ayesha, queen of the lost city of Kura. Ursula was sexy enough to make it all seem less than comical & many a fantasy film fan who was young in the 1960s still gets excited thinking about her.

Hammer Films was probably surprised by the international popularity of this film & so four years later produced a sequel to their 1964 success.


Czechoslovakian beauty Olinka Berova plays Carol, the reincarnated Ayesha in The Vengeance of She (1968) more or less based on Rider's own sequel Ayesha, the Return of She (1905), though similarities are pretty far removed.

John Richardson plays King Killikrates of the lost city of Kuma who telepathically compels Carol into the depths of Africa. Edward Judd plays Doctor Smith who accompanies Carol toward her destiny.

Without the Hammer bigshot actors of the 1964 version, there's not much screen appeal going on; it's a dumb story with less jiggly boob action than Ursula Andress so ably conveyed. Nevertheless it should prove mildly entertaining for a slow-brain night.

See also Avi Nesher's abysmal:
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