She (1935)
Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott
Directors: Lansing Holden, Irving
Pichel
1936 Oscar nomination for Best Dance
Direction
If you've read H. Rider Haggard's
novel it's hard to like this movie version of "She" with much
enthusiasm. The movie venue is a polar wasteland, not Africa. Ayesha
(She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed) has somewhat mysteriously been alive for only 500
years or so, not for 2,000 years after first stepping into the Flame of Life.
Many of Haggard's plot details
are casually bowdlerized in this film, and the film characters are cardboard
cutout versions of those in the book. Ayesha is a somewhat pallid control
freak, not stunningly imperious. Leo Vincey is a mawkish, comic-book style hero
who's turned on by the hot queen, not a sensitive, heroic figure who is
overwhelmed by Ayesha's irresistible beauty and power. Horace Holly is just a
Hollywood supporting actor, with none of the moral power of Haggard's Holly.
And finally, the girl ("Tanya" in the film, "Ustane" in the
book) is a dime-novel sweetie in the film, naturally she's in love with Leo --
in the movie she stands up for her man with an outthrust chin once or twice, in
the book she faces down the dreaded Ayesha and dies for her loyalty to Leo.
Mostly the movie is
disappointing because the director and the writers abandoned any effort to
capture the spell-binding mystery of Ayesha's immortality, and the book's
pulsing action and sensual seduction of Leo.
For my taste there's just too
much 1930s cinematography here: almost every word of dialog is a speech, the
scene cuts are clumsy and abrupt, it's much too dark, there's way too much
relentless, breathlessly beseeching conversation, too much striding, too much
of "take two steps away then stop turn and look back" kind of stuff. And
as for the Oscar-nominated "Dance Direction"…..c'mon, you seen one kinky,
much too artfully pagan and over-costumed 1930s dance scene with throbbing drums,
you seen 'em all….
Ayesha declares "my
kingdom is of the imagination" both in the film and in the book. Too bad
you need too much imagination to make the film worth watching.
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