I Watch Movies: She

 

She

Professor Holly (Peter Cushing), Leo Vincey (John Richardson) and Job (Bernard Cribbens), Holly’s orderly, are discharged from the army in Jerusalem in 1918, as WW1 has ended (or “ended”). Vincey, it turns out, is the spitting image of an Egyptian priest from 2000, or possibly 3000*, years ago, and the immortal Ayesha (Ursula Andress) known as She-Who-Waits and She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed believes it is her lover reincarnated. He’s given a map across the desert to the mountains of the moon. He’s smitten, Holly is intrigued by the antiquities, and Job is the comic relief sidekick character so they set out on camels.

After some adventures they arrive at the lost city of Kuma. There’s a distinct racial hierarchy, with the village outside being for Africans, with an Egyptian set over them; his daughter is the other love interest, leading to some of the conflict. Ayesha’s light-skinned guards are dressed and equipped as Roman Legionaries, and her chief priest (Christopher Lee) in Egyptian dress.

Anyway, the secret of Ayesha’s immortality is revealed, her crime and love, her jealousy, also the chief priest’s jealousy, and her inattention causes a rebellion. The ending is a tragedy, though perhaps more prescient is her revealing the ruins of the city and suggesting the outside world will soon join it, so they might as well stay in Kuma where they are safe. Somewhat dated, but some mystery and energy in this adventure story.

Watch This: For a 1960s period adventure with a bit of magic and romance
Don’t Watch This: Very unsubtle, and revelling in pointing out the strangeness and exoticness of the foreign mind and culture
Based On: H Rider Haggard's novel She, from which I previously extracted a lawyer joke.

* The evidence and most of the dialogue suggest that the historical events of the story occur in Roman Egypt, so probably 1900 years before the main part, but occasionally longer periods are mentioned.