SHE is Ursula Andress, 29, one of the 60’s reigning sex goddesses, in the 1965 go at H.Rider Haggard’s 1887 classic “She: A History Of Adventure”. Done several times as a silent, and thirty years before in the first sound treatment, the Andress opus had color, a few good actors to back the physically daunting but emoting-challenged leading lady and a budget outlay bigger than Britain’s monster-rejuvenating studio Hammer had yet put on. Made for £323,778 (roughly $906,578 if my abacus isn’t a knockoff) it was a success in international markets and did surprisingly well in the States, $4,600,000 a respectable 58th place, outperforming a large number of higher-profile (and much worthier) pictures. *

“Her wisdom is limited. Her anger is boundless.”  Gee, she’ll fit right into a cabinet post.

Palestine, 1918. The Great War over, three British army mates are at loose ends. Archaeology-inclined ‘Professor Holly’ (Peter Cushing), reckless chickbait ‘Leo Vincey’ (John Richardson) and loyal orderly and resident joker ‘Job’ (Bernard Cribbins) are steered away from enjoying belly dancers to head off into the desert to look for the legendary lost city of ‘Kuma’, somewhere in central Africa’s region dubbed Mountains of the Moon. Leo spurs the trip because he’s (a) been led down an alley by a total fox (b) been knocked unconscious and (c) been swooned by a vision who calls herself ‘Ayesha’ (Andress) and her siren song of endless love, with eternal life in the bargain. Q: will sensible grown men throw caution to the wind just because of the promise of a good time (times x) with a magnificently sexy woman and a chance at fame and boundless riches? Uh…

When the hardy trio finally make it to their destination, Ayesha’s rules-based homeland is more than they bargained for. The whole tossing slaves—or anyone who innocently ticks off Ayesha— into a fiery pit is one of the downsides. Ayesha’s right-hand submissive is high priest ‘Billali’, played by dependably imposing Christopher Lee.

The good stuff is the presence of Cushing (excellent) and Lee, the overall Olden Days enticement of dangerous travels with glory as payoff, some okay sets and a decent score from James Bernard that summons the needed ‘mysterious doomed eternal love’ aura. There is a little speech that presses the prescient button: “Is your world so much better? Your world where men kill each other in their millions in the name of freedom? Your world that has not long to live. A few decades only before it destroys itself. Then, what will be left?”

Alas, the rest. The trek (location shooting in Israel’s Negev Desert) doesn’t rouse, nor does a too-easy skirmish with raiders. The costumes of Ayesha’s guards look to be off-the-rack Roman soldier gear from other movies, and the ‘kingdom’ is too underpopulated to inspire awe. But the main complaint is that glorious Andress and handsome Richardson are attractive but mostly dull as camel feed. Billali scoffs at Leo “He is only a face“, but it may as well be Lee talking about Richardson, who might’ve have been a nice guy but as an actor he’s a hieroglyph. Since Ursula started a months-long affair with him (between leaving hubby John Derek for Jean-Paul Belmondo) you can tell that at least their ardent liplocks aren’t faked. She was all over the place that year, appearing in What’s New Pussycat?, Up To His Ears, The 10th Victim, Nightmare In The Sun and the pages of Playboy magazine. She looks sensational, natch, yet she’s dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl, who’d done for her in Dr. No and would do so again in The Blue Max.

Camp heaven beckons with delicious urgency when Ursula/Nikki delivers the immortal “I am She: Who Must Be Obeyed! There is only one penalty for those who do not choose to obey. A lesson in obedience. Teach them!”  How many drag shows made hysterical hay with that Empress’y imperative is anybody’s guess.

Directed by Robert Day, written by David T. Chantler, running 105 minutes, with Rosenda Monteros (soulful Mexican beauty from The Magnificent Seven, here paying a price for kissing Leo and letting SHE see her do it) and reliable Andre Morell, dubbed for some reason—to sound more exotic?— by George Pastell.  Richardson returned in a 1968 sequel with Czech timed-bomb Olinka Barova as a reincarnation of the ageless vixen, but it was a duel of the inanimate and The Vengeance of She was a dustball. To give the man his due (Covid took him in 2021, age 86), after dallying with Ursula he married another white-hot Bond girl, Martine Beswick, who he met when they worked on One Million Years B.C. 

Dude gets to make out with Ursula Andress AND Rosenda Monteros? Life, fair? Tell me another one.

* She Who Must Not Be Underestimated—this was one of the year’s Africa-set adventures—(The Flight Of The Phoenix, Sands Of The Kalahari, The Naked Prey, Mister Moses—all easily superior. Was advertising the reason audiences preferred She to, not just all of the above, save ‘Phoenix’, but A High Wind In Jamaica, Young Cassidy, The Hill, The Satan Bug, The War Lord, Viva Maria! and The Bedford Incident? Or were they simply lured by Ursula, hoping for some of what her layout in Playboy unveiled? Like I’d know.

Haggard’s hugely influential 368-page ode to adventure has been translated into 44 languages and has sold more than 83,000,000 copies.