Tue 9 Aug 2016
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: SHE (1935).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , SF & Fantasy films[11] Comments
SHE. RKO Radio Pictures, 1935. Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott, Helen Mack, Nigel Bruce. Based on the novel by H. Rider Haggard. Directors: Lansing C. Holden & Irving Pichel. Shown at Cinevent 16, Columbus OH, May 1984.
Star billing — the film festival’s much heralded centerpiece — was given to a 1935 version of H. Rider Haggard’s erotic fantasy She. It was directed by Irving Pichel (who was also busy acting that year in Dracula’s Daughter that year as Gloria Holden’s pasty-faced valet) and the enigmatic Lansing Holden, with familiar names from King Kong (composer Max Steiner and producer Merian C. Cooper) providing much of the visual and aural interest in this uneven film.
The stalwart hero, Leo Vincey, is played in a forthright fashion by Randolph Scott, while Nigel Bruce is made to look silly in the throw-away role of the blustering English side-kick. Helen Mack has the thankless job of trying to distract the male viewers from the attractions of the good-bad Ayesha, queen/goddess of the lost city of Kor, which has been transported from Haggard’s African setting to an Asiatic ice-world which provides an excuse for the most striking set-up of the film: the discovery of a centuries-old European and a gigantic sabre-tooth tiger frozen into the ice outside the mountain entrance to the hidden city.
Helen Gahagan, congresswoman and wife of actor Melvyn Douglas, played She with an effective mixture of icy imperturbability and melting languor. But her best moment had her still shrouded in the steamy mist to which she frequently retreated for mysterious purposes, intoning her lines in a voice that was strikingly similar to the voice of the evil, beautiful queen in the Disney Snow White.
And this affinity was compounded by a shifting facial image like that of the mirror image in the Queen’s chambers a costume that was too similar to the costume for Disney’s queen not to have been adapted by him. This film would, I am sure, be a popular addition to Saturday afternoon and late night TV schedules, and it’s surprising that it doesn’t turn up more frequently.
August 9th, 2016 at 8:04 am
I bought a charmingly colorized dvd of it last year at Cinevent… tinted to look like old-fashioned technicolor. And it’s a wonderful film with a fine perf from Nigel Bruce!
August 9th, 2016 at 9:44 am
I have had this in both colorized and black and white for years. A wonderful film, and I agree wholeheartedly with Dan that Nigel Bruce is fine, and not at all thrown away. I do have a pair of casting issues: Randolph Scott is not an Englishman, so if you want to have him in the film, write him in as an American relative. And, I thought Helen Gahagan extremely unattractive. Thumbs down on her for looks and style. On the other hand, in the special features department, Ray Harryhausen informs and charms.
August 9th, 2016 at 11:16 am
Apparently Scott does play an American in She. My bad.
August 9th, 2016 at 2:04 pm
I was surprised at my review of this film, of which I have rather fond memories. I remember very well the afternoon it was screened and I have no idea why I thought Nigel Bruce had a throw-away role.
On another subject: I recently purchased from a dealer friend a display of items related to “William Keil – artist-Walt Disney Studios – Peabody-Hollywood.” There is a photograph of a youngish Keil, a small watercolor of “Siegfried and the Dragon” and a more interesting black and white drawing of large mushroom around which a group of grotesque little men are gathered. My friend thought Keil worked on “Snow White” but the information I found on the web suggested that if he was at the Disney studios it was for a brief period and his major career was with other animation studios in the early TV era. Does anyone “out there” know anything about Keil and his career?
August 9th, 2016 at 4:46 pm
4. Walter, try looking under Bill Keil. Finding credits for animators can be hard as many can do uncredited works on shows. He did do work on Disney shorts and on Wonderful World of Disney. Is there a date on the picture? Having a year will help narrow it down. Bill did a lot of TV for Hanna Barbara and industrial shorts for others.
August 9th, 2016 at 5:51 pm
There is a long behind-the-scenes article about the making (drawing and coloring) of SNOW WHITE at
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/03/disney-animation-girls-201003
William Keil is mentioned only in passing, but it’s a fascinating article.
August 9th, 2016 at 8:51 pm
I have fond memories of seeing this film when it played in my home town many years ago. I guess I was too young to be very critical. I’ve seen it since then and still enjoyed it.
August 9th, 2016 at 10:23 pm
It was available for years in rather poor copies on the gray market, and it is nice to see restored prints of it now. It’s an old fashioned adventure film that glosses over some aspects of the book (there is a quite faithful silent film with Betty Blythe), but it is such a good film you really can’t fault it.
It remains a favorite worth revisiting.
August 11th, 2016 at 9:19 pm
Thanks, Michael, for suggesting that I look for him as “Bill Keil.” There was no date on the photograph but I did find extensive credits for animator Bill/William Keil, starting with uncredited work for Disney on “Snow White….”
Steve’s Vanity Fair article also turned up mentions of Keil and his wife.
And the praises for “She” keep coming in! I guess it’s time for me to watch the film and see what I think of it today.
August 15th, 2016 at 8:42 pm
I watched first the b&w version of “She,” then a few sections of the colorized version.
No, Nigel Bruce’s role is not a “throw-away,” although he’s very clearly a supporting player and is best used in the sections that lead up to the discovery of Kor.
I’m not generally fond of colorizing films, but the process is rather tastefully used in “She,” and is especially effective in the Hall of Kings segment. Harryhausen and James V. D’Arc both compare the musical accompaniment to the dances in the Hall of Kings to Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” which is certainly stretching it quite a bit. I have CDs of both the original score and its restoration and recording with William Stromberg conducting the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. I don’t find it musically as compelling as the score for “King Kong,” but it’s an impressive record of Steiner’s musical genius. His scores for the two Merian C. Cooper fantasy productions are at the top of my favorites among his film scores, as are Rozsa’s scores for “The Jungle Book” and “The Thief of Baghdad” among his numerous film scores.
Helen Gahagan is not conventionally attractive but her imperious manner contrasts very effectively with Helen Mack’s performance, two roles that are the strong emotional underpinnings of the film.
And the production design and special effects are outstanding.
I must say that I’ve enjoyed returning to the film after three decades and I appreciate the comments about my earlier review that prompted this voyage–dare I say it?–of discovery.
August 15th, 2016 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for the 30-years-later reappraisal, Walter. I found both review and re-review very enlightening!