She (1925)

Here’s what I imagine would be a double-edged sword to most actresses: a character described as being the most beautiful woman in the world, one glance at whom would make the looker fall in love forever. Undoubtedly being offered such a role is a grand compliment to one’s appearance, but it’s also an invitation to the majority of males in the audience to think, “Yeah, she’s gorgeous, but the most beautiful in the world, I think not.”

It was a problem for Stacia Napierkowska in L'Atlantide in 1921 (an actress far from being the most attractive even in the film) and Betty Blythe, the star of She.

Blythe was in her early 30s when She was shot, mostly in a zeppelin hanger in Berlin. She had acquired a reputation for being willing to expose more skin than was the norm in mainstream cinema.  “A director,” she said, “is the only man besides your husband who can tell you how much of your clothes to take off.” In 1921 Blythe had assayed the title role in The Queen of Sheba under the direction of J. Gordon Edwards (Blake Edwards’ grandfather). The actress said of her 28 costumes for that spectacular that they could have fit in a shoe box.

But our film is a British-German co-production based on H. Rider Haggard’s popular Victorian fantasy novel. This was actually the sixth movie version of the book, previous productions having been made in 1908, 1911, 1916, 1917, and 1919.

When the story opens a bedraggled older man bursts into the rooms of Horace Holly (Heinrich George) at Cambridge like Capt. Jacoby crashing into Sam Spade’s office. He says he’s dying and asks his old friend Holly to take care of his son, Leo (Carlyle Blackwell). After the old man’s death, Leo finds a parchment containing the wild story of Kor, a lost city in Africa ruled by Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. It seems that 2,000 years ago Ayesha fell in love with Kallikrates but her jealousy drove her to kill him. After bathing in the Fire of Immortality she has retained her youth and beauty while waiting for a reincarnated Kallikrates to return to her.

Leo, Holly and Job (Tom Reynolds), the servant set out for Africa to discover whether or not this legend is true. On the journey they acquire the assistance of Ustane (Mary Odette), a young woman who falls in love with Leo. Since Leo looks just like Kallikrates, and Ayesha spends her days in the tomb with her lover’s body, we know that trouble’s brewing.

Then, on arrival, Holly sees Ayesha’s face while Leo is ill and asleep, and he falls for her. Here’s the program: Ustane loves Leo, Ayesha loves Leo, Holly loves Ayesha, Leo is Holly’s best friend, and Leo is in a coma.

The film follows Haggard’s novel fairly well, although it leaves out most of the adventure while retaining the mysticism and romance. Walter Summers wrote the scenario and Haggard himself wrote the titles. Directing duties were shared by Leander de Cordova and G. B. Samuelson, and the cinematography was by Sydney Blythe (no relation to the leading lady).

The acting is generally acceptable although there is a little too much melodramatic posing more suited to the stage than to film. Ayesha’s rooms are decorated with Egyptian motifs (there has been no change in Korian art in 2,000 years), but her people live in caves. The civilization of Kor is something that should be dead but is being kept artificially alive, like Ayesha herself. Love is stronger than death, we’re told, a concept that has been the motivating factor in many a cinematic fantastical romance.