THE VENGEANCE OF SHE (1968)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS*

Hammer's loose adaptation of Rider Haggard's 1887 book SHE-- which, incidentally, I consider one of the great novels of its period-- was successful. Even in 1965 the studio considered making a quick follow-up, possibly with Andress repeating her role in some way, even though the movie ended with the character of Queen Ayesha dissolving into dust and her preserved-since-ancient-times city of Kor being destroyed by a revolt. But filming did not commence until roughly two years later. Andress was then no longer available to Hammer, and the producers may have wondered how thoroughly the viewing audience would remember the events of the 1965 movie.

The solution they came up with, in collaboration with screenwriter Peter (MODESTY BLAISE) O'Donnell, was to build off a few plot-points from the 1965 film while not actually maintaining continuity with the events of that narrative. Although the ancient queen died at the end of the first film, her modern-day lover Vincey, the reincarnation of Ayesha's Roman-era lover Kallikrates, remained both alive and made immortal by the mysterious Flame of Life. Actor John Richardson played Vincey, and in VENGEANCE he plays a man called Kallikrates, with no allusion to his having been a modern man named Vincey. O'Donnell is vague about how long Kallikrates has been alive, but the loose implication is that he's been alive for centuries in North Africa, ruling over a city, Kuma, made up of Bedouins and what look like Roman soldiers. At some distant time Kallikrates lost the love of his life, Ayesha, under unspecified circumstances. A flashback shows the Ayesha of ancient times executing a rebel, so it may be that even in those days, this other-Ayesha was the true ruler of Kuma, with Kallikrates being more like a consort. 

Another element borrowed from 1965: in that film, an emissary from Kor seeks out the protagonists, Vincey and his companions, in order to get them questing for Kor more expeditiously. This time, the protagonists are again summoned to the lost city, though O'Donnell uses more mystic means. As it happens, the SHE novels have a lot of elements of magic and mysticism not usually present in any of the movie adaptations. In VENGEANCE O'Donnell's lost city also plays host to a sect of magicians, The Magi, who (I'm guessing) left their home in Chaldea (a part of ancient Mesopotamia) along with the Romans to make their home in North Africa.

One particular Magus, name of Men-Hari (Derek Godfrey), has reasons to play up to Kallikrates and the immortal's belief that someday the deceased Ayesha will reincarnate in a contemporary body, much the way the book's Kallikrates reincarnated in Vincey. So Men-Hari finds a modern-day woman, Carol (Olinka Berova) with a resemblance to Ayesha, and uses his psychic powers to draw her from Europe to North Africa. Men-Hari is also apparently capable of monitoring his pawn from afar, for in Carol's first scene, she's attacked by a trucker, and some mysterious force causes the rapist to be killed by his own truck.

I suppose I'm "spoiling" things by revealing that Carol isn't a reincarnation of Ayesha, but the script doesn't really advance this as a serious possibility. To her good fortune, the young woman-- whose backstory we never learn-- stumbles across a small group of Brits, one of whom is Philip, a psychologist (Edward Judd). Carol remains in Philip's presence long enough for him to fall in love with her, and then she's once more impelled to quest for Kuma. Philip follows, has adventures, and finally joins her in arriving at the lost city.

By this time, Men-Hari's deeper motives have also come forth. The Flame of Life, which can only bestow immortality at certain pre-determined times, is due to become active once more, and if Men-Hari can please Kuma's ruler by bringing back the love of his life, Kallikrates will allow Men-Hari to become immortal. Another Magus, Za-Tor, wants to prevent this at any cost, fearing that an immortal Men-Hari will use his magic to rule the world-- a goal that the Ayesha of Haggard also planned to achieve.  Also, a slave girl with whom Kallikrates possibly dallied is in love with him, though she doesn't end up having much effect on the plot.

The big problem with VENGEANCE is that from the beginning, O'Donnell and the producers don't have any interest in the story of immortal union. The script seems closer to 1932's THE MUMMY, in which a monstrous sorcerer from the past seeks to unite with a modern woman who's the reincarnation of the sorcerer's lost love-- except that in VENGEANCE, there's no real reincarnation. Kallikrates and Men-Hari seem like disparate parts of Imhotep the Mummy, thwarted lover and ruthless magician. 

O'Donnell naturally duplicates the moment of truth, when Kallikrates comes close to making a brainwashed Carol into an immortal like himself. O'Donnell then finds ways to eliminate Men-Hari, Kallikrates and the city of Kuma in short order, and to let Philip and Carol escape so that they can have a happy life together. One problem with that: nothing in the script made the pairing of Philip and Carol even half as interesting as that of Frank and Helen in THE MUMMY.

The above movie poster shows an Ayesha who's a whip-wielding tyrant, but we only get that in the one flashback to ancient times. Olinka Berova is thus stuck with the unenviable task of playing a woman who's not much more than a sleepwalker most of the time, so I tend to think VENGEANCE is not a good measure of her acting talents. Since Kallikrates is the real focal interest, the script might have been stronger if he had been the sorcerer as well as the lovelorn swain, reaching out, drawing Carol to him in approved demon-lover fashion, even if he later learned she was not the woman of his dreams. But the whole project was undermined by Hammer's desire to build on the appeal of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, without having a character in the actual movie that even approached the majesty of the Ursula Andress character, much less the creation of Rider Haggard.