These Gods are Art Deco. How about your’s?
She (1935) is an early adaptation of the novel of the same name by H. Rider Haggard. She is hundreds of years old, lonely for him. He, Leo Vincey, is a continent or more away, but once told the flame of Life is flickering in the Arctic wastelands, he and his late uncle’s assistant, Professor Holly, are on their way to investigate, or at least to warm their hands – so to speak. Thus begins the adventure, leading through the tundra, introducing us to the Siberian natives before the Soviets took over – and another culture. Soon, her power will draw Vincey, the descendant of her late husband, to her. Or is he -?
The theme of this movie is the folly of grasping after what will burn our fingers. Literally, in fact: the late uncle dies from radiation poisoning. On the adventurers’ way, they run across a wayward Englishman named Tugmore and his adopted adult daughter, Tanya, sheltering from the winter’s cold. Convinced to guide Vincey and Holly into the mountains where an old journal claims the Flame exists by promises of gold, Tugmore’s aggressive but short-sighted pursuit of the yellow metal brings death down upon him, even as he stares at his fortune. In the caves of the savages, Holly nearly loses his life to an obtuse curiosity, his grasping after knowledge, assuming his learned position will protect him from consequences, nearly his undoing. Vincey’s driving ambition and desperate need keep him lurching forward, always open to the new experience. Tanya provides the voice of sanity, which, in this swirl of madness, makes her the leading lady in a drama which will bring her career to an abrupt end.
But, in the end, She herself succumbs to her grasping ways. Seeing a new start in the descendant of her old love, or perhaps a way to prove she isn’t mad, She seeks to overcome his hesitancy and affections for other women by bathing, once again, in the light of Flame of Life, thus proving its virtue and safety.
This doesn’t go so well.
It’s all a bit silly, as everyone’s motivations are unnuanced. We see the scientist driven by, well, science, the adventurer after a fortune, unalloyed autocracy, the faithful high priest. Why can’t Tanya show at least some curiosity about eternal life? Vincey lose his curiosity for a moment? Tugmore consider donating to a fund for cold Siberian natives?
But there’s no time for boredom, on the other hand. If someone’s not in imminent danger of dying, just wait a moment, it’ll come. Throw in some fairly nice sets for the era, excellent cinematography, mediocre audio, and you won’t come away changed by the experience, but you may be entertained.
