The Vengeance of She (1968)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Cliff Owen

Writers:

H. Rider Haggard (novel)
Peter O'Donnell (writer)

Release Date:

1 May 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy | Horror

Tagline:

Discover the Excitement of Olinka Berova - A New Screen Beauty in the body of a woman!

Plot:

A beautiful young European girl, Carol, is taken over by the spirit of mysterious Ayesha, queen of the lost city of Kuma...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Sequel | Female Nudity | Based On Novel

Cast

John Richardson	...	Killikrates
Olga Schoberová	...	Carol (as Olinka Berova)
Edward Judd	...	Philip
Colin Blakely	...	George
Jill Melford	...	Sheila
George Sewell	...	Harry
André Morell	...	Kassim
Noel Willman	...	Za-Tor
Derek Godfrey	...	Men-Hari
Danièle Noël	...	Sharna
Gerald Lawson	...	The Seer
Derrick Sherwin	...	No. 1
William Lyon Brown	...	Magus
Charles O'Rourke	...	Servant
Zohra Sehgal	...	Putri (as Zohra Segal)

Also Known As:

Ayesha, Daughter of She
Ayesha, the Return of She

Runtime:

USA:101 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG | USA:G | West Germany:16 | UK:A (original rating) (cut)

Filming Locations:

Spain

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

Although planned as a sequel to Hammer's She (1965/I), a last-minute rewrite of the script removed all connections to the earlier movie. This now plays more as a remake of "She" with an immortal man in place of an immortal woman.

Movie Connections:

Follows She (1935)

"Fairly adequate sequel to She - but unconvincingly written."

*POSSIBLE SPOILER*

A beautiful young Scandanavian girl called Carol (Olinka Berova) is lured to the city of Kuma by the immortal Killikrates (John Richardson) and Men-Hari (Derek Godfrey) who convinces Killikrates that she is the reincarnation of his lost love, Queen Ayesha, who died years ago. Killikrates intends to give Carol the secret of immortality so that he can live with her forever and restore her power over the city. Meanwhile, he has also promised Men-Hari the secret for bringing him back his old lover.

The basic premise provides a fairly adequate sequel to Hammer's successful adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's 'She' (1965), which was something of a curates egg in itself (see separate review). The main problem here is that the Peter O' Donnell script is unconvincing in that one ludicrous situation hardly runs smoothly into another. There is also some unbelievably inept dialogue like when the heroes are chasing after a desert peasant who is on horseback in a Land Rover but they still have difficulty keeping up with him. I bet the British Motor Corporation would have been horrified because that wouldn't have been good publicity for their versatile off road vehicles! With the exception of Edward Judd's performance as the English doctor who is in love with Carol, a good cast is working well below it's capabilities, even though it includes Andre Morell who was superb as Dr Watson in Hammer's 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles' (1959). The film is made watchable by the direction of Cliff Owen who displays his skill at narrative pacing (his work partly redeemed the otherwise unfunny Morecombe & Wise vehicle 'That Riviera Touch'). In summary this film failed to repeat the success of it's predecessor.