Best movie of this year hands down!

Purely Joyful Movie!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I chose to watch the colourized version of this 1935, fantasy-adventure story. I was mainly interested in watching "She" because it was produced by Merian Cooper who, 3 years earlier, had dazzled and terrified movie-audiences everywhere with that all-mighty, movie classic, King Kong.Unfortunately, "She" was a pretty tame and, yes, mediocre follow-up to the likes of King Kong, where only on but a few occasions did it ever come close to living up to its anticipated potential.By its general appearance (due to some very outlandish, over-sized, art deco sets), "She" actually reminded me a lot of the Flash Gordon Serial which was popular movie-fare during this same time-line in movie-making history.All-in-all - I neither loved "She", nor did I loath it. It was OK, at best. And, yes, it was certainly worth at least one view.

Leo Vincey (Randolph Scott) and Horace Holly (Nigel Bruce) search the Arctic for a hidden land where a mystical blue flame is kept. Along the way they pick up lovely and innocent Tanya (Helen Mack), who falls in love with handsome Leo. Eventually they arrive at the place they were seeking and discover it ruled by a merciless and immortal woman (Helen Gahagan) known as "She who must be obeyed." She believes Leo to be her long-lost love returned to her at last and She is none too pleased with cutie Tanya's affections towards her man.Fun lost world escapist fare made at a time when there were still unexplored regions of the world and imaginations ran wild at the thought of discovering lost civilizations or hidden treasures. We still get movies like this every once in awhile today, particularly about lost treasure. But back then it was a common staple of fiction, print and film. There was a sense of wonder and excitement about exploring the unknown. Not to get on my soapbox but this type of storytelling does seem to be lost to us in the cynical age we live in today.Future Congresswoman Helen Gahagan (she coined Nixon's nickname "Tricky Dick") gives a melodramatically memorable performance as She. Randolph Scott, years away from his western stardom, is very good as the heroic leading man. I especially liked that he was tempted at the prospect of immortality. It makes him seem a little more human than this type of character often was allowed to be back then. Helen Mack is pretty but can't say the name Leo to save her life. She keeps pronouncing it as Lay-o throughout the movie. Still, she's better here than she was in Son of Kong. Nigel Bruce is solid as ever. Samuel S. Hinds has a brief but good part at the beginning as Leo Vincey's dying uncle.Striking sets, costumes, and special effects. Adapted from H. Rider Haggard's novel, "She" was produced by King Kong's Merian C. Cooper, written by Ruth Rose, and scored by Max Steiner. So, in a way, it's like a cousin to that great film. "She" has been released in colorized form. While I am NOT a fan of colorizing black & white films at all, I will say that the colorization for this particular film is probably the best I've ever seen. It resembles the kind of color that would have been available at the time and not the more lavish Technicolor from years later, so the muted colors that usually come with the colorization process seems to work in its favor. But still, I prefer the original black & white film and would recommend it more.

From the creator of King Kong comes another balls-to-the-wall fantasy adventure full of spectacle, set-pieces, and technical bravado in special effects that never really age but become all the more impressive in the detail and skill put into it. The story is recognizable: the Fountain of Youth is out there, and we must find it! However, once the adventurers have arrived, what is there to see but crazed natives, magical empresses, and frozen saber toothed tigers tucked away in the corner of an unforgiving arctic landscape? Everything for this movie was prepared on a large budget before actual filming began, at which point the budget was pulled and it was forced to be shot in black and white. Nevertheless, the money still survives in the set-pieces and special effects. And these aren't your average corner of the studio setpieces, this is grandiose, extras-filled spectacles with stairs stretching for forever and perfectly composed backdrops for cliffs falling off to infinity. The movie absolutely delights in motion, light, and magic, as She is introduced behind a veil of smoke, natives fall from a cliff in long shot, a corpse is disintegrated on-screen in a prolonged combustion matching live action sweep of She's arm, and aging occurs between bursts of vibrant white light.Yes, there are still ways that the film is painfully dated. The acting style is the stagy and overbearing declarative statement style of early sound era in order to appropriately capture the dialog with limited camera movements within the sets, the representation of natives will illicit giggles from those who aren't outright offended, and if you're the type of person who HAS to be a killjoy and think King Kong is all racist and stuff, She will probably feel a bit misogynistic (it's pretty much about a woman trying to hold on to a man who doesn't want her, preferring a new younger woman instead). However, there's some stuff that is still just downright delightful, including a prolonged Busby Berkeley-like dance interlude, a large avalanche, and the tongue-in-cheek sendup of characters like Holly, supposed anthropologist sitting back with a bemused expression and a pipe watching in fascination as cannibals get ready to eat him.It may not have created as iconic a character as King Kong, or made dinosaurs come to life sixty years before Jurassic Park, but She is still a wonderful movie.--PolarisDiB

You might want to watch this more than once ! The story is really great – real stirring adventure material that people used to read before the advent of TV. Then there are the sets, as some body else said if only Ming the merciless had sets like these – they are truly breathtaking. Let us not forget the magnificent musical score and the choreography – there is a foreboding menace within the ceremonies which soon becomes self-evident.The sets are fantastic as are the choreographed execution dances and rites, I wonder if the ideas for some of the horror has come from real life journeys into primitive tribes.There are two disappointments in the film, firstly Nigel Bruce who sounded and looked exactly the same as he did as Dr Watson, whoever told this person that he could act? Then there is the fireside epilogue - it was as though Hollywood insisted on an upbeat ending. If you can put up with these distractions this film is an absolute classic.The Hammer remakes are good but this is the definitive film – watch and enjoy.