Horror 2022 Countdown: She (1965)

She (1965), dir. Robert Day, Hammer Film Productions/Seven Arts Productions 

So we end our look at Hammer Films, and with their first film to be built around a woman. 

Egypt, 1918. The Great War has ended and two former soldiers are wondering what to do with themselves now the Germans have stopped shooting at them. Holly (Peter Cushing), Vincey (John Richardson), and Holly's valet Job (Bernard Cribbins) are bumming around Cairo.

At one particular nightspot, Vincey notices a rather gorgeous gal, later named Ustane (Rosenda Monteros) and her escort. She entices Vincey outside, where he is promptly knocked out by someone. 

He wakes up in a rather nice house where an even more beautiful woman greets him. Her name is Ayesha (Ursula Andress). She seems to think that name will mean something to Vincey, but he claims ignorance. Nevertheless, she entrusts him with a map and a gold ring, with the implied promise that he'll get a LOT more if he follows the map properly. 

After he leaves, the man who oversaw Vincey's kidnapping appears. Billali (Christopher Lee) is Ayesha's high priest. Seems he has been looking for a fellow who matched Vincey's description for a while. 

Vincey explains all of this to a confused Holly and Job. Holly, who used to be a professor before the war, recalls stories of a lost city hidden somewhere in the African desert. He wrote them off as fairy tales, but after Vincey's night? There might be something to all this after all...

The boys make the trek into the uncharted desert, although every step of the journey is struck by tragedy or a setback of some kind. It gets so bad that by the end the boys have no choice to find the city or die. They manage to find it, although Ustane greets them with a pleading to get as far away from the city as possible.

Ayesha greets them warmly, Vincey especially. She shows them the source of her city's power, a perpetually burning fire. When it burns blue, one can safely step inside and be granted immorality. Ayesha herself stepped into it some centuries ago and she wants Vincey to do the same. Seems he's the reborn version of her old lover and she wants him to rule by her side. 

This is a lot to dump on a person. Vincey is tempted, but Holly points out a few flaws. Sure, making love to Ayesha for centuries would be nice, but as they've seen her court she isn't the nicest person. In fact she can be downright vicious. Vincey's old form was a priest of Isis. When he was unfaithful Ayesha had him killed, so she's not above violence.

Holly also points out her flaws to Billali. The priest points out that he's been a faithful servant to the queen forever. Why should this nobody waltz in and get the kingdom?

Anymore would spoil. Darn good, and Cushing steals the show, even more than Lee. Andress is fine, but she doesn't quite have the chops to come across as a god-empresses mad with power.