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| Nigel Bruce, Randolph Scott & Helen Mack in SHE Year: 1935 |
H. Rider Haggard's immortal book SHE was produced by RKO under the leadership of KING KONG creator Meriam Cooper and writer/adapter Ruth Rose, and the similarities go beyond the exact same massive wall and an even more immense cliff-side: It's basically an adventure story that, unlike the classic gorilla flick, lacks smaller adventures along the way...
Known simply as SHE and played by Helen Gahagan, SHE isn't quite as fulfilling. Imagine if in KONG, instead of battling various prehistoric monsters leading up to the title character, the only adversaries were those natives, and that's what happens here. Actually, there is one creature they run into along the way: an immense sabertooth tiger, which would have been a terrific and timeless stop-motion visual...
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| Opening titles for SHE produced by Merian Cooper RATES: *** |
Instead, frozen in ice for thousands of years, it's hardly seen by our snowy region trekking heroes Randolph Scott, SON OF KONG starlet Helen Mack and dependable sidekick Nigel Bruce...
By the time they reach what feels like a climax, there's still around forty-five minutes to go, leaving a lot of stage-like dialogue involving SHE mistaking Scott for her age-old lover...
Allowing adorable Helen Mack plenty of feisty screen-time, sulking from one huge giant room to another, trying to win her man back from a goddess who wields lightning and, while powerful with words, doesn't live up to her potential and with far more buildup than payoff. But those sets, including massive, seemingly endless staircases and enormous statues, look utterly fantastic (they'd all be computerized today).
That was the Cooper touch, and that touch is everywhere the eye can see.
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| Son of Kong's Helen Mack in the snow for SHE |
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| Helen Mack as Tanya Dugmore in SHE |
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| Randolph Scott as Leo Vincey in SHE |
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| Randolph Scott and Helen Gahagan in SHE |
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| Helen Mack and Nigel Bruce in SHE |
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| Helen Mack as Tanya Dugmore in SHE |
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| Helen Mack facing Helen Gahagan as SHE |
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| Helen Gahagan in SHE with Helen Mack |
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| Helen Mack as Tanya Dugmore in SHE |
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| Helen Gahagan in SHE w/ Randolph Scott and Nigel Bruce |
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| Familiar location work from King Kong in SHE |
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| More familiar territory with the Kong Wall in SHE |
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| Randolph Scott and Helen Mack in SHE |
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| Nigel Bruce, Randolph Scott and Helen Back in SHE |
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| Nigel Bruce with Helen Mack facing SHE |
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| Nigel Bruce, Randolph Scott and Helen Mack in SHE |
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| The amazing sets of Merian Cooper's production of SHE |
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| Helen Gahagan as SHE in RKO's production of SHE |
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| Helen Gahagan as SHE in RKO's production of SHE |
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| Helen Mack as Tanya Dugmore in SHE |
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| Helen Mack as Tanya Dugmore in SHE |
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| The amazing sets of Merian Cooper's production of SHE |
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| The amazing sets of Merian Cooper's production of SHE |
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