She (1935)

'She' is a Merian C. Cooper produced adaption of the H. Rider Haggard adventure novel of the same name from the 1880's. A small group sets out in search of 'the flame of eternal life' in the Russian tundra and encounter a hidden civilization ruled over by a supernaturally young 500 year old woman known as "She who must be obeyed". Clunky and slow 'She' was a major box office disappointment that boasts some solid effects and one or two well choreographed scenes and little else. Leading man Randolph Scott is super bland and the rest of the cast not much better. Of Chief historical note as the only film every to star Helen Gahagan, latter Helen Gahagan Douglas, a Broadway and opera star who could go on to marry Oscar winning actor Melvyn Douglas, service in the U.S. House of Representatives and run unsuccessfully against Richard Nixon in the 1950 California Senate race, in which she coined his nick name "Tricky Dick". Gahagan's physical appearance in the film would serve as the model for 'the wicked queen' in Walt Disney's 'Snow White'. Hardly even worth it as curio, a lesser 'Lost Horizon'. *1/2