She (1935) on Netflix
Approved19351h 41mAdventureFantasyRomance
Summoned to his family's estate, Leo Vincey learns his ancestor found the secret of immortality in the far north. With Horace Holly and guide's daughter Tanya, he sets out across the Arctic.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.4/102,244 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes50%
Plot summary
Summoned from America, Leo Vincey reaches his family's estate in England, where his uncle John Vincey is dying. John and his friend Horace Holly tell Leo that an ancestor of the same name came upon the secret of immortality in the far north about five hundred years earlier, and that only the ancestor's wife returned, leaving a letter that describes the route and the Flame of Life. A portrait of the ancestor looks remarkably like Leo. Crossing the frozen Arctic with a guide named Dugmore and his daughter Tanya, the pair follow what the letter sets out, and Leo and Tanya begin to fall in love. Their road leads to Kor, a hidden civilization ruled by an immortal queen called She Who Must Be Obeyed, whose standing order is that strangers be brought before her.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about She (1935)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The original story was set in Africa and had Leo marry a native black woman, but the Hays Code, enacted in 1934, forbade depictions of interracial marriage in film, so the film was set in a temperate Arctic instead.
- She was thought to be a lost film until an original print was found in silent star Buster Keaton's garage and handed to distributor Raymond Rohauer for preservation.
- To cut costs, Cooper reused sets from King Kong: the ornate gates of She's grand palace were the gates to Skull Island.
- Max Steiner composed the score in less than a month, working day and night, and a doctor gave him shots to keep him awake so he could finish on time.
- RKO first agreed to pay Cooper $1 million each for She and The Last Days of Pompeii, then told him both had to be made for a combined $1 million; he said he "cheated a lot" on She to put more money into Pompeii.
- Cooper had wanted to shoot She in color, but last-minute budget cuts by RKO forced him to shoot it in black and white instead.
- She inspired other films: the pit of snakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark was modeled after a scene in She, and She's throne-room costume resembles the Evil Queen's in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- Cooper planned a scene where mammoths attack the explorers, to be animated by King Kong's Willis O'Brien, but cut it to stay within budget.
