Shes

I've been watching every film adaptation of H Rider Haggard's She: A History of Adventure. Yes, there were multiple productions. For almost a century, this was one of the all time most famous fantasy novels. The earliest adaptation is from Georges Melies himself, a very short film made in 1899 called The Pillar of Fire, which really only depicts the very end of the book.

I'm not sure who that little green devil's supposed to be. The set, too, seems to be entirely a product of Melies' imagination. But what a set!

The next adaptation of the book, called She and made in 1911, is short at only 24 minutes but still decides to spend a lot of that time telling a different story from the book, beginning in ancient Egypt and depicting Ayesha's relationship with a pharaoh.

The 1925 version certainly blows the 1911 version out of the water. H. Rider Haggard himself actually wrote the intertitles and the actress playing Ayesha, Betty Blythe, starts to make it believable that men lose their minds over how beautiful she is. Not that's ever truly believable in any adaptation of the book. That's the kind of thing maybe you can only accomplish in prose. But at least Blythe isn't wearing a big shapeless robe the whole time, instead opting for sheer clothing that leaves nothing to the imagination or a jewel encrusted brassiere.

It's edifying to note how different a sexy fantasy babe outfit looked in 1925. It was the dawn of skimpy clothing in western culture and they evidently hadn't figured out that consideration for the natural contours of the body should be involved in designing and tailoring seductive wardrobe. What's meant to look glamorous and regal often looks sad and frumpy. Personally, though, I like how everyone has bad posture by to-day's standards.