She
About She
In 350 B.C., Amenartas flees Egypt with the priest Kallikrates. She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed kills him when he rejects her, and Amenartas swears that a descendant will return. Centuries later Leo Vincey and Horace Holly reach her African realm. She steps into the Pillar of Fire to prove it is safe, ages in a moment, and dies.
Cast & crew
More about She
George Nichols directed Marguerite Snow as She and James Cruze as both Kallikrates and the adult Leo Vincey, from a scenario by Theodore Marston. Wikipedia says it runs 24 minutes 40 seconds, was released on December 26, 1911, and was Thanhouser's first two-reeler, made in a week. Wikidata lists 24 minutes.
Themes
Background
Wikipedia places the ancient section in 350 B.C. and the modern opening of the chest in 1910, with Leo's guardianship beginning in 1885.
Notes
- The catalog overview calls this the first film attempt at Haggard's novel and dates the book 1886. The Wikipedia production section dates the novel 1887 and also calls the film the first attempt to depict that story, while the introduction calls it the fourth attempt.
- Georges Méliès's The Pillar of Fire (1899) is named as an earlier short in which Ayesha stands in flames.
- Viola Alberti, the director's wife, plays Amenartas. Marie Eline plays Leo as a boy. William C. Cooper plays Horace Holly.
- Irma Taylor, Harry Benham, and Alphonse Ethier are on the cast list as Ustane, Billali, and Job.
- An intertitle says She strikes Leo dead, but the actors do not play that killing.
Scenes
- She enters the Pillar of Fire and shrivels as the flame's effect has changed.
Influenced by
- H. Rider Haggard's novel She: A History of Adventure
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (She (1911).webm)
