Always loved this book, Haggard’s most famous work after King Solomon’s Mines, and have never been able to understand why it’s never been filmed faithfully. I know you’ve got to compress and condense – but the novel’s got this great start, with a dying man asking Holly to look after his kid, the beautiful Vincent, descended from an ancient Egyptian prince, with a family curse. And it gives their expedition a stronger basis – Leo called from beyond the grave by Kyllikratis’ widow to avenge her husband’s death at the hands of She. The character of Holly is so interesting in the book – a lonely, truly ugly man with great strength and a big heart. On the negative side, Job is a wimpy lower-class cliché, all obedience and fear of women – Bernard Cribbins’ performance in the 1965 film was a great improvement on Haggard.
The journey to She is enjoyable, if standard stuff – a storm knocks out the boat, there is some hunting. Haggard shows some feminism albeit 19th century style – there is female equality in his secret kingdom with the local gals being quite forward.
But it really kicks up when we meet Ayesha – the stunning woman, fond of taking her top off (you dirty dog, Haggard), but who is lonely for love and good conversation; she is also guilty, because she killed the love her life. Ayesha kills Leo’s self-appointed girlfriend but Leo doesn’t mind that much because he can’t resist the lure of Ayesha. However, she doesn’t realise that she shouldn’t walk into the flame of life twice
Great things that weren’t used in film versions: Ayesha showing Holly the caves of perfectly preserved dead people; Ayesha falling for Holly’s mind and having some funny conversations about the modern world (when Ayesha hears about England having a Queen she says “no worries she can be deposed); Ayesha slapping Ustane and making a permanent mark; the cave of torture and caves of preserved dead people; the atmosphere of Ayesha and the others walking through the dead civilisation; the thrilling journey over to the chasm to the flame of life and back again. All these things would have been cheap to film but they weren’t used
(The 1965 film did make some good additions, though: having the natives revolt because of the death of Ustane, and having Leo walk into the fire, thereby sentencing himself to eternity without Ayesha.) It’s a very smart adventure novel with lots of chatting about philosophy and religion, plus some great sequences.
No comments:
Post a Comment