Movie review – “The Vengeance of She” (1967) **

Although H Rider Haggard wrote a an acceptable sequel to She, Ayesha, Hammer decided to come up with their own sequel to their 1965 film, although it re-uses several characters. This one is set in the present day an actually starts quite eerily with Olinka Berova someone walking along a deserted road – then promptly gets silly with a truck driver trying to rape her, but said truck driver is run over by his truck. The girl winds up on the French Riviera on a yacht owned by rich dissolute Colin Blakely, and including his wife and psychiatrist (Edward Judd)! Berova jumps off the ship and Blakely has a heart attack rescuing her. She takes off in North Africa and Judd decides to follow her.

This isn’t much of a set up. The girl is driven by visions in her head but isn’t that keen to find whatever is driving her. (The jazz longue music score doesn’t help). The shrink takes off after her but not until around 40 minutes in (he’s accompanied by the ship’s captain) – and we’ve never really established that he’s obsessed with her. (When the girl falls out of the water its Blakely not Judd who rescues her.)

It’s so unexotic – Judd’s a shrink for God’s sake. He goes looking for her in a jeep –that’s not adventurous (where are the camels, the feeling of being cut off from civilisation). And it’s set in the present day. (NB It also feels as though some scenes have been cut out around this point). I always remembered Edward Judd’s performance from this film as a prime example of the not-really-attractive-enough-too-old-British-leading-man – there’s a bunch of them in British cinema, including Ian Hendry in Theatre of Blood. His character isn’t very likeable – why is it so great Berova goes off with Judd, who manipulates her mind, instead of Richardson? They’re both brainwashers. (Richardson looks old and tired here, much more so than the previous film even though this was only made a few years later.)

On the sunny side Berova is very attractive, genuinely looks like she could be a reincarnation of Andress, and frequently walks around with not much on. And some of the supporting players are fine. But the whole film is a great opportunity missed.