It's a shame that Universal never used Maria Montez as a female monster, a la a new Dracula's Daughter, or an ancient Egyptian princess made the walking dead in one of their later "Mummy" movies. She could be so deliciously evil when called to do so, and horror movie women were scream queens rather than the perpetrators of fear. But she did spread her share of fear, whether it was the mysterious Marie Roget or the jewel hunting cobra woman. In this action/adventure, made after her Universal days had come to an end, she's both conniving and sultry, playing another queen of questionable personality.
This is late 40's escapism at its strangest, a hidden oasis in the middle of the desert, melodramatic and silly, but not without mystery to make it intriguing. Jean Pierre Aumont is the handsome victim of her latest games, pairing him as a rival to Dennis O'Keefe whom he gets into a supposed fight to the death with for her favors. Henry Danielle is over the top as one of Montez's old conquests, giving a sense of "She" into the plot. A scene with a doomed slave girl is haunting at one second then shocking, then laughable with the way that plot development is tied up.
It's obvious that Montez had a career simply because of her exotic looks. She's certainly not a great actress by any means, bellowing many of her lines and coming off as rather cold in spite of her attempts to seem alluring. In fact, everybody seems to be overacting here, and as handsome as it looks, it sort of feels like a serial that might come to a cliffhanger at any moment. But there are some truly eye rolling moments, a few unintentional laughs, and the feeling that the writers secretly had their tongue in their cheek when they handed it over to the director to begin shooting.
This is late 40's escapism at its strangest, a hidden oasis in the middle of the desert, melodramatic and silly, but not without mystery to make it intriguing. Jean Pierre Aumont is the handsome victim of her latest games, pairing him as a rival to Dennis O'Keefe whom he gets into a supposed fight to the death with for her favors. Henry Danielle is over the top as one of Montez's old conquests, giving a sense of "She" into the plot. A scene with a doomed slave girl is haunting at one second then shocking, then laughable with the way that plot development is tied up.
It's obvious that Montez had a career simply because of her exotic looks. She's certainly not a great actress by any means, bellowing many of her lines and coming off as rather cold in spite of her attempts to seem alluring. In fact, everybody seems to be overacting here, and as handsome as it looks, it sort of feels like a serial that might come to a cliffhanger at any moment. But there are some truly eye rolling moments, a few unintentional laughs, and the feeling that the writers secretly had their tongue in their cheek when they handed it over to the director to begin shooting.