This week’s mystery movie has been the 1935 RKO film “She,” with Helen Gahagan, Randolph Scott, Helen Mack and Nigel Bruce, directed by Irving Pichel and Lansing C. Holden. With adaptation, continuity and dialogue by Ruth Rose, additional dialogue by Dudley Nichols, from the novel by H. Rider Haggard, music by Max Steiner, dance direction by Benjamin Zemach, photography by J. Roy Hunt, art direction by Van Nest Polglase and Al Herman and costumes by Aline Bernstein and Harold Miles.
The movie is available on DVD in a number of editions.
A PDF of the book, digitized by Google, is here.
Aha! Is this the origin of “She who must be obeyed?”
July 25, 1935: “She” opens in Los Angeles.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times (July 26, 1935) Edwin Schallert said:
The picture is unique beyond belief, overdoing the grotesque at times, and therefore not meeting with the anticipated reaction, but still a remarkably courageous experiment. It is showing at the RKO Hillstreet and Warner’s Hollywood theaters where it is drawing large crowds.
Writing in the New York Times (July 26, 1935), F.S.N. said:
H. Rider Haggard’s “She,” which was published about fifty years ago and is reported to have fired the imaginations of between one and two million juvenile readers, has been converted by RKO Radio into a gaudy, spectacular and generally fantastic photoplay which is likely to find its greatest favor with the younger generation. The adult reaction, we fear, will be decidedly lukewarm.
At the risk of being considered illiterate, the department must confess to having missed the Haggard novels in its youth and consequently has had to rely, for purposes of comparison, upon the memories of a few gray-haired individuals in the city room who grew both excited and reminiscent at the mention of She, the ruler of the land of Kor, who stood in the Flame of Life and gained immortality.
For Monday, we have a mystery gent.
Update: This is Noble Johnson.
Note: Pyewacket, our summer intern, went down into the Daily Mirror vault and inadvertently got the colorized version of our mystery movie. We have counseled Pyewacket about colorized films and will present the mystery movie in its original, glorious black and white.
For Tuesday, we have this mystery fellow.
Update: This is Samuel S. Hinds.
Brain Trust roll call: Sheila (Monday’s mystery guest), Mike Hawks (mystery movie, Monday’s mystery guest and Back of the Head Guy), Don Danard (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery guest), Howard Mandelbaum (Monday’s mystery guest) and Bob Hansen (Monday’s mystery guest).
And for Wednesday, a mystery gent.
Update: This is Gustav von you know who.
Brain Trust roll call: Don Danard (Monday’s Back of the Head Guy, Tuesday’s mystery gent), Howard Mandelbaum (mystery movie and Tuesday’s mystery gent), Roget-L.A. (Tuesday’s mystery gent), Mary Mallory (mystery movie and Monday’s and Tuesday’s mystery gents), David Inman (Tuesday’s mystery gent), Mike Hawks (Tuesday’s mystery gent), Sue Slutzky (Monday’s and Tuesday’s mystery guests) and B.J. Merholz (Tuesday’s mystery gent).
For Thursday, we have a mystery woman. She might be the great-grandmother of Cousin Itt.
Update: It’s Tanya! (Helen Mack)
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Wednesday’s mystery gent), Howard Mandelbaum (Wednesday’s mystery gent), Mike Hawks (Wednesday’s mystery gent), Don Danard (mystery movie and Wednesday’s mystery gent), Lee Ann, Megan and Thom (mystery movie and all mystery guests), Sue Slutzky (mystery movie and Wednesday’s mystery guest), Benito (Monday’s mystery guest) and Sheila (mystery movie and Wednesday’s mystery guest).
For Friday, we have our mystery leading lady….
Update: This is Helen Gahagan.
… And finally, a mystery woman and her unmysterious companion.
Update: This is Helen Mack and Randolph Scott.
Brain Trust roll call: Howard Mandelbaum (Thursday’s mystery woman and quote from mystery movie — most impressive), Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mystery woman), Don Danard (Thursday’s mystery woman), Benito (mystery movie and a noble defense of our summer intern, Pyewacket, for choosing the colorized version) and Sue Slutzky (Thursday’s mystery woman).
ladailymirror.com 
Ed Ames?
LikeLike
I’m afraid not.
LikeLike
Noble Johnson!
LikeLike
Henry Brandon?
LikeLike
Alas, I’m afraid not.
LikeLike
Nigel Bruce and Noble Johnson in SHE 1935.
LikeLike
Noble Johnson in “She” .. the Helen Gahagan version.
LikeLike
Well, he looks like Neville Brand. But on a Monday? Alas, I think not. 🙂
LikeLike
We love Neville (Al Capone) Brand. But not for a Monday.
LikeLike
Noble Johnson.
LikeLike
I’m guessing it’s Noble Johnson on Monday, but am clueless as to which movie.
LikeLike
Today it’s the always dependable Samuel S. Hinds.
LikeLike
Samuel S. Hinds in SHE (1935).
LikeLike
Tuesday: Samuel S. Hinds?
LikeLike
Samuel S. Hinds today.
LikeLike
Samuel S. Hinds today?
LikeLike
JUNGLE WOMAN.
LikeLike
Alas, I’m afraid not.
LikeLike
Samuel S. Hinds gives some advice.
LikeLike
Monday’s guest is Noble Johnson.
LikeLike
The mystery movie is Tropic Fury, 1939.
LikeLike
Alas, I’m afraid not.
LikeLike
Tuesday’s guest looks like Samuel S. Hinds.
LikeLike
Samuel S. Hinds
LikeLike
SHE and Noble Johnson Monday.
LikeLike
Is “back of the head” guy Nigel Bruce? I think so.
LikeLike
Nearly off-topic, but I nearly spent $25 on a DVD of The Magnificent Ambersons before learning it was a colorized abomination, just when you thought that film had endured enough tampering. I thought the color beast was dead. Luckily, the b/w original is available in a no-frills version on a TCM collection.
LikeLike
This may be blasphemy, but there’s one movie – and only one – that I enjoy watching colorized – Yankee Doodle Dandy. I like seeing all that red, white and blue in red, white and blue. 🙂
LikeLike
Well, even a vegan like me can occasionally indulge in nachos and cheese if my friend pays for the beer. There’s a colorized Babes in Toyland DVD available which also includes the original b/w version, and though I’ve only dipped into it I realize that Stan Laurel himself wished the film had been done in color.
The recently departed George Romero authorized a colorized Night of the Living Dead back in the 1980s as an attempt to regain copyright of the film, and Disney of all people colorized Roger Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors for presumably the same reason. The latter is available on their disc of Corman’s Jack Nicholson vehicle The Cry Baby Killer.
LikeLike
YAY! Gustav von Seyfferrtitz today! We need to rerun him sometime soon.
LikeLike
Gustav von Seyffertitz.
LikeLike
Gustav von Seyffertitz looks very serious.
LikeLike
Today it’s the wonderfully named Gustav von Seyffertitz in the 1935 version of “She”.
LikeLike
Wednesday: Fritz Weaver?
LikeLike
Alas, I’m afraid not.
LikeLike
Monday’s star is Noble Johnson; Tuesday’s guest is Samuel Hinds; for Wednesday it is Gustav von Seyfertitz, making this movie “She”.
LikeLike
The movie is “She” from 1935. Wednesday’s guest is Gustav von Seyffertitz.
LikeLike
Looks like Henry Daniell, although I’ve never seen him in this silly outfit
LikeLike
Alas, I’m afraid not.
LikeLike
Is Monday’s man Noble Johnson (great name) who appeared in BOTH versions of Dante’s Inferno as a devil?
LikeLike
Samuel S. Hinds, Gustav von Seyffertitz, “She”
LikeLike
Helen Gahagan.
LikeLike
“It’s Tanya!” Helen Mack.
LikeLike
Helen Mack.
LikeLike
Our Mystery Lady – under the veil – is Helen Mack.
LikeLike
SHE, 1935. Blasphemer that I am, I like the colorized version because I can see better details
LikeLike
Thursday’s guest: Helen Mack
LikeLike
Helen Gahagan; Helen Mack and Randolph Scott.
LikeLike
Helen Gahagan today, along with Helen Mack and Randolph Scott.
LikeLike
Well ….we’ve got Helen Gahagan aging in “She” and Helen Mack and Randolph Scott in same film.
Good one. One of my favourites.
LikeLike
Helen Gahagan, Helen Mack and Randolph Scott.
LikeLike
Friday: Helen Gahagan, then Randolph Scott and Helen Mack.
LikeLike
Well I now see it’s the 1935 version of “She” and it looks fascinating
LikeLike
Randolph Scott. Otherwise …nada. Do people actually go to see movies like this? And they pay!
LikeLike
Come on Gary! Where’s your sense of mystery?
LikeLike
Helen Gahagan Douglas left Hollywood in the 1940s for that other fantasy institution, the U.S. Congress.
LikeLike
The image…Ayesha Unveils…shows up in a 1911 edition of “She”. Also, there are 32 other images by Maurice Greiffenhagen and Charles H. M. Kerr.
‘Twas published by Longmans, Green and Co. in London, New York, Bombay and Calcutta.
It’s the oldest edition of She I have. However, it’s likely the image appears in other early editions as well.
LikeLike
‘Twould be interesting for “She” fans to compare the Gahagan version with the British version from 1965 which starred Ursula Andress, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
LikeLike