I really didn't know that Hammer made much of anything besides the horror films for which they are justly famous until coming across this double-feature DVD in the store (the 2nd film is The Viking Queen which you'll hear about next week); I needed some trash to go with the more serious stuff I had, so I picked it up.
Basically, it's pretty good for what it is. Mysterious blond beauty is having odd dreams, visions, nightmares....escapes from lecherous truck driver who has given her a lift at the beginning....swims to a luxury yacht anchored off the coast (Monte Carlo, perhaps? never stated that I remember), has some fairly dull interactions with wealthy owner and suspicious wife, concerned psychiatrist friend of the owner....nightmares and visions persist, she throws herself overboard, owner dies saving her....boat puts in at a port in North Africa, she disappears and travels across country, now she is being called, "Ayesha, Ayesha" and must go to her destiny....the psychiatrist follows her....ancient forbidden city, Romans and magi....is she Ayesha, reborn? Will she live forever with the ancient Roman general who has brought her there? Preposterous, of course, but the DVD is so gorgeous, the colors so bright and the print so flawless, and the blond babe (Olga Schoberová) so beautiful, that hey, I enjoyed it as the escapism that it was intended to be. It certainly moved along nicely, and the location shots in the desert were quite nice. Honestly, it was vastly better than the recent Mummy films to which it bears some thematic resemblance. No real relation to the H Rider Haggard novels.
Basically, it's pretty good for what it is. Mysterious blond beauty is having odd dreams, visions, nightmares....escapes from lecherous truck driver who has given her a lift at the beginning....swims to a luxury yacht anchored off the coast (Monte Carlo, perhaps? never stated that I remember), has some fairly dull interactions with wealthy owner and suspicious wife, concerned psychiatrist friend of the owner....nightmares and visions persist, she throws herself overboard, owner dies saving her....boat puts in at a port in North Africa, she disappears and travels across country, now she is being called, "Ayesha, Ayesha" and must go to her destiny....the psychiatrist follows her....ancient forbidden city, Romans and magi....is she Ayesha, reborn? Will she live forever with the ancient Roman general who has brought her there? Preposterous, of course, but the DVD is so gorgeous, the colors so bright and the print so flawless, and the blond babe (Olga Schoberová) so beautiful, that hey, I enjoyed it as the escapism that it was intended to be. It certainly moved along nicely, and the location shots in the desert were quite nice. Honestly, it was vastly better than the recent Mummy films to which it bears some thematic resemblance. No real relation to the H Rider Haggard novels.