[4] It was directed by Robert Day and stars Ursula Andress, Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, John Richardson, Rosenda Monteros, and Christopher Lee.

After receiving honourable discharges from the British Army in Palestine in 1918, Professor Holly, young Leo Vincey and their orderly Job embark on an expedition into a previously unexplored region of central-east Africa.

Ayesha is a beautiful, immortal queen, who believes Leo is the reincarnation of her former lover, the priest Kallikratees, whom she had killed two thousand years before when she found him in the intimate embrace of another woman.

One can bathe in the flame only when it has turned blue, which it does rarely for short periods of time when astronomical events coincide.

Ready to rebel against the queen's cruel tyranny they are incited to revolt by their leader, Haumeid, a citizen of Kuma, whose daughter Ustane dared to fall in love with Leo while nursing him back to health after his perilous journey to the city.

Hinds then arranged for Berkely Mather to write a script, but the project was turned down again by Universal, and then by Joseph E. Levine and American International Pictures.

[6] Although the studio was pleased with the look of Ursula Andress in the film – as lit by Harry Waxman and costumed by Carl Toms and Roy Ashton – they found her Swiss-German accent to be offputting, and had her entire part re-dubbed by actress Nikki van der Zyl, who had dubbed her in Dr.

[6] The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote of the film: "It lacks style, sophistication, humour, sense, and above all, a reason for being, since it isn't even as good (excepting that it is in colour) as the last remake of She done with Helen Gahagan in 1935".