The "ultimate female" takes a new form in Hammer's THE VENGEANCE OF SHE on Blu-ray from Scream Factory.

The seemingly aimless wandering of amnesiac Scandinavian blond beauty Carol (Olinka Berova, IKARIE XB-1) takes her to the French Riviera where she is compelled to walk into the sea and swim out to the yacht of playboy industrialist George (Colin Blakely, THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES) whose wife Sheila (Jill Melford, I WANT WHAT I WANT) and vacationing psychiatrist friend Philip (Edward Judd, ISLAND OF TERROR) let her stay aboard out of concern even as they eject the rest of George's Monte Carlo partygoers. When George's double- and triple-dealing ways catch up to him, he abruptly orders the boat's captain Harry (George Sewell, INVASION: U.F.O.) to set sail. Assailed by a visions and a commanding voice whenever she falls asleep, Carol reacts violently when she perceives the boat steering going off-course from wherever she needs to go and is knocked overboard by George who then has a heart attack from exertion while trying to rescue her. When the boat returns to land, Philip resolves to help the troubled girl but she boards a tour bus and disappears into the desert. With Harry's help, Philip attempts to track down the girl. Meanwhile, Carol is taken into protection by mystic Kassim (Andre Morel, PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES) who detects the supernatural forces attempting to control her. When he attempts to use magic to defend her, Men-Hari (Derek Godfrey, THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES) – one of the Magi of the lost city of Kuma – harnesses the combined powers of the mind of the rest of the Magi to destroy him. Promised immortality by Kallikrates (John Richardson, BLACK SUNDAY) in return for bringing him a vessel for the reincarnation of Kuma's ruler Ayesha, Men-Hari declares that he is willing to accept that "burden" on behalf of the other Magi so that they may spread their knowledge and powers for the good of mankind; however, he really wants to use immortality to rule the world and will do whatever it takes despite the Magi's lone dissenter Za-Tor (Noel Willman, KISS OF THE VAMPIRE) prophesizing that the return of Ayesha will only bring evil to Kuma.

Hammer's cut-rate follow-up to their comparatively lavish 1965 adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's novel SHE, THE VENGEANCE OF SHE reverses the roles of the original in which John Richardson's Leo Vincey was believed by Ursula Andress' Ayesha to be the reincarnation of her slain lover Kallikrates; that and Berova, however, are the only new novelties which may be lost on the viewers unfamiliar with the source novel or the earlier film. The trek and arrival to Kuma and the various intrigues within – servant girl Sharma (Danièle Noël, THE MAGUS) is in love with Kallikrates but warns Men-Hari that Ayesha if reincarnated would never allow another to achieve immortality – would be enough for a loving serial throwback; but THE VENGEANCE OF SHE sets its foot wrong from the start by taking the most roundabout way to get to the main thrust of the plot (within the first ten or so minutes, audiences might be getting as exasperated as George with the enigmatic nature of Carol's behavior). The film seems like two films grafted together to reach feature-length with Carol surviving a rape attempt, swimming out to the yacht, the yacht taking off and then returning, before we get any real sense of narrative trajectory around the half-hour mark (despite welcome screentime for Blakeley and underused Melford). The photography of Wolfgang Suschitzky (GET CARTER) – father of Cronenberg DP Peter Suschitzky (CRASH) – and the scoring of Mario Nascimbene (ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.) provide the air of a more lavish picture, but the pleasures worth savoring in this uneven film lie in Hammer's stodgy sense of eroticism and the production values achieved on a budget (including the effects work of Les Bowie and company). The film did not do well and Hammer did not try again to mine the literary oeuvre of Haggard, which is unfortunate because a Hammer take on the Allan Quatermain stories might have been more entertaining that what Cannon and Harry Alan Towers did with them.

Released theatrically in the United States by Twentieth-Century-Fox, THE VENGEANCE OF SHE was one of the Fox Hammers not exploited on VHS before their rights ran out. The Elite Entertainment laserdisc was cancelled, but the transfer came out from Anchor Bay in 1999. The 1.66:1 transfer was non-anamorphic while an anamorphic version appeared in the UK a little later on. Opening with the Fox fanfare, Scream Factory's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC widescreen Blu-ray is framed at 1.85:1 but was likely composed for that framing with hairlines skirting the upper matte only in a few longshots where the character or the camera is moving. The 2K-mastered image boasts some vivid colors in the costumes and set while the enhanced textures do not rob Berova of her glamour – more so than her gold-painted plaster likeness – Richardson his regal air, Judd's craggy ruggedness, or the furtive eyebrows of Godfrey. The rear-projection outlines were probably always evident but some of the other composites hold up well. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track serves the score and the dialogue well, even if the post-synched dubbing of Richardson is more evident. Optional English subtitles are provided.

The film is accompanied by an audio commentary by Monster Party Podcast hosts Matt Weinhold, Shawn Sheridan, Larry Strothe, and James Gonis. While the track may seem a bit rowdy for those who like their Hammers accompanied with a more scholarly air, the track imparts a nice balance of production anecdote, humor, viewer nostalgia, and even some questions about the plot (like if the opening rape attempt was averted by the supernatural or chance since others who might stop Carol's journey were shown to be supernaturally dispatched as well as whether Kallikrates is supposed to be a reincarnation or the immortal Leo Vincey calling himself by the other name). They discuss Berova's career as Olga Schoberová, her subsequent marriages to Brad Harris (LADY DRACULA) and Warner's John Calley, Hammer's hard sell approach to promoting her as another Hammer Glamour starlet, and ponder whether her stiffness here has to do with her ability as an actress or the way she has been directed as a semi-possessed vessel. They also note that Berova was atypically not dubbed by another actress while Richardson was dubbed by David de Keyser (despite the fact that Richardson was not dubbed in SHE).