S.H.E. - La volpe, il lupo, l'oca selvaggia

Richard Maibaum, chief scriptwriter for the early Bond films, wrote and gets "created by" credit for this well-made TV pilot, which plays well as a feature film. I became a Cornelia Sharpe fan with her movie "The Next Man", directed by Richard Sarafian, starring opposite (who else?) Sean Connery, and it's a treat to see her as a female superspy here.

Her career never really took off, and I suppose she's been treated unfairly since her career was sponsored by her future husband Martin Bregman. He produced "S*H*E" and "The Next Man", but was best known for producing many of Al Pacino's very best movies, ranging from "Serpico" & "Dog Day Afternoon" through "Scarface" & "Sea of Love".

The production values are terrific here, way better than made-for-tv movies, perhaps because it was an international co-production. And besides a fine turn by Omar Sharif, the gargantuan British actress Isabella Rye is fun as the female equivalent of RIchard Kiel in the Bond pictures. Sharpe dominates the entire movie, and even gets to do a creditable belly-dance number, plus some tasteful backside nude scenes.

Michael Kamen's disco music score includes a song quite reminiscent of the O'Jays' great hit "Backstabbers"

Cornelia Sharpe as a sexy agent, unmindful of showing her body off and using her skills and weapons to get the bad guy, accompanied by a bumbling male assistant. Wonder why it did not become a hit! Maybe because of the terrible acting? The unimaginative yet familiar action sequences? One henchman/woman (the gender is questionable because of his/her hormone quantities)who looks a bulky grandma lost in a white sheet stolen from a flea market? Because it's all flash, no substance? Let's be thankful Ms. Sharpe has disappeared.

S H E: Security Hazards Expert (I'm just going to call it SHE for the rest of this) is the story of secret agent Lavinia Kean (Cornelia Sharpe). She's sent to investigate wine merchant Baron Cesare Magnasco (Omar Sharif) and his buddy, Owen Hooper (Robert Lansing) who may be up to no good. Lavinia finds the pair have created something called APM - a microbe that devours oil and makes it useless. Unless they are paid $3 billion per year, they intend to turn their discovery lose on the world's oil supply.

I understand that SHE was a television pilot that originally aired on CBS. I'm surprised I didn't see it. The plot summary and the James Bond-esque trappings would have been right up my alley. I caught it last night and, overall, I can say it's not half bad (I suppose that also means it's not half good either). While Sharpe will never be confused with one of the world's great actresses, she does fine in the lead role. She has an infectious quality about her that works. The supporting cast is especially strong and a cut above what you normally found on television in the late 70s. Omar Sharif and Robert Lansing are quite good. Sharif, in particular, plays the love sick puppy to perfection. The cast also includes one of my personal genre favorites, Fabio Testi. I was shocked and delighted to see him in SHE.

As for the rest of SHE, the plot is hit or miss. It takes a while to get things going, but once it does, the pace picks up nicely. The comedy is also hit or miss. Some works while some misses its mark completely. I loved the fight scene between Magnasco and Hooper. The action sequences are okay - not great, but decent enough. SHE is filled with enough gadgets to make Bond envious - everything from knock-out sprays, an instant fingerprint kit, small explosive devices, and a gold remote controlled bug that injects poison into its target. The locations are a bonus for something like SHE. The outdoor shots set in Italy are really nice. On the bad side, the female Russian bodyguard is ridiculous, the disco soundtrack is nauseating, and, as I've already indicated, it takes a while to get things going. Sill, like I said, it's not half bad (or half good) and I'll rate SHE a 5/10.

Source where I got this rarity: Old Danish VHS called "S*H*E* - Super Hemmelig Efterretningsagent" = Super Secret Agent.

Okay, here is the story: The beautiful Cornelia Sharpe plays Lavinia Kean, a secret agent who infiltrates criminal affiliations by seducing random guys, and in this movie, her main victim is Baron Cesare Magnasco (Omar Sharif), who has made an evil scheme with his old friend Owen Hooper/Hunt (Robert Lansing) to destroy the world's fuel sources by contaminating it with some sort of poison that turns it into sludge.

The "poison" was invented by Magnasco's girl friend (as in "a friend who is also a girl") Dr. Else Biebling, played by Anita Ekberg. She is very jealous of Lavinia, and tries to get her away from Magnasco, but with little success, as Lavinia - with the help from her friends Lacey (William Traylor) and Rudolf Caserta (Fabio Testi) cracks all the codes and saves the day.

A serious dose of suspense of disbelief is needed to make this movie work, however, but seeing as the writer (Richard Maibaum) has made the scripts for about a dozen James Bond-movies, this one isn't more unbelievable than any of those other movies, except for the fact that there's no "SUPER-VILLAIN", and the heroine is, well, a beautiful woman, and not some guy.

Verdict: Overall, I was quite bored with this movie, as I was expecting a LOT more action (the cover said "forbidden under 16 years", but there's no cursing, nobody dies, and there's nothing disturbing about it!) - I can easily recommend this as a family movie, as I'm sure it would entertain children - especially small girls. But for grown-up entertainment, it's a bit too light and uninteresting. The plot doesn't have any twists or surprises, as it's all done straight by the book.

5/10 for effort, and an extra star for Isabella Rye as the grotesque Russian she-male Fanya. Hilariously ugly.

(1980) S. H. E.

ACTION ADVENTURE

Made for TV starring Cornelia Sharpe as Lavina Keen or as S. H. E. Which stands for "Security Hazard Expert" the female equivalent of the spy of the James Bond movies. She has a sidekick named Lacey (William Traylor) investigating wine baron, Baron Cesare Magnasco played by Omar Sharif. Who has a partner, Ottis (Robert Lansing) together invented a formula that could make oil worthless by turning it into useless sludge. Anita Ekberg also stars as the scientist who made the formula.

If it's made for TV then it usually means that the movie is toned down including the action and the cheezy gadgets.