Olinka Berova appears almost like a fantasy princess in this exceptionally beautiful color glamour portrait associated with THE VENGEANCE OF SHE (1968), emerging from brilliant blue water while surrounded by floating yellow, pink and white water lilies. With her elaborate blonde hair swept high above her face and her eyes turned upward beyond the frame, Berova possesses an unexpectedly regal quality—a remarkable Hammer composition in which glamour, color and exotic fantasy become almost inseparable.

The upward gaze makes the portrait.

Then comes the hair.

The blue water.

And those extraordinary flowers.

Everything seems arranged to transform Berova from actress into fantasy royalty.

Hammer Glamour in an Exotic Fantasy World

Directed by Cliff Owen, THE VENGEANCE OF SHE (1968) was produced by Hammer Film Productions as a follow-up to SHE (1965), returning to the exotic fantasy world inspired by the writings of H. Rider Haggard.

Olinka Berova stars as Carol, whose mysterious journey draws her toward the lost city of Kuma and a supernatural destiny connected with the legendary Ayesha.

The film also stars John Richardson, Edward Judd, Colin Blakely and André Morell.

But this photograph isn't interested in narrative action.

It creates fantasy through appearance.

Berova rises from an ornate bathing setting surrounded almost completely by cool blue water.

Her shoulders remain exposed above the surface while carefully positioned blossoms provide floral coverage at the waterline.

That staging is exceptionally clever.

The flowers preserve the glamour of the nude bathing composition while becoming visually integral to it.

They look like part of the fantasy.

Yellow.

Pink.

White.

Each blossom creates a small burst of warmth against the blue water, forming an almost floating floral frame around Berova.

Then we reach her face.

She doesn't look toward the camera.

She doesn't smile.

She isn't overtly performing seduction.

Instead, her eyes rise toward something beyond the frame.

That single choice introduces mystery.

What has attracted her attention?

The photograph refuses to answer.

Her hairstyle amplifies the effect.

Rather than loose, wet hair appropriate to someone actually bathing, Berova's blonde hair has been elaborately arranged high around her head.

The hairstyle elongates her neck, exposes the face completely and gives Berova an almost aristocratic bearing.

She doesn't merely look glamorous.

She looks regal.

That is the collector WHY.

Other photographs may show Berova within a similar bathing environment, but this particular composition has its own visual identity through the combination of expression, styling and floral arrangement.

It feels less like a conventional bathing glamour portrait and more like an idealized fantasy image designed around the exotic visual world of THE VENGEANCE OF SHE.

Hammer's Gothic productions could surround their stars with castles, crypts, candlelight and blood.

Its fantasy adventures required another visual vocabulary.

Exoticism.

Color.

Beauty.

Luxury.

Mystery.

This photograph delivers all five with little more than one woman, water and flowers.

At thumbnail size, the blue immediately catches the eye.

Then Berova's face.

Then the blossoms.

Move closer and the details become increasingly rewarding—the carefully arranged hair, the upward gaze, the floral positioning and the subtle gradations of color across the water.

For the Hammer collector, the photograph also preserves another side of the studio's visual history.

Not Dracula.

Not Frankenstein.

Not blood-soaked Gothic horror.

This is Hammer as lavish romantic fantasy and late-1960s glamour.

The water creates the dream.

The flowers create the color.

The hairstyle creates the royalty.

But that wonderful upward gaze gives the photograph its mystery.

Preserved within the KissMeMonster photographic archive, this exceptional color glamour image has been carefully restored to retain the luminous blue character of the bathing water, the delicate yellow, pink and white tones of the floating flowers, the intricate detail of Olinka Berova’s elaborate blonde hairstyle and the beautifully modeled expression that gives this unusual THE VENGEANCE OF SHE portrait its distinctive regal fantasy quality.