The Pillar of Fire
1899 film by Georges Méliès
The Pillar of Fire (French: Danse du feu), initially released in America and Britain as Haggard's "She"—The Pillar of Fire and also known as La Colonne de feu, is an 1899 silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès based on H. Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She: A History of Adventure. It is an early fantasy film depicting a devil.
Summary
A devil cavorts in a large fireplace, kindling a fire. Out of a giant skillet rises a young woman in voluminous white robes. As smoke rises in the fireplace, the woman begins a serpentine dance. Her skirts take on the appearance of flames until, finally, she disappears in a burst of fire.
Production
The Pillar of Fire was the first film to be based on H. Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She: A History of Adventure. Rather than attempting to tell the whole story of the novel, Méliès used one of its characters as inspiration for a trick film, recalling the scene in the novel in which Ayesha stands amid flames. At least six other adaptations of She were made in the silent era.
Release
The film was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 188 in its catalogues.
“The Pillar of Fire” enters the record as 1899 film by Georges Méliès. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pillar, Fire and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“The Pillar of Fire” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pillar, Fire and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7757123. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1899 and 1887.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Pillar of Fire” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.