Now, here’s a movie that has a production history that is more interesting than the film itself. In fact, someone should make a movie about it! Who will play Gloria Swanson? Hmm. I don’t know, but whoever it is will probably win an Oscar.
QUEEN KELLY is a silent film that went into production in 1929 and then was never released in America. Director Erich Von Stroheim was fired by mega-star Gloria Swanson when they disagreed over the direction the story was taking, and Swanson eventually shot her own version of the ending and had the film released in other countries.
The print I watched was an attempt by Kino to restore the film to its original intended narrative. Instead of using the Swanson ending, it uses production stills and Von Stroheim’s surviving footage to finish off the narrative. Unfortunately this isn’t very dramatically successful; still, you get a good idea of what the movie would have been like as much of the first half is entirely intact.
The story concerns a mad Queen (Seena Owen) obsessed with marrying a handsome Prince (Walyer Byron) who doesn’t like her. The handsome Prince runs into Kelly (Gloria Swanson), who lives in a convent/orphanage, and instantly falls in love. He can’t stop thinking about her and eventually abducts her to bring her back to the palace he shares with the mad Queen and proclaim his love to her. Kelly is just as in love with the handsome Prince as he is with her, but of course the mad Queen comes between them in a particularly brutal scene.
The last half of the film (the reconstructed part) involves Kelly moving to Africa at her dying aunt’s behest and being forced into an arranged marriage with a sleazy old pimp (Tully Marshall, creepy as hell).
What one half of the film has to do with the other, I’m not 100% sure, except to say that it’s not that uncommon for movies of this era to simply be about a naïve, innocent girl who is dragged through a terrible life and exposed to horrors through little fault of her own.
As far as the quality of the film is concerned, the production is huge and clearly expensive, with big, impressive sets, especially in the scenes set in the palace. The concept of the mad, jealous Queen vs. poor Kelly is pretty fascinating and those scenes work well, but as soon as the movie gets to Africa it grinds to a halt as it takes a ton of screen time to get through very rudimentary things – I don’t know how long Kelly stands by her aunt’s deathbed, but it seemed like an eternity.
I was pretty surprised with how racy a silent movie like this was. There’s some brief nudity for the Queen, a meet-cute between the Prince and Kelly involving Gloria Swanson throwing her underwear at him, and even a girl-on-girl whipping scene. Silent but violent, bro.
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