Queen Kelly

A rare and fascinating view into the creative process of one of the most notorious, talented and colorful figures of American cinema. When production began in 1928, writer/director Erich von Stroheim predicted the silent epic Queen Kelly would be his greatest cinematic achievement. Within a few weeks, however, the film was behind schedule, over budget, and filled with scenes of such frank eroticism and immorality that it was doubtful the film could ever pass the censors. With the film only partially completed, a frustrated and disgusted producer/star Gloria Swanson eventually shut down production. The demise of Queen Kelly marked the turning point in the career of one of silent cinema's greatest directors, who would never be given another filmmaking opportunity of this scale. The long-awaited publication of the complete screenplay (presented in cooperation with the Gloria Swanson estate) offers a richly detailed picture of von Stroheim's unrealized masterpiece that inarguably would have been one of the last great spectacles of the silent era. In addition to the extensively annotated 230-page shooting script, this volume includes 90 pages from an earlier draft. The original ending is dramatically different from the final version and had been discarded and rewritten by von Stroheim in an effort to cut costs during production. Also included are photographs, full production credits and an introduction detailing the troubled history of this most remarkable film. This book offers a thought-provoking view of the masterpiece that might have been.

We finally get a chance to witness von Stroheim's intended juxtaposed and parallel themes that show how little separates the debauchery of both the low and privileged classes, similar to the parallel themes of the intended full-length version of Greed (1924). We come to understand that von Stroheim may have seemed to be wildly out-of-control but was, instead perhaps, only fanatical in his pursuit of his vision of cinema realistique… Ultimately, this book is a required acquisition for fans of von Stroheim, one that is on the same level of importance as Herman Weinberg's volumes on von Stroheim films., The lengthy introduction, which traces the film's tortured production, shows all the hallmarks of dedicated research, whilst the script's descriptive passages vividly conjure a sense of the intended opulence...bound to impress scholars of the late silent era.

Bret Wood is a freelance writer, filmmaker and producer of special projects for Kino International Corp.