Queen Kelly is one of those rare films whose reputation--and only its reputation--precedes it; the film that Erich von Stroheim envisioned as his masterpiece, financed by Gloria Swanson, has existed here as legend only since production shut down in January 1929. (Swanson rendered a sound version of the existing footage in 1931 but this was only minimally released in Europe.) Now, on the occasion of Stroheim's centennial, Kino International premieres a reconstructed version of Queen Kelly. The restoration followed Stroheim's own script, using stills, titles, and all available film material struck from carefully preserved nitrate. The original score has been re-recorded.
Queen Kelly promises to be quintessential Stroheim, with its magnificent, Baroque sets; its pre-World War I European setting; astonishing, painterly compositions; and risqué humor in a plot that never would have survived the Hays Office anyway. The lecherous Prince Wolfram (Walter Byron), on the eve of his marriage to the mentally deranged Queen, gives in to his passion for a convent girl, “Kitty” Kelly (Swanson). This is the same “Kitty” Kelly who would later be “queen” of a brothel in German East Africa, and finally, according to Stroheim's script, the true Queen to Wolfram's King.