Erich von Stroheim was both man and myth — a visionary, Vienna-born filmmaker with the self-fashioned persona of a Prussian officer in Hollywood — and so too is “Queen Kelly” part genius, part pipe dream. Von Stroheim’s fervid 1929 story of a convent girl who is seduced by a spoken-for prince became a fiasco when his exacting methods and excesses led to its star, Gloria Swanson, bolting and her producing partner, Joseph P. Kennedy, halting the production. A bastardized version was released abroad, leading to decades of wondering what might have been.
“Queen Kelly” now returns in what Milestone Films calls “an improved reimagining” that draws on nitrate prints, outtakes, stills and more (after a previous reconstruction in 1985). The shimmering, sensitively scored restoration brings out the production’s opulence and hence the regal stage von Stroheim sets for his characters’ attractions and abjection. The palace of the film’s “mad queen” (Seena Owen, introduced imperiously wearing a cat) dazzles with its chandeliers, checkerboard floors and arrayed guardsmen. Swanson glows in close-ups as Patricia Kelly, the innocent who catches the eye of Prince Wolfram and the ire of said queen, his fiancée.
The story is a trademark von Stroheim clash of classes and desires. Out on horseback Wolfram (Walter Byron) met Kelly in a nun-led procession of orphans. At night, he sets fire to their convent and kidnaps Kelly to his palace apartment. Candles and cross-fades underline Kelly’s apparent rapture, until the queen discovers them and, in a jaw-dropping sequence, propels Kelly to the door with lashings from a riding crop.
A wild stew of the sacred and profane follows (aided by a game supporting cast). Kelly visits her dying aunt in East Africa, where in gauzy, haunting scenes she must marry a leering old suitor. The film’s second half then stops short, like a bubble burst: In a flurry of intertitles and scene fragments, Kelly becomes a bordello madam, then ends up with Wolfram.
The abruptness doesn’t negate the film’s hold, though von Stroheim’s directing career did dwindle away. As an actor, he followed with a twist worthy of his perverse plotting: In “Sunset Boulevard,” he plays the chauffeur and former director of a silent-screen star — played by Swanson.
Queen Kelly Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. In theaters.
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