A work of barbaric splendour…
LA Times
Culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum and I don’t just mean
Ed Sheeran here. There was a bleak strand of early twentieth century art that contended
not just with unprecedented global tragedy but also the loss of faith in Gods
and governments: godlessness is next to heartlessness and so it goes. As ever
you could escape to fantasy but there were some pointing straight into the heart
of darkness even as they did so. This was not so much Victorian gothic as
post-war-punk with stories showing that the sun will, in all probability, not
come out tomorrow as things brewed in what proved to be merely the long
halftime between wars to end all wars.
As Pamela Hutchinson suggested in her excellent
introduction, Queen Kelly was possibly part of one of these strands, the
theatre of the cruelty, certainly in style if not deliberate intent. Erich von
Stroheim was developing his cinema whilst, at the same time as in Europe, Antonin
Artaud was evolving his Manifeste du théâtre de la cruauté. Here Artaud detailed
the aims of evoking a visceral reaction from his audience by means of presenting
a wordless humiliation for his characters. Empathy would be our weakness as we engage
with the basest levels of humanity through the look of degradation. Or,
to put it another way, be repulsed by Tully Marshall’s gurning face as
the revolting Jan Vryheid, as he licks his lips in anticipation of marrying
Gloria Swanson’s help-less Patricia “Kitty” Kelly with whom we couldn’t
sympathise more.
After a failed romance with a very handsome prince, Kitty
is called to Poto-Poto, an area of a town in Tanzania, to visit her dying aunt. Now, such contact,
normally signals an unexpected windfall, but this is not Hollywood as we know
it, it’s Von’s version and Kitty’s aunt has summoned her with the strangest
notion that she should marry her nightmarish protector and Tully surely never
worked so hard to be so thoroughly unlovely. Kitty has not just loved and lost,
she has been physically abused and driven to the point of attempted suicide.
Now, after hope is offered, it is not just pulled away but replaced with a Tully
worse than death. Cruel and absurd.
How did Kitty end up so far away from the good grace with
which she started the film and her promising love match…? Queen Kelly is
a confounding film in every respect and so much so that it is not surprising
that it was never properly finished let alone released: it was too much for its
star and its producer not to mention the looming approbation of the all to easily
offended Will H. Hays. Had he had to pass the film after the introduction of
the 1934 code he couldn’t as he surely would have fainted in the first few
minutes of screentime for an over-exposed Seena Owen as mad Queen Regina V.
The full story of this film is well beyond the terms of
reference established by the “editorial board” of this blog – partially-informed
hot-takes won’t cut it and it is also such a complex and un-historied part of cinema
history that you’d need a whole book and a mass of library time to do it
justice. Luckily esteemed film writer, historian and programmer Pamela Hutchinson
has provided just that and it is a page-turning joy with eye-popping
revelations that connect three most interesting characters in ways that haven’t
been done before. On the Writers on Film podcast, Pamela says that there’s
a Netflix biopic of Joe Kennedy due which start in the early thirties. Well,
they really ought to revisit the script as this book would itself make a great
film. Hollywood has never been that great about filming itself but maybe it’s
been short on real stories? Here’s one!
Pamela was on hand to introduce the film and to explain
how her painstaking research was similar to that informing the team from Milestone,
Dennis Doros and Amy Heller: Swanson’s extensive archive including von Stroheim’s
original script as well as a surprising amount of materials retained (given
their general business practice of the time) by Joe Kennedy. A 4k restoration
has been produced and was premiered last year in Venice, some parts are still
missing – not everything was filmed for a start – and so there are new
intertitles and gaps filled by recycling footage and stills which gives the
flavour of the full film which now runs at an hour and three quarters. The
Great Footage Fetishist (a marvellous pun from Von Stroheim’s nemesis, Irving
Thalberg) would have had it at three times that length but you can’t always get
what you want Erich… as you well knew by this point. And yet, still you tried…
Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron at the peak of Kiity and the Prince's romance
Reviewing the films of Erich or “Von” as he was
abbreviated by close friends and enemies, you encounter the rich irony of a man
who claimed to be of Austrian noble/military background (opinions vary) and yet
who wanted to capture reality on screen like no other. Watching Greed,
you feel the lunatic urge to acquire money tipped over the edge until it dooms
the main characters in that classic ending. Blind Husbands (1919) in
which he starred showed again the unlimited cruelty of humanity whilst Merry-go-Round,
a film he was unable to complete due to Thalberg sacking him, still carries his
mark as all manner of cruel horrors are inflicted on poor Mary Philbin’s
character.
That Swanson chose Von for this project showed she wanted
his skills if not his budgetary control. She had just had a hit with the then almost
unfilmable Sadie Thompson – a story of prostitution which other studios
tried to stop for tactical reason* but which allowed her to play a more mature role.
It was a success and it’s hard to believe she was still just 28, somewhere
between Sadie Sink and Sydney Sweeney in today’s money but a star in ways that
have no contemporary equivalent.
Kitty is a nun as the film opens, an innocent but playful
novice in the mid-European country of Kronberg which is of no fixed period as
per the conventions of the time. It is ruled over by the mad Queen Regina V –
is there any other kind? – who seethes with clothes-less rage in her boudoir with
only her pet do for coverage. She may be the boss but she cannot quite control
her intended consort, Prince Wolfram (handsome Leicester-born Walter Byron) who
spends his time acting like a bachelor rather than a fiancé.
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| Seena Owen: nothing says "mad Queen" so much as a cat in the bath... |
He does at least take his military duties seriously and
out leading his troop across the country roads he encounters Kitty who catches
his eye when her bloomers fall down. I’m no expert but I wasn’t sure that nuns ever
wore bloomers but in Kronberg apparently they do and the results lead to
Wolfram putting them in his saddle bag – the sure way to any girl’s heart. It’s
a funny sequence and shows how Von was adept at the sweet as well as the sour:
military progress halted by the stirrings of the heart. We know he’s setting us
up for a fall but the higher fly the hearts of the Prince and his increasingly
lapsing nun, the harder they will fall.
So, it proves as, after finally finding her clothes, Regina
V starts making arrangements, moving the date of her marriage forwards and
otherwise closing down Wolfram’s room to manoeuvre. Everything comes to a head with
the most sadistic twist as she chases Kitty away with her whip, spittle flying
from her face of fury as she shows no mercy. The movements of the film are slow
but symphonically structured so that when such twists occur the audience is dragged
down with them.
Most of the existing film is set in Kronberg and there is proportionately less in Africa partly because Swanson, having realised that her character’s taking over management of her aunt’s “hotel” actually meant brothel and this was so well presented as such by Von that she called him a madman and asked Joe Kennedy to fire him. On budget alone this was justified as with only less than half the film completed – it was supposed to run to five hours – Von was already overbudget for the whole thing.
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| Here's Tully!! |
The new Milestone Film’s “reimagining” improves on their
previous efforts with the inclusion of some new materials and new title cards
based on Von’s scripts. We see enough of Poto-Poto to really feel Kitty’s fall
to the ultimate depths in no small part due to Tully Marshall’s exuberant evil.
It is at this point that we’re almost without hope, we are in the Cruelty sweet
spot exactly as Von intended and that is the biggest compliment you can pay to the
work of Milestones’ Doros and Heller. They also bring out the full flavour of
what is an extraordinary and powerful performance from Swanson and the role she
fought so hard to see preserved in some way. It’s here Gloria.
Neil Brand, so steeped in the musical language of Hollywood
composition, was the perfect accompaniment to the grand statement in its need
for an emotional anchor as well as expression. How do you add flavour to the
intensity on show, how do you not over-play when the going gets Tully and when
The Faces are so loud and expressive? Neil knows and this was a masterclass of
composed improvisation and quicksilver composition supporting and glorying in Swanson!
I want to watch it all over again.
*The Curse of Queen Kelly, Pamela Hutchinson Sticking
Place Books (2026)
You can order the book direct from the publishers here
where you’ll also find more information and wonderful reviews, it is sincerely
one of the best books on film of recent years.
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| Von directed some very relaxed performances too! |
NB These screen grabs are from the new trailer for the restoration which give some idea of how good the results now look!
