Queen Kelly (1929)

A convent girl is abducted and seduced by a prince before being sent off to a brothel in East Africa.

Directors:

Erich von Stroheim (as Erich Von Stroheim), Richard Boleslawski (uncredited)

Writers:

Erich von Stroheim (based on an original story by) (as Erich Von Stroheim), Marian Ainslee (titles) (as Marion Ainslee)

Stars:

Gloria Swanson, Walter Byron, Seena Owen

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Gloria Swanson	...	Kitty Kelly / Queen Kelly
Walter Byron	...	Prince Wolfram
Seena Owen	...	Queen Regina V

Storyline

Prince Wolfram is the betrothed of mad Queen Regina V of Kronberg. Supreme ruler, her word is law and he is a playboy. On maneuvers as punishment for partying with other women, he sees Kelly walking the the other students of a convent. He is intrigued by her beauty and wants her. He kidnaps her that night from the convent and takes her to his room and professes his love for her. When the Queen finds them together the next morning , she whips Kelly and throws her out of the castle. Regina then puts Wolfram into prison for not wanting to marry the Queen. Kelly goes to German East Africa to visit her dying Aunt and is forced to marry the disgusting Jan. The Aunt dies after the wedding and Kelly refuses to live with Jan and becomes the head of Aunties Brothel. Her extravagances and style earn her the name 'Queen Kelly' and Prince Wolfram does not marry Queen Regina V.

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Plot Keywords:

queen | prince | convent | brothel | wedding | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

1 January 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Swamp

Filming Locations:

Selig Mission Zoo - 3800 Mission Road, Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$800,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gloria Swanson Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min (1985 restored) 75 min (Swanson Version)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System) Silent

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gloria Swanson hosted a US television broadcast of the film in 1966. The version that aired featured the European ending.

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Goofs

The positions of the two different groups, the troops and the convent girls, are constantly changing in relation to the shrine on Kambach road.

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Quotes

Kitty Kelly, aka Queen Kelly: [stunned to learn that Wolfram is engaged to the Queen] He's going... to marry... you?
Queen Regina V: *I* am going to marry *HIM*!

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Connections

Featured in 'Sunset Blvd.': A Look Back (2002)

User Reviews

Great silent film tragically snared by the stampede to sound

My favorite Von Stroheim bio says the thing that killed this film is that it was begun smack in the middle of the industry-wide transition to sound. Swanson hired Von Stroheim for her independent producing company because she thought him the greatest director working at the time. The work continued on the film for a period under this condition: Behind the scenes, and unbeknownst to Von Stroheim, financier Joseph Kennedy and Gloria Swanson, concerned about the state of the market into which this film would be released eventually, started discussing ways to bail out the project vis a vis sound vs. silent film. They discussed adding a sound track, basically a music and effects track, after the fact; one plan was to film and insert some singing sequences to a basically silent film as The Jazz Singer had. In the end, it is supposedly Kennedy who nixed the whole thing saying no use throwing good money after bad.

Von Stroheim was troubled by this turn of events, but he didn't hate Swanson over it. Still, he did not see her or speak to her for another 21 years, and then only during the filming of Sunset Boulevard. (He despised this, probably his most high profile film role: "That damned butler role" he supposedly called it to the end of his days. He saw it as a crude burlesque, for an ignorant new generation, of a great silent director-- who just happened to be none other than Erich Von Stroheim.)

Queen Kelly shows modern viewers just how sophisticated the last silent films were visually. It is astonishing the fluid, second-nature communication that took place entirely without words. Title cards had become largely superfluous, a throwback to an earlier style of storytelling. And sound, rather than, as has so often been declared, selling out the developments in silent films, seems a natural outgrowth of these last silent years.