Queen Kelly: The Complete Screenplay by Erich von Stroheim

by Bret Wood

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.

Paperback

First published August 20, 2002

Reviews

[Curmudgeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly comprehensive compilation of the various versions of the scripts for Queen Kelly that never quite made it to fruition, for a variety of factors. Contains a decent amount of footnotes, and an introduction that helps explain some of the characters and the chronology to those unfamiliar with the story of Queen Kelly and its (attempted) making. It's a fairly dry read, but then again, it is a screenplay. (Still, there are a number of amusing details interspersed throughout, like some of Von Stroheim's odder attempts at cost-cutting measures during the original ending of the film.)