Gloria Swanson in Queen Kelly.

Milestone Entertainment’s newly restored “Queen Kelly” is touring the United States as a loving tribute to its incredible backstory and the work of the ambitious and incredibly talented actress Gloria Swanson and “Man You Love to Hate” director Erich von Stroheim. A rich, operatic story, “Queen Kelly” demonstrates what a telling masterpiece the film might have been if completed as intended.

The story alone of the film’s making is wild enough. Star Swanson and her producer boyfriend Joseph Kennedy hire the profligate von Stroheim to shoot his barely finished script. The director goes overboard with sexual scenes and rough manners before getting fired from a half-finished film bankrupting the company. A few years later, editor Viola Lawrence would attempt to stitch together what little survived of part two of the film with first half shenanigans in order to play it in theatres, only to see it disappear from sight until appearing in short glimpses during the 1950 film “Sunset Boulevard.” Continue reading →