The Curse of Queen Kelly

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by Pamela Hutchinson

Type

Stories

Subject

One Film > Queen Kelly

Keywords

Erich von Stroheim, Gloria Swanson, film making

Publishing date

2026 (March 27, 2026)

Publisher

Sticking Place Books

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 252 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

979-8-89976-109-6

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Book Presentation:
One of the greatest films never finished. One of Hollywood’s most dangerous alliances. One enduring legend.

In the late 1920s, at the height of silent cinema’s reckless glamour, three formidable figures set out to make an impossible film. Gloria Swanson, the era’s most dazzling star. Erich von Stroheim, cinema’s most obsessive and uncompromising auteur. And Joseph P. Kennedy, a ruthless financier with ambitions far beyond Hollywood. The result was Queen Kelly — a production so extravagant, scandalous, and volatile that it collapsed before completion, leaving behind fragments, myths, and a curse that would haunt everyone involved.

In The Curse of Queen Kelly, Pamela Hutchinson reconstructs the full, astonishing saga of this infamous film: a tale of artistic obsession, moral panic, sexual politics, power struggles, and personal betrayal. Drawing on archival research and vivid storytelling, she traces how a doomed collaboration became one of cinema history’s most notorious cautionary tales — and how Swanson spent decades fighting to preserve its legacy.

Part film history, part Hollywood tragedy, The Curse of Queen Kelly is a gripping account of creative ambition pushed to the brink, and a meditation on what survives when a film is torn apart but refuses to die.

About the Author:
Pamela Hutchinson is an author, critic and film historian. Her books include the BFI Film Classics on The Red Shoes and Pandora's Box. She writes on cinema for newspapers and magazines, taking a special interest in silent and classic cinema. She is a columnist for Sight and Sound and regularly appears on BBC radio and at BFI Southbank.

See the publisher website: Sticking Place Books

See Queen Kelly (1929) on IMDB ...