The surviving reels of CONFESSIONS OF A QUEEN do not suggest some lost masterpiece, but they do seem to indicate this was melodramatic fluff of the highest order. Jazz Age Hollywood was fascinated by the inherent drama of the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanovs. The complicated history and political reality behind it, not so much. This film is more interested in the romantic lives of the royals and the revolution seems to only be a deciding factor in the love triangle between the lovely Alice Terry (in one of her few appearances in a film not directed by her husband Rex Ingram), Lewis Stone, and John Bowers.
5 Reviews
She Probably Confesses In The Missing Reels
boblipton29 January 2021
Victor Sjöström's third feature for MGM has Lewis Stone as King of Illyria. He's a high-living man whose mistress, Helena D'Algy, has him brand her the evening before his wedding to Alice Terry. She's a high-minded woman who seems to have sex once with the King in order to get him an heir. But politics ensue, and so does revolution, and he abdicates. They move to Paris.
Only 41 minutes of the original 64 survive. Among the missing sections are part of their escape through Miss D'Algy's house, and much of the end. The surviving footage looks like it's from Daudet's novel, with little of Sjöström's usual technique on display. Miss Terry spends much of his time looking angry and disdainful; Stone seems jovial in an insincere manner. If there's much subtext to the story, it seems that it likely resides in the missing portions.
Only 41 minutes of the original 64 survive. Among the missing sections are part of their escape through Miss D'Algy's house, and much of the end. The surviving footage looks like it's from Daudet's novel, with little of Sjöström's usual technique on display. Miss Terry spends much of his time looking angry and disdainful; Stone seems jovial in an insincere manner. If there's much subtext to the story, it seems that it likely resides in the missing portions.
Contains spoilers for the middle- the end is lost to time
elipton24 February 2004
Warning: Spoilers
This film does indeed exist, or at least the first half did last night when it was projected at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. The last couple reels are presumed lost. This is probably not a tragedy of the magnitude of the missing 10(?) hours of GREED, or Ernst Lubitsch's lost THE PATRIOT, or the missing majority of Seastrom's lone Garbo film THE DIVINE WOMAN. Though this film begins with an astonishing scene where Lewis Stone's king brands his mistress with his insignia the night before his arranged marriage, it soon devolves into a pretty typical treatment of the foibles of royalty, and generally gets sillier and more obvious as it progresses. By the time Revolution strikes the nation and the king and his queen are forced together on the run, it's pretty clear that the end of the film would, if it still existed, give us another chance to witness a loveless marriage transform into wedded bliss, an ending more than one other late Seastrom film provides. Or maybe not- without the proof of the final 20 minutes or so, we're free to let our imaginations run in whichever directions we want.
Partly lost film turns up
hoppitysmummy13 September 2017
CONFESSIONS OF A QUEEN exists in part, at least, as about 35m turned up on YouTube a while back. The first section is, in the main, in splendid condition. There is a short jump, and then a few more minutes. The rest is taken up with a photo of Ellen Terry, with comments on (I presume) the missing footage. My rating is not a realistic one as one can't really judge the film, even on so substantial a fragment.
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