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In this melodrama, Gloria Swanson plays Patricia Kelly, a naive and innocent convent girl, who catches the eye of the decadent Prince of a small European country, when her underpants accidentally fall down. He embarks on a scandalous affair with her but when the Prince’s fiancee, mad Queen Regina (Seena Owen) learns of the affair she is enraged and intervenes. In one, now famous scene, she drives Patricia from the Palace, brandishing a whip. Although Stroheim was fired by Swanson after shooting only a third of the film, the final result reflects his fascination with perversion, decadent living and forbidden love between social classes.
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
306805
Language
English
Audience classification
PG
Subject categories
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Adultery
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)