Pamela Hutchinson on THE CURSE OF QUEEN KELLY (New York, Sticking Place Books, 2025)

When I read THE CURSE OF QUEEN KELLY, I wrote to Pam Hutchinson, its author: ‘I found it it so much fun to read — a rarity! And it’s narrative techniques, those one associates with the 19th century novel — old fashioned but that seems radically original in a film book — engaging the reader with the use of ‘you’ — or other forms of direct address ‘we will now turn to,’ having cliff-hangers at the end of chapters… It’s truly brilliant and engaging and knowledgeable. Gives one a sense of the sheer FUN of learning about film history’.

That I enjoyed the book so much was one reason for wanting to do a podcast with Pam on it. The other reason is that Cinema Re-Discovered is hosting two screenings of the ‘Cursed’ film, its UK premiere — 98 years after production formally ended –on Saturday 25 July, 14.05, at the Watershed, Bristol.Followed by another screening the day after,Sunday 26th of July at 13:00 at Curzon Clevedon (which boasts a Christie organ), both screenings hosted/introduced by Pam herself.

I begin the podcast with citing the book’s first paragraph:

‘“A naughty little number”

‘This is a story of how not to make a film. A story about three people who should have known better – people we could dismiss as a spendthrift, a swindler and a sadist, but who are far more interesting than that. They almost made a movie, but succeeded in creating a legend. This is the story of how a 1920s movie star, a businessman, and an artist set out to make an impossible film, the infamous Queen Kelly, of how they hit breaking point and threw it all away. It is also the tale of how that star spend the rest of her life trying to save the trio’s beleaguered infant.’

The podcast then proceeds to discuss that spendthrift/movie star, swindler/businessman, and sadist/ artist, the production of the film and then the various efforts to re-constitute it into the version we will all be able to see at CINEMA RE-DISCOVERED.

A fun and informative podcast that may be listened to here: