johannesaquila

American author George Barr McCutcheon's six Graustark books (appeared 1901-1927) copy the idea of British author Anthony Hope's three Ruritania books (appeared 1894-1898). The plot of "Beverly of Graustark" (1904), the second book in the series, is even very similar to that of "The Prisoner of Zenda", the first Ruritania book. Given the large number of films based on the latter, it is not surprising that there were also two silent movies based on the Graustark version of the theme of friendly impersonation of a monarch. The first was Beverly of Graustark (1914).

Despite its light touch, the present film is so blunt in its humor that it can perhaps better be called a farce than a comedy, although that is in part due to it being silent. Marion Davies was popular in cross-dressing roles, so it is not surprising that this angle is maximally exploited. Still, it is a very effective comedy for the time and quite amusing even today.

The last 3 or 4 minutes are in black, red and white: apparently realized with an early form of Technicolor.

It is possible to make good low budget movies, and this one almost succeeds. An important factor for this is that they got the plot of this science fiction sex comedy right. It's not perfect, but it definitely is good enough:

For decades, the women on Vanisia have been living without a single man. Finally they are desperate enough to send a man-crazy delegation of three on a hunt through space.

Meanwhile in Beverly Hills, awkward aging would-be playboy Baron Von Benson has no luck with women. His expectations totally unrealistic, and the only women who humor him are those hoping to exploit him.

When the spaceship crashes outside Von Benson's house, everything seems to move towards the obvious solution, complicated only by a meddling space agency hunting for the aliens and a scheming woman. But there is a little surprise at the end that makes this film even more obviously a male wish fulfillment fantasy.

The film's main problem is the acting. I have a relatively high tolerance for bad acting, but here it is often so cheesy that even I found it jarring. Low budget films often seem to recruit professional models who are keen on getting non-nude roles for their main roles. Occasionally this works very well, but here it doesn't.

Fortunately, someone had the brilliant idea of framing the main story as a tale told by the future queen of Venisia to her children. This domestic setting is so fake and campy that it lowered my expectations to the point that I was just happy the acting wasn't as bad as I expected, and in fact I felt it could be explained as depicting imperfections in the trashy queen's interpretation. A bold move which for me definitely worked.

Consequently, I rate this film 5 out of 10 stars, which for a low-budget amateur movie such as this is a really respectable rating. A professional director such as Roger Corman who knows how to deal with extreme budget restrictions could potentially have done much better. For an example of what I have in mind, consider J.F. Lawton's Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989), which manages to be an outstanding film despite some similarities and what seem to have been similar restrictions.