I watched the restored Channel 4 version which runs about 1 hour 50, with a music score by Carl Davis.
Impoverished prince EVS must marry rich Zasu Pitts, but has fallen for poor harpist Fay Wray. Wray is in some way 'promised' to a horrible creature Matthew Betz, a vile man. Not that the Prince's parents are much better, George Fawcett and Maude George. Actually the Price himself is a randy skunk, having dalliances with at least two of his own household staff.
Quite lyrical e.g. the apple blossoms scene. The feeling of a kind of doomed and hopeless love is well caught.
Von Stroheim originally shot 33 hours of material - Paramount stopped production and forced him to edit it, with Frank Hull (the editing is quite nimble). This was the first half of the story - a second film, The Honeymoon, was shown in Europe in the fifties before accidentally being destroyed.
It was shot by Hal Mohr, including a two strip Technicolor scene (of a procession, which honestly doesn't add anything to the story). Hal recalls being particularly fond of a series of images he filmed in church, before Wray's confession, of dripping candles and stuff.
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