The singer-comedian Harry Fragson stars as the King, supported by a large cast of stage performers from the Folies Bergère cabaret and other venues, with two cameo appearances from Méliès himself.

King Leopold, on holiday in Paris, wants to visit Monte Carlo, but does not have time for the seventeen-hour express train ride between the two cities.

After stopping to fill the car with gas, the King starts it and, from inexperience, accidentally runs it backward over a policeman, who is squashed flat as a pancake.

The car wends its way across the Mediterranean coast, overturning a fruit stand, crashing through a greenhouse, colliding with a tar wagon (with another explosion ensuing), and, finally, arriving at the grandstand of spectators awaiting them at Monte Carlo.

[b] For the 1904 Folies Bergère cabaret revue, the director Victor de Cottens approached Méliès—then at the height of his fame as a filmmaker—with the idea of combining theatre and cinema by presenting a short film as one of the fourteen segments of the stage production.

[3] The two directors worked out a scenario that would parody the motoring adventures of King Leopold II of Belgium, who was famous for driving, and often crashing, fast cars.

Harry Fragson, a London-born singer and comedian who was one of the stars of the Folies Bergère at the time,[6] played the lead role of King Leopold.

[9] In the scene in front of the Paris Opera, the celebrities assembled include Jean Noté, a singer at the opera house;[2] the short actor Little Pich, whose persona was a close imitation of the better-known British comedian Little Tich, and who also acted in films by Pathé Frères and the Gaumont Film Company;[9] the tall actor Antonich,[9] known as the "Giant Swede";[2] Félix Galipaux,[2] who had been a popular music hall monologuist in Paris since the 1880s and who acted in several Méliès films;[10] Jane Yvon,[2] a Folies Bergère entertainer;[7] Séverin Cafferra, a popular mime;[9] and de Cottens himself.

[12] Méliès also cast more extras in the film than was usual for him, sometimes staging them in layered arrangements for visual clarity, and sometimes letting them move at whim to create more disorganized, naturalistic groupings.

[13] Most scenes, including the detailed and faithful recreation of the Place de l'Opéra outside the Opera House, were painted studio sets, as was Méliès's custom.

[14] Thus, after its Folies Bergère run,[12] it was released as a standalone item by Méliès's Star Film Company and numbered 740–749 in its catalogues, where it is advertised as a grande course fantastique funambulesque.