The Empress of Floreana is a 1934 silent adventure short film made on Floreana Island by a millionaire captain[1] who originally came with a crew to visit the Galápagos Islands for purposes of zoology.
The crew chose to visit Floreana because of the rumors that surrounded the island's only two inhabitants, a German diaspora couple Dr. Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch, who immediately befriended them to the point where the crew wanted to return every few months with gifts of provisions for their hosts.
The film follows a newlywed couple (director Emery Johnson filled in as the husband, while male student zoologist Ray Elliott played the wife) who find themselves stranded on the shores of Floreana Island.
The eponymous character (von Wagner) and her swain (played by Philippson, one of her real life lovers) are the only people on the island, and they have other plans for the helpless couple.
The film is notable for being featured in The Galapagos Affair, and helping publicize Floreana and the Galápagos back in the early 1930s.