The Glorious Adventure. 1921. Great Britain. Directed by J. Stuart Blackton. With Diana Manners, Gerald Lawrence, Alice Crawford, Victor McLaglen. Silent, with piano accompaniment. 35mm print courtesy of the British Film Archive. 70 min.
A prestigious production, premiering at the Royal Opera House in London, The Glorious Adventure is an historical costume melodrama involving mistaken identity and romance ending in the Great Fire of London in 1666. While it occasionally “mixed color styles…replicating tinting” and suggesting “stained glass effects,” the film was made in Prizmacolor which press of the period praised for its “extreme delicacy of color, and subdued shades.” Despite its promise, the process ultimately failed to successfully rival its main competitor, Technicolor. This restoration was done by the British Film Institute’s National Film Archive in 1993.