ABSTRACT
Prizmacolor was an important marker of early two-color, subtractive process experimentation, contributing to the subsequent development of later commercially exploited processes including Vitacolor, Magnacolor, Multicolor and Cinecolor. Prizma underwent several experimental phases before being used forThe Glorious Adventure(1922), a British film that was the first fulllength feature shot using a subtractive color process. This chapter will demonstrate how Prizma andThe Glorious Adventureare more than footnotes in the history of color cinematography on the road to Technicolor’s domination.The Glorious Adventurerelates to transnational experimentation with early color systems, as well as to specific aesthetic and technical concerns which in retrospect had a broad significance. The film has tended to be written-off by critics who failed to appreciate its multifarious approach to color (Low 1971: 126). Yet the aesthetic choices demonstrated a practical awareness of how to work creatively within the constraints of prevailing systems and critical assumptions about what constituted “good” color in the early 1920s.
