''The Gulf Between'' is a 1917 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film that was the first motion picture made in

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

, the fourth

feature-length A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

color film Color photography is photography that uses media capable of capturing and reproducing colors. By contrast, black-and-white or gray-monochrome photography records only a single channel of luminance (brightness) and uses media capable only of ...

, and the first feature-length color film produced in the United States. The film was destroyed in a fire on 25 March 1961. Today, the film is considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

, with only very short fragments known to survive. These fragments are in the collections of the

Margaret Herrick Margaret Florence Herrick (September 27, 1902June 21, 1976), also known professionally as Margaret Gledhill, was an American librarian and the Executive Director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1971, the Academy's library w ...

Library,

George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection The George Eastman Museum Motion Picture Collection in Rochester, New York comprises about 28,000 titles, including features, shorts, documentaries, newsreels, and experimental moving images. The collection is renowned for its holdings of silent f ...

, and the Smithsonian

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

Photographic History Collection. ''The Gulf Between'', which had a running time of approximately 58 minutes, was directed by

Wray Physioc Wray Bartlett Physioc (November 23, 1890 – May 8, 1933) was an American film director, producer and artist. His film ''The Gulf Between'' (1917) was the first Technicolor film ever produced. Early years Wray Physioc was born on November 23 ...

. The lead roles were played by

Grace Darmond Grace Darmond (born Grace Marie Glionna; November 20, 1893 – October 8, 1963) was a Canadian-American actress. Early life Grace Marie Glionna was born in Toronto on November 20, 1893. Her parents were Vincent Baptiste "James" Glionna, an I ...

and

Niles Welch Niles Eugene Welch (July 29, 1888 – November 21, 1976) was an American performer on Broadway, and a leading man in a number of silent and early talking motion pictures from the early 1910s through the 1930s. Early life A native of Hartfor ...

Plot

As described in the film magazine '' Exhibitors Herald'', little Marie Farrell (Axzelle), through the carelessness of her nurse, is lost and believed drowned. She has wandered upon the ship of the smuggler Captain Flagg (Brandt), who finds her and brings her up as his own. Her parents adopt a boy to help them forget their grief. The girl grows up with no memory of her former life. The adopted boy moves in the smart set in Mayport, and his parents try to make a match between him and a society girl. Marie (Darmond) is brought to her adoptive father's sister, as the old captain believes she should have the care of a loving woman. She meets young Richard Farrell (Welch) and the two come to love each other. The Farrells do everything they can to break up the couple, but with the help of the captain a marriage is accomplished. There is a stormy meeting between the bridal pair and the parents, during which the captain sees a portrait of Marie as a baby and, realizing the truth, tells the story of her life. The family is reunited and Mary and Richard spend their honeymoon on the captain's ship.

Cast

as Marie *

as Richard Farrell *

Herbert Fortier Herbert Fortier (1867 – 16 February 1949) was a Canadian actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 50 films between 1915 and 1937. He was born in Toronto and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1913 he lived with his wife Franc ...

as Robert Farrell * Violet Axzelle as a young Marie * Charles Brandt as Captain Flagg * Joseph Dailey as Cook * George De Carlton as Dutch *

Caroline Harris Caroline E. Harris (November 11, 1867 – April 23, 1937) was an American actress. She appeared in 12 films between 1909 and 1917. Her last film was ''The Gulf Between'', the first film released in the Technicolor process. Harris was the mother ...

as Mrs. Farrell * Virginia Lee as Millicent Dunston * Louis Montjoy * J. Noa as Pete

Production

''The Gulf Between'' was filmed on location in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

in 1917 by the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, using its two-color "System 1", in which, by means of a

prism Prism usually refers to: * Prism (optics), a transparent optical component with flat surfaces that refract light * Prism (geometry), a kind of polyhedron Prism may also refer to: Science and mathematics * Prism (geology), a type of sedimentary ...

beam splitter A beam splitter or ''beamsplitter'' is an optical device that splits a beam of light into a transmitted and a reflected beam. It is a crucial part of many optical experimental and measurement systems, such as interferometers, also finding wide ...

, two consecutive frames of a single strip of black-and-white film were photographed simultaneously, one behind a red filter and the other behind a green filter.

Release

After private trade showings in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

on September 13, 1917, and at Aeolian Hall in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on September 21, 1917, it was released on February 25, 1918, to play one-week engagements on a tour of a few major Eastern cities, accompanied by the special two-aperture, two-lens, two-filter projector required to exhibit it. Because of the technical problems in keeping the red and green images aligned by prism during projection, it was the only motion picture made in Technicolor's System 1. Technicolor abandoned the

additive color Additive color or additive mixing is a property of a color model that predicts the appearance of colors made by coincident component lights, i.e. the perceived color can be predicted by summing the numeric representations of the component colo ...

process of System 1, and began work on

subtractive color Subtractive color or subtractive color mixing predicts the spectral power distribution of light after it passes through successive layers of partially absorbing media. This idealized model is the essential principle of how dyes and inks are use ...

processes that did not require a special projector.

Critical reception

Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film (another name for ''photoplay'') fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded '' Motion Picture Story,'' a magazine also directed at fans. For mo ...

'' magazine complained that all colors were reduced into terms of reds and greens, and that "the story is dull, trite, and drawn out interminably."The Shadow Stage
, ''Photoplay'', December 1917, p. 118.

Notes

References

External links

*

at Widescreen Museum with copy of film frame {{DEFAULTSORT:Gulf Between, The 1917 films 1917 comedy-drama films 1917 lost films 1910s color films American silent feature films Early color films Films set in Florida Films shot in Jacksonville, Florida Lost American films Lost comedy-drama films Silent films in color 1910s English-language films Films directed by Wray Physioc 1910s American films Silent American comedy-drama films