The Great Adventure (1918 film)

1918 silent film by Alice Guy-Blaché

The Great Adventure

Magazine advertisement

Directed by| Alice Guy-Blaché
Screenplay by| Agnes Christine Johnston[1]
Based on| "The Painted Scene" (short story)
by Henry Kitchell Webster[2][3][4]
Starring| Bessie Love
Cinematography| George K. Hollister
John G. Haas[5]

Production
company

Pathé Exchange

Distributed by| Pathé Exchange

Release dates

* March 10, 1918 (1918-03-10) (U.S.)[6]

(original release)

* August 6, 1922 (1922-08-06) (U.S.)[7]

(re-release)

Running time

* 5 reels[3][8] (approx. 50 mins; original release)
* 3 reels (re-release)

Country| United States
Language| Silent (English intertitles)

The Great Adventure, also known as Her Great Adventure[8] and Spring of the Year,[9] is a 1918 American silent comedy-drama[10] film directed by Alice Guy-Blaché, and starring Bessie Love.

The film is preserved at the BFI National Archive.[11]

## Production

[edit]

The film was made at Solax Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey.[12][13]

## Plot

[edit]

Bessie Love as Rags

Rags (Love), has found local success and acclaim in her small town as an actress, but dreams of stardom on Broadway. She and her aunt (Finch) go to New York, where she unsuccessfully looks for work in a Broadway chorus. On the advice of Billy Blake (Barnett), she holds up the producer of a Broadway show to get a job. The lead actor in the show, Sheen (Hall), likes Rags, but on a date together, he cannot ride a horse, paddle a canoe, or swim. Embarrassed, he leaves the Broadway show, allowing Billy to take over the male lead, and Rags to take over the female lead.[1][14][15][16][17]

## Cast

[edit]

Bessie Love and Flora Finch

* Bessie Love as Ragna "Rags" Jansen
* Flora Finch as Aunt
* Chester Barnett as Billy Blake
* Donald Hall as Sheen
* Florence Short as Hazel Lee
* Walter Craven
* Jack Dunn[2][18]

## Reception

[edit]

Newspaper advertisement

Love received good reviews for her performance, called "likable",[18] but the film itself did not.[19][20] It was said that the plot "stretches the imagination of the spectator,"[14] with another blaming director Guy-Blaché directly for poorly adapting the source material.[1] Despite the critical reception, the film was commercially successful.[21]

## Re-release

[edit]

In 1922, the film was edited down to 3 reels, and released as a "Pathé Playlet".[22]

## References

[edit]

Citations

1. ^ a b c Milne, Peter (March 9, 1918). "Screen Examinations". Motion Picture News. p. 1467.
2. ^ a b "The Great Adventure (1918)". BFI National Film and Television. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014.
3. ^ a b Guy Blaché, Alice (1996). "American Filmography". The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-8108-3104-9.
4. ^ Webster, Henry Kitchell (April 4, 1914). "The Painted Scene". Collier's. Vol. 53, no. 3.
5. ^ Love 1977, p. 149
6. ^ "First Bessie Love Pathe Released March 10". Motion Picture News. March 9, 1918. p. 1448.
7. ^ "Pathe Names August 6th Releases". Motion Picture News. August 5, 1922. p. 612.
8. ^ a b McMahan, Alison (2002). Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-5157-6.
9. ^ Love 1977, p. 55
10. ^ "The Great Adventure (1918)". American Film Institute.
11. ^ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: The Great Adventure
12. ^ Koszarski, Richard (2005). Fort Lee: The Film Town. Indiana University Press. p. 135\. ISBN 978-0-86196-652-3.
13. ^ Fort Lee: Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry. Images of America. 2006. p. 108\. ISBN 978-0-7385-4501-1.
14. ^ a b F.T. (March 2, 1918). "The Great Adventure". The Dramatic Mirror. Vol. 78, no. 2045\. p. 18.
15. ^ Langman, Larry (2000). "France". Destination Hollywood: The Influence of Europeans on American Filmmaking. p. 35\. ISBN 9780786406814.
16. ^ McElravy, Robert C. (March 9, 1918). "Critical Reviews and Comments". Moving Picture World. p. 1409.
17. ^ "Advertising Aids for Busy Managers". Moving Picture World. March 16, 1918. p. 1561.
18. ^ a b "Makes Her Bow as Pathe Star". The Dramatic Mirror. Vol. 78, no. 2045\. March 2, 1918. p. 24.
19. ^ "Pathé". Motion Picture Magazine. August 1918. p. 10\. "Light. Not much to it."
20. ^ "Pathé". Motion Picture Magazine. September 1918. p. 9\. "Star good. Story poor."
21. ^ McMahan, Alison (September 2009). "Key Events in the Life of Alice Guy Blaché".
22. ^ "Miss Love in Pathe Playlet". Motion Picture News. August 5, 1922. p. 643.

Works cited

* Love, Bessie (1977). From Hollywood with Love: An Autobiography of Bessie Love. London: Elm Tree Books. OCLC 734075937.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Great Adventure (1918 film).

* The Great Adventure at IMDb
* The Great Adventure at AllMovie
* The Great Adventure at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
* The Great Adventure at the British Film Institute[better source needed]
* The Great Adventure at the TCM Movie Database
* Press materials with imagery from the film

* v
* t
* e

Alice Guy-Blaché

Films
directed|

* La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages) (1896)
* Les Fredaines de Pierrette (1900)
* Les chiens savants [fr] (1902)
* The Bricklayers (1905)
* La Esméralda (1905)
* Une histoire roulante [fr] (1906)
* The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906)
* The Game-Keeper's Son (1906)
* Madame a des envies (1906)
* Les Résultats du féminisme (1906)
* La barricade [fr] (1907)
* Fanfan la Tulipe (1907)
* Greater Love Hath No Man (1911)
* Algie the Miner (1912)
* Falling Leaves (1912)
* A Fool and His Money (1912)
* Making an American Citizen (1912)
* The Girl in the Armchair [fr; uk] (1912)
* The Pit and the Pendulum (1913)
* Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913)
* A House Divided (1913)
* Shadows of the Moulin Rouge (1913)
* The Lure (1914)
* The Vampire (1915)
* My Madonna (1915)
* What Will People Say? (1916)
* The Adventurer (1917)
* The Empress (1917)
* The Great Adventure (1918)
* Tarnished Reputations (1920)

Related|

* Herbert Blaché
* Solax Studios
* Selected filmography
* Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (2018)

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