British Film Institute

One of a number of short films G.A. Smith made to demonstrate his patented Kinemacolor process, this showcases a traditional historical re-enactment performed by people from various South Kent towns.

It also provides a graphic illustration of the Kinemacolor process's major drawback. Because it relied on alternating frames being filmed and projected through red and green filters, any movement would lead to minute differences between red and green elements, leading to the colour fringing that's all too evident in this particular take.

This shot is all that appears to survive from the film, though when the British Film Academy showed it as part of a mid-1955 tribute both to and in the presence of Smith (then in his nineties), he declared that this footage was actually a rejected take, presumably because of the excessive colour fringing. However, that aside, it gives a better and more varied account of Kinemacolor's potential than many of the other surviving films in the process.

Michael Brooke

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