A lavish andibeautifully produced Hollywood confection of theihigh silent screen, Tempest isia star vehicleifor premier actor John Barrymore.

Barrymore plays Markov, a peasant soldier who becomes an officer in the Imperial Russian Guard. He loves Princess Tamara (Camilla Horn) who scorns him for his common origins and has him stripped of rank and thrown into prison. When the Revolution comes, Markov, now an important Red official, is able to save Tamara from execution. As husband and wife, they escape to new lands.

Visually stunning, Tempest is the handsomest of all Barrymore's films. Designer William Cameron Menzies' other great achievements include Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief Of Bagdad and Gone With The Wind. Cinematographer Charles Rosher successfully transforms the 45-year-old star into a youthful matinee idol.

Sam Taylor, who helmed some of Harold Lloyd's and Mary Pickford's most successful films, is the only credited director on Tempest. However, in mid-production, Taylor replaced Russian-born Lewis Milestone, who in turn had taken over from Russian émigré director Victor Tourjansky, top talents both. The original script by Erich von Stroheim was rewritten by Milestone and much modified by C. Gardner Sullivan, a reliable craftsman who received sole screen credit. Some original aspirations for authenticity survive in the contributions of several actual White Russian officers working as small-part players and technical advisers.

Tempest was completed at the end of the silent era, and its release was delayed until it could be equipped with recorded musical accompaniment on Vitaphone discs. Seven of the discs have survived and are synchronized here; the gaps are filled by re-editing the available sound. A new digital stereo score performed by pianist Philip Carli is the primary soundtrack. Our digital transfer is from a print made in the early 1950s from the camera negative.