Her First Kiss

Slim Summerville seduces and abandons farm girl Ethel Teare, but not before he gets her to sign over the deed to her late uncle's department store in this engaging Fox Sunshine Comedy.

There aren't many Fox Sunshine comedies surviving, but those that are still around show ample budgets and lots of talent. This one is no exception. It is filled with set-piece mechanical gags, pretty girls in brief costumes and good comics doing typical slapstick gags well. Slim Summerville is fine as usual; Ethel Teare, playing the farm girl like Louise Fazenda, is good and a bit of a revelation, since I am familiar with her only as the least obnoxious regular in the Ham & Bud comedies from Kalem. The supporting comics seem a bit more perfunctory in their standard roles.

Although I have issues with the film's presentation on the National Film Preservation Foundation's website -- they seem to project these films so slow that they show strobing -- this is probably the best preserved Fox Sunshine comedy I have ever seem with a great start and finish. If it sags a bit in the middle under its familiar plot and physical gags, it offers some revealing glimpses into what is a rarely seen comedy short studio.