Something Good - Negro Kiss

The so-called "May Irwin Kiss" film in 1896 created quite an uproar back in the day. Theaters often banned it and many saw it as a sign that movies were just plain evil! What occurs in this brief movie? A rather unattractive couple kiss...and over-act while doing so. That's it...no nudity, no sex, no violence...yet many locales banned it for being obscene!!!

Imagine my surprise when I recently learned that a similar film was made just two years later....and starred a black couple instead! I have no idea if a similar uproar resulted when it debuted....but the film, though very short and simple like the "May Irwin Kiss", is a much better movie. First, it's not nearly as over-acted. Second, and this I admire, the couple seemed really in love with each other.

Is it worth seeing? Well, for historical reasons, absolutely. While it's not exactly a gripping movie, it is the first time black actors are shown being intimate and they are also, fortunately, portrayed as human beings and are quite well represented.

"Something Good - Negro Kiss" is an intriguing piece from early cinema. Only recently rediscovered, it depicts a couple embracing for some smooching--a seemingly rare filmic example from the era of a positive portrayal of African Americans. It's also a remake, for which it wasn't as early or as rare even for the 19th century.

"The Kiss" (1896) was the Edison Company's most popular film in its day, so it's no surprise that it was remade (and not only with this film--Edison made another "The Kiss" in 1900, for instance). Indeed, remakes are essentially as old as film itself. The Lumière brothers remade Edison's first commercial film, "Blacksmith Scene" (1893), as "Les Forgerons" (1895), which was part of the program for their first public screening of the Cinématographe. Early Edison films themselves were sometimes remakes, as Deac Russell wrote in his essay, "Copycats: Anschütz Chronophotographs as Direct Source Material for Early Edison Kinetoscope Films." Moreover, Ottomar Anschütz began his serial photography by imitating the work of Eadweard Muybridge. And so on....

The popularity of "The Kiss" surely owes largely to its featuring two professional and credited actors from a play and with the film further being publicized with photographs in print media. It could be said, then, that "Negro Kiss" represents an acculturation of this dominate cinema culture, of white performers and audiences, to meld with an appeal with African-American actors and, perhaps, for African-American audiences. Like Edison's Kiss, that here is something of a comedic exaggeration. Doubly so according to film historian Charles Musser ("The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907"), who says the film "was simply labeled 'Burlesque on the John Rice and May Irwin Kiss.'" A burlesque upon a burlesque. The performers here, Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown, like director and producer William Selig, are said to have come from a background in minstrel shows. But, today, the funny thing is that the Rice-Irwin kiss comes across comedically, at best, as ridiculous, what with the mustache twirling and all. Suttle and Brown display a more joyful abandon and appear more natural as a result.

Another difference between the two pictures is the framing. For Rice and Irwin, the medium close-up position is more intimate, appropriate to their shoulder-to-shoulder affections. Meanwhile, with the slightly more-distanced camera here, the flimsy black backdrop is more conspicuous, but also Suttle and Brown incorporate more of their bodies with their rapport, as they hold and swing hands, move apart and back together, kissing thrice.

So much of the representation of African Americans scattered across what's available of the early (and, for the most part, general) history of cinema is based in stereotypes. Before I learned of this film, probably the earliest cinematic kiss involving a black character that I was aware of was "What Happened in the Tunnel" (1903), which was a joke rooted in the supposed unattractiveness of a maid, who was basically a mammy trope. (That 1903 Edison film, by the way, is yet another remake or reworking--in this case, of "The Kiss in the Tunnel" (1899, G.A. Smith), which itself is a continuation of that first screen peck in 1896.) More than anything, this is what makes "Negro Kiss" such a treat. It's why it was quickly added to the National Film Registry. After all, this was 17 years before D.W. Griffith's racist epic "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) helped cement atrocious, violent attitudes towards African Americans in Hollywood along with the film's other influences. It's worth celebrating that such old frames as "Negro Kiss" only rediscovered in the past couple years would offer an alternative and affirmative window into the history of the filmic representation of a racial minority. That is something good.

I surprisingly liked this better than its more famous Edison counterpart. Yes, it's alarmingly short to the point that it makes the Lumiere films look like mammoth epics. However, this one is much more pleasurable to watch with a modern eye. The performers here are just themselves - thank goodness there's no blackface/ugly stereotypes to be seen/associated here. It's much more self aware, and it's kinda cute. The performers seem to be really having a blast here, as opposed to the Edison one where they politely act out their embrace. I'm really happy that this charming snippet has survived all these years - on nitrate, no less - before being found and taken care of. I also love this rediscovery as it rewrites cinematic history! What other mind-bending treasures still await their chance to shine... check those attics, people!

A Black couple kiss enthusiastically.

I write this review the day it was announced this movie was chosen for the National Film Registry. It's a signal honor for an undistinguished 29-second film of uncertain dating -- the press release says this was released in 1898 while the IMDb claims it was 1903. The choice, it seems reasonable to assert, was predicated on it being the first movie starring Black actors; up to now, it was assumed to be another National Registry member, 1907's LAUGHING GAS.

The IMDb says this is a burlesque of the May Irwin THE KISS. That would make the 1898 date more likely. The actors here are enthusiastic, with the lady exhibiting a let's-not-let-this-get-out-of-hand attitude.