A Florida Enchantment

This early feature-length film, "A Florida Enchantment", has a novel and goofy story of a woman discovering old seeds that reverse one's gender. She and her servant take one each and, supposedly, become men (although they're still played by the same actresses and, often, appear to the other characters to be female when they're wearing dresses). She also gives one to her fiancé, and he is thus feminized. The narrative, however, is lacking beyond the comedy of genders exaggerating the characteristics of the opposite sex. There are party and travel scenes that don't progress the plot. This gender-bending comedy probably would've fit the one or two-reel format better than it does the hour-plus length. In fact, an early short film, Alice Guy's "The Consequences of Feminism" (Les Résultats du féminism)(1906) was a similar gender-role-reversal farce. Additionally, this narrative suggests some homosexuality and, especially, cross-dressing, but not in any daring way, but rather as an extension of the gender-reversal amusement.

The gender transformations are less than convincing, but I suppose that doesn't matter. More bothersome is the servant characters in blackface and the otherwise rather racist characterizations of blacks in this film. The goggled eyes and jokes based on the servant's stupidity or the lead character striking her maid made valet are insulting rather than funny. Otherwise, the film is of little cinematic interest. It's rather prosaically filmed. There are a few abrupt cuts, which don't distinguish the passing of time (i.e. direct cuts instead of fades or something similar). Overall, "A Florida Enchantment" is, at best, mildly amusing in parts.

It's incredible I hadn't heard of this movie until very recently.

If you ever wanted a queer film from before WWI then this is about the closest you're going to get.

It isn't really though. It's a neat concept and gimmick but they don't do much with it.

I would have thought that they would have spent more of the third act really establishing character dynamics that display the relationship between the sexes for them to build on later.

Watching this lady make out (barely) with other ladies is the only thing they really do to make her out as *now acting like a man*.

It's about the right length for what it is and the actor in blackface is something that needs to be acknowledged but what is there really to say at this point?

A worthy movie if, like me, you're doing a "one movie for every year" kick.

Wanted it to be funny, waited for it to be funny, not even remotely amusing. Could I have done better? Certainly not. Should this have been better? Decidedly so!

Wonderful performance by Edith Storey. I was surprised by the gusto with which she took on a male persona. People have played with gender norms for a long time.

A pioneering work on gay cinema, "A Florida Enchantment" is a delightful and entertaining glimpse at WW1-era America and its social and cultural mores. Based on a book and play of the same name this vintage charmer tells the tale of a woman who ingests strange "ingredients" that transform her into something not particularly favorable in 1914 America. Coming from a 1 % family and with an aging doctor for a suitor madcap hilarity ensues as the young lady indulges in her newfound freedom to everyone's horror and bemusement.

In humorous and still quite scandalous tones the film takes on the then novel topics of bisexuality, cross dressing and transgenderism. Although it has its slow parts and the minimal intertitles make the story a bit hard to follow at little over an hour long the acting and pacing are well done for a film well over a century old. To see the elegant suits of the men, the elaborate gowns of the women, the hats, the antiquated gestures and mannerisms, the amusing blackface, and overall vintage look, feel and vibe hearken one back to a bygone age. What I'll always remember and associate the film with is the sunny, windy, leafy and lush scenery of the Florida background which gives this B & W relic a tropical freshness distinct in movies of the time.

One of the silents that will always remain viewable and relevant because of its quality and subject matter, "A Florida Enchantment" is a must see for historians and silent film fans.