The Kiss

One of the earliest shorts, The Kiss is a 20 second film produced by Thomas Edison, showing the ending kiss in John J. McNally's play The Widow Jones between the titular character and Billie Bikes.

This short is remarkable for a couple reasons. One, it was one of the first publicly exhibited films, and two, it caused a minor scandal because of its "indecency". The scandal seems ridiculous now, although its not far removed in attitude from current cries for censorship in the media.

The film itself, although understandably jumpy and scratchy, is remarkable for its clarity, especially when compared to many photographs of the era. The scene depicted is amusing for the two characters talking while their faces are pressed together.

You should be able to find this short on DVD on a number of different anthologies of early films.

The Kiss is simple that. It's about 20 seconds long, each second pure and innocent as your first kiss. Even the way it is filmed, very close and personal, that it makes you feel like it is the first time you are witnessing a kiss. You're never going to see this unless you take a History of Film class. Make sure you're there for the first day of class because that's when they're going to show this flick. It stands today as one of the first motion picture shorts in America.

There is not much to this film. It was made for Kinetoscope parlors with peep-show machines, and was probably rarely shown on a big screen (at least in the 1890s). It features May Irwin and John Rice in a short scene from their Broadway stage success THE WIDOW JONES.

The important thing about this film is the camera placement. Intead of seeing the actors full-length as if photographed on a stage, the photographer placed the camera near them so that we can clearly see their faces. The actual kiss is an innocent kiss as an old husband would kiss his wife. However, the closeness of the images disturbed many Victorian era people who felt a kiss was a private moment and should not be seen in public. While neither Irwin or Rice went on to make many more films, they were certainly some of the first celebrities to be immortalized on film. Looked at in this context, it is certainly an interesting little film.

It was just like the Edison company to create a big scandal by filming a couple kissing in grotesque closeup view. From the beginning, they had never really been an especially 'clean' company, in the sense of keeping with the moralities of the time. (Instead, if you want to know the truth, they were actually just the opposite). You had the boxing films, scandalous enough already considering how illegal the sport was at the time; you had cockfights, a despicable sport similar to bullfighting; you had dancers like Annabelle Moore showing their ankles and belly-dancing, etc. And what did they do to demonstrate the first use of film editing? They reenacted the beheading of Mary Stuart. So it's no surprise that when it came to picking a scene from the famous Broadway musical "The Widow Jones", they of course chose the kissing bit. Today, it's a fairly innocent kiss, not a romantic movie star kiss, not a quick peck, just a sweet little display of affection. Unfortunately, such displays of affection, famous Broadway musical or not, just weren't acceptable at the time--and as result of the film's release, there were cries of censorship.

Furthermore, that's not the worst of it. After news of the scandalous feature spread throughout the cinemas, it appears to have inspired further remakes, including Edison's own "The Kiss" of 1900. So I guess, thanks to Edison, this 20-second clip is the big reason why Hollywood and the other companies all around the world went perverse on us and to this day indulge in violence and sex. Sad, but so true. Who would have though a brief kiss on the lips inspired all the garbage shown in movie theaters today?

There are a few historically interesting aspects concerning this film, "The Kiss". It is, perhaps, the earliest filmed kiss. Supposedly, it created some controversy. Later in 1896, "Fatima's Coochee-Coochee Dance", another Edison film, indeed, was censored via white crossbars covering her chest and hips. Furthermore, the framing of this kissing scene is from a medium close-up. The Edison Company had used the medium close-up before, such as in "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze", which wasn't released commercially, but the photographs of it appeared in a "Harper's Weekly" article.

This scene is also from the conclusion of the musical comedy "The Widow Jones", a play by John J. McNally that had premièred the previous year. The Edison filmmakers were obsessed with vaudeville performances, especially dancing, and Alfred Clark had already introduced professional theatrical actors to film with his few historical reenactments, such as "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots" (1895). Nevertheless, "The Kiss" was new territory for the Edison Company in that it's based on a theatrical play and featured credited professional actors. More than a decade later, various filmmakers attempted to marry cinema and the stage and essentially make film a travesty of theatre.

Most remarkable of "The Kiss", however, is that it was a very popular scene. Charles Musser has claimed it was their most popular film of 1896. A March 1898 Catalogue indicates it had an even lengthier period of popularity: "This subject has met with unequaled success on the Kinetoscope or projecting machine." It remained in the Edison catalogues until at least 1901, it appears. The rather new subject matter, its theatrical source and the use of the medium close-up surely led to its popularity. The film must have been quite a novelty when projected on the screen to patrons whose experience, if any, heretofore had been with long shot framing of film subjects.

William Heise photographed "The Kiss" in April 1896 at the "Black Maria" studio. The Edison Company made the film at the behest of "The New York World" newspaper, and the photographs appeared in its Sunday edition on 26 April. It nearly took up a page under the article "The Anatomy of a Kiss". As the article demonstrates, May Irwin and John C. Rice rehearsed the scene, especially the timing, before being filmed. The film appeared on the screen during the second week of the Vitascope's New York run. It was a hit; contemporary reviews paid it special mention similar to that of another blockbuster film of the time, "Rough Sea at Dover". Contemporary reviews also note that it appeared prominently at the beginning or end of exhibitors' programs.

According to Musser ("Before the Nickelodeon"), Edison Company film sales soared during 1896-1897, from $18,616 in 1895-1896 to $84,771. By 1898-1899, sales had fallen to $41,207. These numbers are surely tied largely to the novelty of the Vitascope and then the fading away of its novelty, but it's interesting to note how they also correspond to the circulation of "The Kiss", which, indeed, has been claimed to be the company's bestseller during the period.

Another thing I've noticed about "The Kiss", but for which I haven't found mention of elsewhere, is that there are two versions of it available today; they appear to be mirror images of each other. The Library of Congress paper print features Rice to the left of Irwin, but another print features him to the right of her. Perhaps, the latter is a result of mishandled copying of an original print. Musser has mentioned that the film was photographed only once, and "The New York World" article seems to support that statement. Moreover, the prints appear too similar for one of them to have been a remake. In 1900, however, the Edison Company would remake "The Kiss", but with a different couple. The kiss has been a movie staple ever since.