Talk:The Kiss (1896 film)

I see a huge problem here
The version of The Kiss I saw in film class was about 15 second song, and it was quite different than the one linked at the bottom of the page to the Library of Congress.

Was the version of The Kiss I saw from Edison? The image yuo have here on the site is from the one I saw in class, not from the one I saw on the linked site.

I think this needs to be cleared up. —This unsigned comment was added by 136.160.131.176 (talk • contribs).


 * Hmm, there seem to be two very similar movies both in IMDB: 'The Kiss' (1896) and 'The Kiss' (1900). Both of them seem to have been filmed for Edison.


 * The IMDB entry for the second seems a bit lacking, however. It only lists one actor, Fred Ott, but I think he needed a co-star! --Saforrest 00:14, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

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The 'Reaction' section may need a comb-over, as the film may not have been that controversial
Saw someone point this out in a blogpost wherein they dug into the origins of much of the purported 'controversy' over the film itself. Here's a quote from The Chap Book, cited in - and I haven't looked yet, but I will assume - many sources as evidence of outrage over the film:

"Magnified to Gargantuan proportions and repeated three times over it is absolutely disgusting. All delicacy or remnant of charm seems gone from Miss Irwin, and the performance comes very near being indecent in its emphasized vulgarity. Such things call for police interference."

Okay, cut and dry. Right?

"When I decided to review this film, I wanted to include some of those condemnations from primary sources but the funniest thing happened. The only condemnation that is quoted is a piece from a short-lived literary magazine called The Chap-Book, which was edited by Herbert Stuart Stone...The Chap-Book was aimed at the intelligentsia, it was not a religious magazine nor dedicated to reform."

Okay... here's a longer version of the first quote:

"In a recent play called The Widow Jones you may remember a famous kiss which Miss May Irwin bestowed on a certain John C. Rice, and vice versa. Neither participant is physically attractive, and the spectacle of their prolonged pasturing on each other’s lips was hard to bear...Such things call for police interference.

Our cities from time to time have spasms of morality, when they arrest people for displaying lithographs of ballet-girls; yet they permit night after night a performance which is infinitely more degrading. The immorality of living pictures and bronze statues is nothing to this. The Irwin kiss is no more than a lyric of the Stock Yards. While we tolerate such things, what avails all the talk of American Puritanism and of the filthiness of imported English and French stage shows?"

And, as the author of the blogpost deciphers:

"note that the primary objection to The Kiss is the lack of physical attractiveness. Stone is not complaining about the act of kissing, he is complaining about kissing between people he finds to be unattractive. (The Chap-Book is full of stories and poetry with plenty of smooching.)

Second, Stone’s call for police interference is almost certainly as hyperbolic as his proclamation that he wanted smash the Vitascope machine. His primary complaint was that imported stage shows and fine art were being censored while May Irwin and John C. Rice were allowed to neck with abandon simply because their romantic scene was captured on the newfangled fad gadget."

I'm sorry for the long quotes here - but my point comes to:

"So, basically, my research went like this:

Book: The Kiss was condemned as obscene by all and sundry!

Me: Let me read those condemnations.

Book: Well, The Chap-Book says…

Me: But is there anything else?

Book: Lots of people condemned it.

Me: Like who?

Book: Well, The Chap-Book says…

Me: Yes, but any other sources? I need more than one, you know.

Book: …

Me: Because you do get that this was a sarcastic condemnation, right? The author just wanted to make a point about girlie shows being shut down and nude statues being denounced.

Book: …

Me: So, please show me another source.

Book: Well, The Chap-Book says…"

There's details later on in the blogpost covering reactions from religious groups, although the author points out that evidence of condemnation there is also a little scant on the ground, with one church at least showing it as part of a fundraiser.

Whenever I've got the time, I'll be combing over the sources used in this article under the 'Reaction' section as best I can, and seeing how many may cite The Chap Book somewhat wrongly. --Ineffablebookkeeper (talk) 09:38, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Black Maria or Edison Studios?
Appear to be conflicting info as to where it was shot. Djflem (talk) 18:34, 26 November 2022 (UTC)
 * That was an odd thing I found too and I spent my time searching to figure out why. It would be odd that The Kiss, an 1896 film, would be one of the last shot at the Black Maria, which closed in 1901, but the film was remade in 1900 so maybe it is in reference to that. Jon698 (talk) 21:41, 26 November 2022 (UTC)