Energetic man steals kisses from passing ladies, until bystanders give chase.Energetic man steals kisses from passing ladies, until bystanders give chase.Energetic man steals kisses from passing ladies, until bystanders give chase.
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- ConnectionsFeatured in American Grindhouse (2010)
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Were "Law & Order: SVU" made in 1907
As most things were seemingly handled in the early days of cinema, so too were sex crimes responded to with knockabout and maybe a chase. From the peeping Tom of "As Seen Through a Telescope" (1900) being assaulted as punishment, to the employee of "The Broker's Athletic Typewriter" (1905) literally emasculating her sexually-harassing boss with the trick photography of turning him into a dummy, to this "Jack the Kisser" being chased after a spree of forced kisses unleashed upon unsuspecting women. These chase comedies are hardly funny anymore as it is, but this one in particular is more offensive than humorous in today's MeToo era. Coincidently, earlier the same day I also caught a bit of coverage of a press conference by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo responding to likewise allegations.
The idea behind the film was surely to rework the formula of one of the earliest chase comedies, "Personal" (1904), which featured an all-women group to this one's mostly-women chasing after a man. Indeed, Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Company, the same makers of this title, had already ripped-off that film with the overly-long-titled "How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns" (1904). Chase films were important in early film history as they laid the foundations for continuity editing to follow action across shots. And, here they go again, but with an unfortunately more-elaborate set-up before the same old chase.
Additionally, one of the sexual-assault victims appears to be a mammy stereotype--perhaps, portrayed in blackface, although it's difficult to tell given the quality of the print transfer I saw and the fact that the film was photographed from long-shot positions. A racist gag has Jack becoming disgusted upon discovering that he forcibly slobbered on an African-American woman. At the end of the film, too, the women punish Jack by tying him to a tree and returning the involuntary smooching with the added supposed-humor of the black woman and another woman fighting over the sex offender. This wasn't even the first time Porter and Edison made fun of a white man accidently kissing a black woman during such a sneak attack, as that was the entire scenario of their "What Happened in the Tunnel" (1903), which itself was a racist elaboration of G.A. Smith's "The Kiss in the Tunnel" (1899). It's one thing that Porter and Edison were such prolific plagiarists, but they could be disgusting about it, too.
The idea behind the film was surely to rework the formula of one of the earliest chase comedies, "Personal" (1904), which featured an all-women group to this one's mostly-women chasing after a man. Indeed, Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Company, the same makers of this title, had already ripped-off that film with the overly-long-titled "How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns" (1904). Chase films were important in early film history as they laid the foundations for continuity editing to follow action across shots. And, here they go again, but with an unfortunately more-elaborate set-up before the same old chase.
Additionally, one of the sexual-assault victims appears to be a mammy stereotype--perhaps, portrayed in blackface, although it's difficult to tell given the quality of the print transfer I saw and the fact that the film was photographed from long-shot positions. A racist gag has Jack becoming disgusted upon discovering that he forcibly slobbered on an African-American woman. At the end of the film, too, the women punish Jack by tying him to a tree and returning the involuntary smooching with the added supposed-humor of the black woman and another woman fighting over the sex offender. This wasn't even the first time Porter and Edison made fun of a white man accidently kissing a black woman during such a sneak attack, as that was the entire scenario of their "What Happened in the Tunnel" (1903), which itself was a racist elaboration of G.A. Smith's "The Kiss in the Tunnel" (1899). It's one thing that Porter and Edison were such prolific plagiarists, but they could be disgusting about it, too.
- Cineanalyst
- Mar 4, 2021
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- Runtime5 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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