User Reviews

1899 must have been an incredible year for films considering they produced at least two films about trains going in tunnels the exact same year AND they were both entitled THE KISS IN THE TUNNEL! Interestingly enough, these films ALSO corresponded with Freud's early work--such as his fascination with phallic symbols (such as pencils, cigars and TRAINS).

The bottom line is that one of these films is a blatant rip-off of the other and I can't figure out which, since they both came out the same year! Unfortunately, both films aren't all that interesting (though this version is ever so slightly better). They are probably only of interest to film historians and Psychoanalytic therapists.

A train enters a tunnel. Within it, a man places his cigarette down, seats himself next to the young woman in the compartment, and they kiss.

This was not the first time a movie had been remade by a competitor; look at Melies' earnest films and you will see reproductions of Lumiere films. By the following year, film makers around the world were remaking Melies' trick films. Yet this film is a remake of George Albert Smith's movie of the same name -- with a couple of changes -- and it was remade within a month.

Why the speed? Clearly the Smith version was immensely popular. I submit it was because of the sexual symbolism of the film. The train entering the tunnel symbolizes coitus, and the man and woman, it is implied, are doing the same, albeit in a less symbolic fashion.

At least, that's what it would mean sixty years later, when Hitchcock ended NORTH BY NORTHWEST with the same master shot.

Bamforth and Co. made a career of rip-, er, 'remaking' the classics of early cinema, such as 'Rough Sea at Dover' ('Rough Sea') and 'L'Arroseur Arrose' ('The Biter Bit'), presumably because of a shortage of prints to meet burgeoning demand. this is a copy of G. A. Smith's great film of the same name, with a train entering a tunnel, a couple kissing, and the train exiting the tunnel.

Of course, there is no such thing as a straight remake, and any differences will be instructive. This film is franker than Smith's, not only in showing the train, which 'has' the point of view in Smith, but in the treatment of the kiss. Where Smith's couple (played by the director and his wife) were bourgeois guiltily sneaking a peck out of the sight of censorious society, Bamforth's couple are more straightforward. A man sits down, smokes, reads or whatever, very methodically gets up, and kisses the woman opposite him, who is not necessarily his wife; far from pretending to struggle like Smith's wife, our heroine is more than happy to reciprocate.

The story's clash between desire and society takes on an interesting class element, the working class apparently more free with their affections, contributing to the negative reputations of trains and, of course, cinemas, both social sites plunged into darkness where desire has momentary free reign.

The film's treatment of trains is also different, especially as the vehicle leaves the tunnel, the camera lingers rather pointlessly on it, moving from fiction to documentary, the opposite movement of Smith's film. Or maybe the event in the compartment leads us to fetishise this instrument at our leisure; or maybe the filmmaker is making a humorous distinction between symbol and reality.

This movie is Bamforth and Company's remake of G.A. Smith's "The Kiss in the Tunnel". Bamforth made a couple of changes, and while overall Smith's version is probably the more interesting of the two, this one is also worth seeing. That they did some things differently makes for an interesting comparison between the two movies, coming as they do so early in cinema history, with this one being one of the very earliest movie remakes.

The most significant change comes right at the beginning, when Bamforth's version shows the actual train entering the tunnel instead, of Smith's idea of showing the scene as it would appear from the train itself. The central scene that follows is then similar to that in the first movie, though with a bit less subtlety and more obvious motivations by the characters, again giving it a different style.

A comparison of the two versions would probably suggest that the earlier version is a bit more creative for its time, and that its effect is the most convincing of the two. But this one works fine on its own, and so both features are worth seeing and comparing.

I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place – but that's about it.

Turns out that modern examples of kicking out similar films in the same year is not just a Hollywood thing, before the whole Deep Impact/Armageddon thing we in Britain had two "kissing in a train in a tunnel" films in the same year. George Smith's film is the same in terms of content as this one and to be honest in this regard they are both weak. However Smith's was technically impressive and is better than this version in that regard. Bamforth films do not experiment or work on devices as he did and as a result the value of the film is significantly less – check out the George Smith film instead.

A Kiss in the Tunnel (1899)

George Albert Smith's A KISS IN THE TUNNEL from 1899 was so popular with people that the Bamforth company remade it the very same year with the very same title and the very same plot.

The original version is historic because of the way it was filmed including the "phantom ride" where the camera pretty much rode into the tunnel then we cut to the action and then we saw the camera moving out of the tunnel. The same pretty much happens here but the effect is a lot cheaper and on a technical level this thing really isn't all that impressive. The actual kiss by the man and woman is a bit more passionate than the original where it was played for humor but there's still no question that this is a very cheap rip-off.

This is Bamforth & Co's remake of Smith's "Kiss in the Tunnel." It presumably was made right after the first film came out. When James Bamforth viewed it I bet you he just thought "that looks easy enough. Hey guys, how about we be total jerks and put Smith out of business? We could easily remake this one! All we need is a man and a woman who are willing to kiss even though they're not married, and a cheap backdrop and that's it. And after that we'll ruin the Lumiere Brothers!"

Well, there's nothing else I can really say about this film. If you've seen Smith's film then there's no reason for me to summarize it. However I will point out that in this version there's no Phantom Ride, just two shots of the train going into the tunnel and coming out. Also note the couple doesn't go back to normal in this version as in the original, they just continue to kiss till we see the train come out.