And the insertion edit was born. This Phantom Ride (as the subgenre is titled) slows down with it's second of three scenes but that doesn't stop it from cooling. With the first and third shots being composed of a train entering and exiting a tunnel, the heart of the picture is the extraordinary forty seconds that make up the film's second scene; in which a married couple flirt and exchange kisses within one of the vehicle's wagons. Though the clear artificiality of the train cart does clash with the film's otherwise pseudo-documentary approach to early filmmaking. What makes this forgivable is the believability of the actors performances, played by the director himself (George Albert Smith) and his wife (Laura Bayley) respectively. While "The Kiss in the Tunnel" can't hold the title of having film's oldest surviving sexual implication, (1896's "Coucher de la mariée" would have the honor of providing the medium's first innuendo in case anyone was wondering) it did give something of, in my opinion, much greater value to cinema. Genuine onscreen chemistry.
Review of A Kiss in the Tunnel
