What Do You Do In the Dark?

The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899) is a humorous one minute long short in which a couple sneaks a passionate kiss when their train goes into a tunnel.  The film is terribly crude by our standards, but remember that it was made one hundred and two years ago.

The film opens with one of the first "phantom rides" ever seen in a film.  This consisted of strapping a cameraman on the front of the train, probably a very frightening thing at the time. The film then switches to a brightly lit studio set (which is supposed to have gone totally dark, but then we would not have been able to see).  We would not have been in on the shocking act.

The couple consisted of the director, George Smith, and his real-life wife, actress Laura Bayley.  When the train leaves the tunnel, the couple quickly ends their liplock and gets back to proper behavior.  The man is in such a hurry that he sit on his hat.



The obvious imagery is sexual, even phallic, as the train enters the tunnel.  Commentators have suggested that nineteenth century British audiences would have missed this symbolism.  I doubt that.  They lived in a very restrained culture but they were not stupid.

The Christian application of this film is as an illustration.  What things do we do in the dark that we have to scurry to hide when the lights come back on?  Don't we realize that all our actions and thoughts happen before God in His bright daylight?