The Deciding Kiss
{{short description|1918 film}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Deciding Kiss
| image = Thedecidingkiss-newspaperad-1918.jpg
| caption = Newspaper advertisement
| director = Tod Browning
| producer =
| writer = Bernard McConville
| based_on = {{based on|Turn About Eleanor|Ethel M. Kelley}}
| starring = Edith Roberts
Winifred Greenwood
| cinematography = John W. Brown
| editing =
| distributor = Universal Film Manufacturing Company
| released = {{Film date|1918|7|22}}
| runtime = 5 reels
| country = United States
| language = Silent (English intertitles)
}}
The Deciding Kiss is a 1918 American comedy film directed by Tod Browning. The film was considered a lost film for decades.{{cite web |url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/D/DecidingKiss1918.html |title=Progressive Silent Film List: The Deciding Kiss |access-date=May 5, 2008|work=silentera.com}} A print was discovered at the French archive Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée in Fort de Bois-d'Arcy.[http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.4697/default.html The Library of Congress/FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: The Deciding Kiss]
Plot
As described in a film magazine,{{cite journal |title=Reviews: The Deciding Kiss |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=7 |issue=6 |page=33 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |location=New York City |date=August 3, 1918 |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald07exhi}} Eleanor Hamlin (Roberts), who has been living with an old and impoverished couple, is adopted by two couples, Mr. and Mrs. Sears and Beulah Page (Greenwood) and Peter Bolling (Unterkircher), young people who have read of cooperative parenting and wish to try out the theory. It works very well until Jimmy Sears (Cooley) loses control of himself under the spell of his adopted daughter's kisses. This passes, however, but then Peter falls in love with her. Beulah then tells Eleanor that she is engaged to Peter, and the heart-broken little girl goes back home. After an exhaustive search, Peter fails to find her, and he and Beulah complete their engagement. Eleanor returns, sees the true state of things, and asks God to let her be always their little girl.
Cast
- Edith Roberts as Eleanor Hamlin
- Winifred Greenwood as Beulah Page
- Hallam Cooley as Jimmy Sears (credited as Hal Cooley)
- Hans Unterkircher as Peter Bolling (credited as Thornton Church)
- Lottie Kruse (as Lottie Kruze)
- Edmund Cobb (credited as Edwin Cobb)
- William Courtright (credited as William Cartwright)
Reception
Like many American films of the time, The Deciding Kiss was subject to restrictions and cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required, in Reel 4, that the kissing scene at the piano be shortened by eliminating the last half.{{cite journal |title=Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=7 |issue=9 |page=36 |date=August 24, 1918 |url=https://archive.org/stream/exhibitorsherald07exhi#page/n428/mode/1up}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0009001}}
- Kelly, Ethel M. (1917), [https://archive.org/details/turnabouteleanor00kelliala Turn About Eleanor], Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, on the Internet Archive
{{Tod Browning}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deciding Kiss, The}}
Category:1910s English-language films
Category:1910s rediscovered films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:American silent feature films
Category:Films directed by Tod Browning
Category:Films with screenplays by Bernard McConville
Category:Rediscovered American films
Category:Silent American comedy films