A Florida Enchantment (1914)
Director:
Sidney DrewWriters:
Marguerite Bertsch, Archibald Clavering Gunter (novel)Stars:
Sidney Drew, Edith Storey, Charles KentThis film is one of the strangest silent films ever made. It's a comedy by Mr. Sidney Drew (before the Mr. & Mrs. comedy team was married) about an strong-willed young woman (Edith Story) who is irritated with her (much-older) fiancé, Dr. Cassadene (Drew). She finds some magic seeds that cause the person who eats them to switch gender, and she eats one. Lillian, has a great time as a man. She kisses other women, dances with them, smokes cigarettes, applies for a man's job, and she dresses in men's clothing. This causes complications when her clothes are found and she is presumed murdered. At the end of the film, she gives a magic seed to her fiancé, and he believes that he is a woman. Based on an 1891 book and a 1896 play by Archibald Gunter and Fergus Redmond, the film actually pokes fun at homosexual conduct without condemning it too much -- which is pretty remarkable for the time period. The daughter whom Edith Story flirts with a lot was Lucille McVay (AKA Jane Morrow), who was to later become the "Mrs." of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew.
