A Florida Enchantment is a silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 directed by and starring Sidney Drew and released by Vitagraph Studios

Vitagraph Studios

American Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York. By 1907 it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros...

. The film is based on the 1891 novel and 1896 play (now lost) of the same name written by Fergus Redmond and Archibald Clavering Gunter

Archibald Clavering Gunter

Archibald Clavering Gunter is primarily known today for authoring the novel that the film A Florida Enchantment was based upon, and for his hand in popularizing "Casey at the Bat". He clipped the original publication of the poem from the San Francisco Examiner and passed it on to DeWolf Hopper,...

.

Plot

In the film, Lillian Travers, a wealthy Northern woman about to be married, takes a magical seed which transforms its user into the opposite gender. Lillian's transformation into Lawrence Talbot has also been read as a transformation into a butch lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

. This reading is bolstered by the later transformation of Lillian's fiancé into what appears to be an effemininate gay man.

Production background

The film is also known for its use of blackface

Blackface

Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...

 antics; an aspect carefully dissected in Siobhan Somerville's "Queering the Color Line." Since its inclusion in Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet

The Celluloid Closet

The Celluloid Closet is a 1996 American documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is based on the 1981 book of the same name written by Vito Russo, and on previous lecture and film clip presentations given in person by Russo 1972–82.Russo researched the...

, the film has increasingly been seen as one of the earliest film representations of homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 and cross-dressing

Cross-dressing

Cross-dressing is the wearing of clothing and other accoutrement commonly associated with a gender within a particular society that is seen as different than the one usually presented by the dresser...

 in American culture.

Cast

• Edith Storey - Lillian Travers/Lawrence Talbot
• Sidney Drew - Dr. Frederick Cassadene
• Ethel Lloyd - Jane
• Grace Stevens - Constancia Oglethorpe
• Charles Kent
  Charles Kent (actor)
  Charles Kent was a British-born American silent film actor and director. He appeared in 141 films between 1908 and 1923...
  
   - Major Horton
• Jane Morrow - Bessie Horton
• Ada Gifford - Stella Lovejoy
• Lillian Burns - Malvina
• Allan Campbell - Stockton Remington
• Cortland van Deusen - Charley Wilkes
• Frank O'Neil - Gustavus Duncan