''The Surprise of a Knight'' is a gay pornographic

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

film from the United States. Most likely released in 1929, it is notable for being the earliest known American pornographic film to depict exclusively homosexual intercourse.Burger, John R. ''One-Handed Histories: The Eroto-Politics of Gay Male Video Pornography''. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1995.

Background

The first known motion pictures depicting nude men were made by

Eadweard Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge (; 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904, born Edward James Muggeridge) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first ...

in the 1880s and 1890s as part of his studies of human locomotion.Williams, Linda. ''Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible."'' Expanded ed. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1999. Hardcore pornographic films (later called "stag films") first appeared in Europe in 1908. Most historians consider the first genuine American stag film to be ''

A Free Ride ''A Free Ride'', also known as ''A Grass Sandwich'', is a stag film of the silent era, considered the earliest extant American hardcore pornographic movie. It depicts a motorist who picks up two women from the roadside and later engages in seve ...

'', produced and released in 1915. By 1920, the first hardcore homosexual sex acts were depicted in the film '' Le ménage moderne du Madame Butterfly.''Waugh, Thomas. ''Hard To Imagine''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Slade, Joseph. "Bernard Natan: France's Legendary Pornographer." ''Journal of Film and Video''. 45:2-3 (Summer-Fall 1993). However, like most of the films which came after it, ''Le ménage moderne du Madame Butterfly'' only shows male-male sex acts as deviant, firmly establishes the heterosexuality of the characters, and usually depicts gay sex acts as essentially bisexual (e.g., male-male sexual contact occurs while the men are also having heterosexual intercourse). The illegality of hardcore pornographic films in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s means that no producer, performer or other credits for ''The Surprise of a Knight'' are identifiable. However, researchers have dated the film to at least 1929Waugh, Thomas. "Homosociality in the Classical American Stag Film: Off-Screen, On-Screen." ''Porn Studies''. Linda Williams, ed. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004. (although earlier estimates placed its production in 1930). This makes ''The Surprise of a Knight'' the first known hardcore gay pornographic film in American cinematic history.

Plot

The film opens with an elegantly attired "woman" with short hair as she finishes dressing for a visitor. As the "lady" completes her

boudoir A boudoir (; ) is a woman's private sitting room or salon in a furnished residence, usually between the dining room and the bedroom, but can also refer to a woman's private bedroom. The term derives from the French verb ''bouder'' (to sulk ...

, she lifts her skirts to reveal a thick patch of

pubic hair Pubic hair is terminal body hair that is found in the genital area of adolescent and adult humans. The hair is located on and around the sex organs and sometimes at the top of the inside of the thighs. In the pubic region around the pubis bon ...

. At this point, an

intertitle In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

reveals that the

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

is "Oscar Wild" (clearly a pseudonym). The "lady" goes into the

drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th cent ...

and offers her well-attired gentleman caller (her "knight") a drink. He refuses it, and she drinks the cocktail. They talk briefly, and then engage in passionate kissing. Whenever the gentleman caller puts his hands on the "lady's" breasts or genitals, "she" pushes his hand away. Finally, she slaps him coyly. The "lady" then apologizes for her aggressiveness by fellating her partner. The "lady" then lies face-down on the sofa with her buttocks in the air. It is revealed that she has no underwear on. The gentleman caller then copulates the "lady" anally (although no penetration is actually shown). After a minute or so, the gentleman withdraws and sits back on the sofa. The "lady" gyrates her buttocks in the air. This induces him to mount her anally again. Both individuals reach

orgasm Orgasm (from Greek , ; "excitement, swelling") or sexual climax is the sudden discharge of accumulated sexual excitement during the sexual response cycle, resulting in rhythmic, involuntary muscular contractions in the pelvic region charac ...

, and the gentleman caller walks off camera. The "lady" stands and raises her skirts to reveal that "she" is really a he. The film's second and final intertitle announces "Surprise." His penis is exposed. The man in drag then dances about briefly, making sure that his penis bobs up and down in the air. The gentleman caller re-enters the camera's view, and helps the other man remove his skirt and most of his other clothing. The gentleman caller (now completely clothed again) dances briefly with the nude young man. After a

jump cut A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera posit ...

, the "lady"—now dressed completely in business attire—walks back on screen, winks at the audience, and walks off screen.

Assessment

''The Surprise of a Knight'' ushered in a brief period of homosexual hardcore pornography in the stag film era. About a year later, in ''A Stiff Game'', an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

male would engage in fellatio on a

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...

man without the need for drag. The appearance of gay sexual contact on film would soon end, however, and not reappear until the advent of legal gay hardcore pornography after 1970.

Thomas Waugh Thomas Waugh is a Canadian critic, lecturer, author, actor, and activist, best known for his extensive work on documentary film and eroticism in the history of LGBT cinema and art. A professor emeritus at Concordia University, he taught 41 years ...

and Linda Williams have argued ''The Surprise of a Knight'' is a film fraught with interpretational difficulties. Williams notes the lead character (the "lady") is in costume, yet costumes are the antithesis of the hardcore pornographic film (in which nudity and the display of genitalia and penetration during intercourse are key). "The costume spectacle either steals the show..." as film historian Thomas Waugh put it, "...or becomes a grotesque distraction..."Waugh, ''Hard To Imagine'', 1996, p. 314. The revelation of the "lady's" penis is not real surprise, Waugh concludes, as audiences knew what sort of film they were getting (e.g., homosexual porn). The use of drag in ''The Surprise of a Knight'' also distances the audience from the performers on screen, Waugh argues. The main character of the film is a

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

, and yet nearly all the audience members could say they were not drag queens. Waugh sees the film not depicting gay men on screen, but reaffirming

heteronormativity Heteronormativity is the concept that heterosexuality is the preferred or normal mode of sexual orientation. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most ...

and negative

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

s of gay men and gay sex. John Robert Burger writes it is unclear from the film whether the visitor knows of the drag queen's gender before the encounter, and hiding the gender of the drag queen makes it "faux homosexuality". Burger also writes, ''The Surprise of a Knight'' is an exception to the norm of stag films, in which the receptive partner in same-sex anal sex is typically perceived to be victimized or punished.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Surprise of a Knight, The Gay pornographic films 1929 films 1920s pornographic films American black-and-white films American pornographic films American silent short films 1920s American films