A Florida Enchantment

About

This film is unique in that it is very explicit in connoting homosexuality and transness as being a pathological "inversion" due to the magical and actual inversion of these characters' genders. 

In Vito Russo's "Celluloid Closet," he even cites the film as early representation of lesbian desire. 

Laura Horak in "Girls Will Be Boys" writes, "The film suggests that Bessie and Stella are responding unconsciously to Lillian's make nature, but how could audiences read these scenes as anything but expressions of lesbian desire?"

The reason this film passed the censorship boards was due to the straightforward reading of the film at the time: it was a wholesome high-class comedy. Alternatively, the "sophisticated" reading of the film, which was less common, interpreted the cross-gender behavior "as a sign of pathological inversion." Consequently, as Horak continues to write, "inverted and lesbian filmgoers could see some version of themselves on screen precisely because no one else recognized them there."

Movie Databases

A Florida Enchantment - IMDB

A Florida Enchantment - Letterboxd

A Florida Enchantment - WikiWand

Additional Information

A Florida Enchantment - The Silent Era

Essays

Bisexuality in Film - GLBTQ

A Seed for Change: The Engenderment of "A Florida Enchantment - by R. Bruce Brasell

The Florida Science Project - Flaming Classics

Books

Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934

Reviews

A Florida Enchantment - World Cinema Review

Period Pieces — Mostly for Fun: Golden Silents - Bay Area Reporter Volume 19, Number 24, 15 June 1989

News Articles

WJCT News: Controversial Silent Film Shot In Jacksonville, St. Augustine Returns To The Silver Screen