Something Good – Negro Kiss is a short film about a couple kissing and holding hands that were released in 1898. It is thought to be the first on-screen kiss involving African Americans, and it is notable for straying from the common and clichéd portrayal of racist caricature in popular culture at the time. Until its recovery in 2017, the film was thought to be lost, and it was added to the American National Film Registry in 2018.
A well-dressed African American couple kisses multiple times in Something Good. They hold and swing one other’s hands in between kisses and giggle together. The performances have a ‘palpable’ chemistry that conveys an ‘unmistakable sense of naturalness, delight, and entertainment.’
It was most likely shown with other short films as a comedy piece, a parody of the 1896 film The Kiss. Stage entertainers Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown starred in Something Good. Brown was a vaudeville circuit actress and Suttle was a composer for popular theatre. They also worked together as dance partners. They were members of The Rag-Time Four, a dancing troupe who performed variants on the popular cakewalk dance. They could have been in the studio to take part in a cakewalk scene.
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