What Happened in the Tunnel

The film starts and we see the interior of a railroad car, in the front seat is a black maid, played by Bertha Regustus, sitting near the window. Sitting alongside the black woman, is a white woman reading a book and wiping her nose with her handkerchief. Behind both women sits a white man, played by Gilbert M. Anderson, reading a newspaper and he keeps looking back and forth at the white woman and down at his newspaper. As the white women finishes wiping her nose, she accidentally drops her handkerchief putting it away. As she notices it fell the white man, played by Gilbert M. Anderson, picks it up for and hands it to her. He then starts a conversation with her and becomes very forward with her. He starts to grab her hand as they are talking. The black maid starts to giggle and smile at them in her seat. The man tries to get closer and closer as him and the white woman speak. The train then enters the tunnel, and the film fades to black. As the train emerges from the tunnel, the two women have switched places and the man is kissing who he thinks is the white women, but it is the black maid that he is kissing. Once the white man realizes what he did, he starts to panic, looks around to see if anyone else saw, and sits back down in embarrassment. The two women begin to laugh and point at the man, and he grabs his newspaper in discomfort.

• Bertha Regustus – The black maid
• Gilbert M. Anderson – The white man[3]

• 1900s in film
• 1903 in film
• Edwin S. Porter
• Broncho Billy Anderson
• African American cinema
• Silent film
• African American Women in the silent film era