[1] The first known motion pictures depicting nude men were made by Eadweard Muybridge in the 1880s and 1890s as part of his studies of human locomotion.

[4][5] By 1920, the first hardcore homosexual sex acts were depicted in the film Le ménage moderne du Madame Butterfly.

[6][7] 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).

[1][6] 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.

[1][6] This makes The Surprise of a Knight the first known hardcore gay pornographic film in American cinematic history.

As the "lady" completes her boudoir, she lifts her skirts to reveal a thick patch of pubic hair.

The Surprise of a Knight ushered in a brief period of homosexual hardcore pornography in the stag film era.

[8] Thomas Waugh and Linda Williams have argued The Surprise of a Knight is a film fraught with interpretational difficulties.

[10] 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.