At 9 reels, The Good-Bye Kiss was comedy producer Mack Sennett's most ambitious feature to date. Eschewing the usual Sennett slapstick, the film is a romantic seriocomedy with a WW I background. Sally Eilers plays a young girl who follows her soldier boyfriend (Johnny Burke) to the front. He is something of a coward, but through his girlfriend's influence he becomes a war hero. One of the few vestiges of the traditional Sennett formula is the presence of reliable character comedian Andy Clyde as the girl's grandfather (Clyde was 34 years old at the time!) The Good-Bye Kiss represented a major break for film editor William Hornbeck, who with this film graduated to features, eventually leading to a long and fruitful career and several industry awards.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide