A man in evening clothes is sitting with a pretty girl. They are drinking, smoking, and having a great time.
A gentleman is happily cavorting with a young women in a clown costume when, to his apparent disappointment, he awakens from a dream to find himself in bed with his frumpy and disapproving wife. The brief (~80 seconds) turn-of-the-century film, directed and produced by George Albert Smith, is a very early example of film-maker using a blurring effect (the image goes out of, then back into, focus as the gentleman awakens) to depict a transition from dreaming to reality.
"Let Me Dream Again" is what can be considered another one of the many one-gag shorts from this time period. While many comedies of the time were pretty cheap (a gardener getting sprayed by a hose, for example) this gag is actually a lot different.
I have to say that even with the spoiler in the title I did not see the final plot twist coming and had to laugh quite a bit. Also the actors' face expressions were really spot-on.
Let Me Dream Again (1900) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Clocking in at less than two minutes, this is a pretty funny movie that shows a middle aged man drinking, smoking and flirting with a beautiful young woman. The man is having a terrific time until he wakes up and realizes that in bed with him is his rather unattractive wife.
Dreams are closely associative with cinema. That idea isn't really explored here, as the film only consists of two scenes and lasts around a minute.
The same night I watched this silent short, I also saw a French film called "Rêve et réalité" (1901). It turns out the French movie was a knockoff of this film--with the exact same plot and scenes!
With an idea that was creative for its time, and a theme that still retains some interest, "Let Me Dream Again" is still worth seeing despite its unpolished look. It was one of the very earliest attempts to film a story that compared dream and reality, and while there are later imitations of the story with a more refined technique, this is the one that should probably get the credit for the basic idea.
An old man flirts with a pretty young woman and gets very amorous, only for the reality of his situation to become horribly apparent to him! This is a very simple film with one gag to deliver and a short time to do it in.
