Let Me Dream Again

Harsh reality interrupts an older man's reverie of flirting with a pretty young woman

An early example of a dream sequence on film. Stage comic Tom Green shares a flirtatious drink and a giggle with a beautiful woman in a Pierrot costume. But a 'dissolve' to a new scene shows him waking up to reality - next to his altogether less glamorous wife, who pushes him away and begins scolding him. Although the first scene may seem chaste by modern standards, the younger woman's cigarettes and alcohol imply a further permissiveness. No wonder he would rather return to his nocturnal fantasies.

The young woman is played by Laura Bayley, who was married to the film's director George Albert Smith. The dissolve effect isn't a real dissolve, but is achieved by allowing the first shot to go out of focus, then cutting to the next, which itself comes slowly into focus. The images never actually overlap.