"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. Well, for the time anyway. A year later, it would be outright copied in Ferdinand Zecca's "Dream and Reality", which uses a dissolve to go from dream to reality as opposed to the de-focus effect here.The gag centers around a man who dreams that he's dating an attractive bucktoothed woman, when reality finally becomes clear to him. It's not hilarious but definitely holds up better than watching two bill-posters fighting over a defaced wall. The wife in the 1901 remake was uglier, I have to say. But I like the de-focus better here. Both early films are about equal.

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. LET ME DREAM AGAIN is a pretty simple film but for 1900 it was rather clever and used the dream sequence for a great cause. George Melies was using dream sequences to show off horrors and magic tricks but this here was clever use of it because we get a very big laugh. I thought it was rather hilarious when the man woke up and the facial expression when he sees his wife was extremely good.

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. Early on we see a man and a woman having a great time, drinking, smoking and joking around. Such a fun scene really. But could it all be true? Bummer. The director is George Albert Smith here, one of Britains very early and very prolific filmmakers. The lead actress played in a couple more films and so did the lead actor who was also a fairly prolific filmmaker himself. I thought this started off a bit slowly, but got better quickly and was actually really good at the end. Certainly worth a watch. A contender for best film and best comedy movie of 1900 in my opinion.

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! While it was common for many of the very early studios to plagiarize each other's work, this one is one of the more flagrant examples. I just hope that LET ME DREAM AGAIN is the actual first film of its kind and not a rip-off of another, earlier film! The story is immensely simple (as was true of nearly all films from this era). An old guy is making out with a pretty young lady and life seems grand--until he wakes up and realizes it's all a dream! The idea is cute, though the execution is a tad primitive and rough. Still, given its tremendous age, it's still pretty watchable today.