Opium Fiend vs Booze-Stealing Moon Hussy

The Dream of an Opium Fiend (1908)
Starriing:  Jeanne d'Alcy and an otherwise anonymous cast

Director: Georges Méliès

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

An upper-class drug addict's opium-enduced fantasy turns bizarre and nightmarish.

"The Dream of an Opium Fiend" is one Georges Méliès many "dream sequence" films. Although I prefer the ones where it's unclear if what's happening is a dream or if the main character has been transported to a weird world or is being visited by supernatural beings, I still rank this one among the best of this particular type of Méliès. The trick photography is expertly executed, the mechanical effects are excellently done, and the acting is hilarious. The storyline of the dream is both funny and frightening, something that's befitting of it being a drug-induced hallucination. 

I might have given this film a Nine or even a Ten rating if not for the odd choice of having the beer-stealing Moon Maid descend from her perch on a step ladder instead of by floating. The sudden appearance of the ladder is amusing, but I feel like her descent would have been more impactful if it had taken place through less mundane means.

If you've liked other Méliès films I've written about and featured here on the blog, I think you'll like this one, too. As usual, it's embedded below. It ends rather suddenly, so I think what's survived to this day is missing whatever the original ending was. Still, it's an enjoyable few minutes.