User Reviews

Poor adaptation of a story that--to put it mildly--is wildly ambiguous and actually makes no sense at all when you stop to think about it. Surely the original story must have had a clearer view of things.

It starts with a recurring dream by a boy (Sal Mineo) who seems to be searching for a father figure in mid-19th century Paris. The next day, he does meet a Baron (George Sanders) whom he believes is his long lost father. But his mother (Patricia Morison) reacts strangely when she realizes what is happening and she warns her son to stay away from the man he originally saw in his dreams.

The plot wanders on, making even less sense as it goes on, lurching toward a climactic ending that is puzzling and solves nothing in the way of clearing up the mystery. Mineo is earnest and appealing but George Sanders seems bored by the whole project.

Summing up: A half-hour TV play on "Screen Directors Playhouse" directed by Hugo Haas, it lacks any real distinction apart from some fine B&W photography.

This episode of The Screen Directors Playhouse: The Dream kind of had me reaching at the end. What did it all mean?

I've got to believe that the Turgenev short story on which this short telefilm had a lot more in it. France in the 1880s has young Sal Mineo with this recurring dream, going down a street and meeting a man who is not all that happy to see him. Sal thinks it's his father.

Who it is is a mysterious man called The Baron played by George Sanders and Sanders invites him to take a trip to gain wealth in the West Indies as he did. It's a tempting prospect, but Sal's mother Patricia Morison is against it.

The story might have been better served with an hour long or maybe even a feature film length. I get the feeling a lot of what Turgenev was trying to say just didn't make it in. The ending is definitely anti-climatic.

Still it's a curiosity from the days of early television drama.

Screen Directors Playhouse: The Dream (1956)

** (out of 4)

A young boy (Sal Mineo) has a recurring dream about a Baron (George Sanders) but he has no idea why he would be dreaming about this man. One day while in a restaurant the boy ends up meeting the Baron and when he tells his mother about it she warns him to stay away. This addition to the Screen Directors Playhouse series was taken from a Ivan Turgenev story and I'm going to bet that the story had a lot more to it than actually found its way to the screen. This story really does feel like something you'd see on The Twilight Zone in a few years but it's clear that the level of writing here just couldn't take the story and do anything special with it. The film never really makes too much sense even early one when we're trying to figure out who the man is and why this kid is having the dream. When his mother starts freaking out about the man we're not given any reasons why but this is a clear tip-off that we're going to get some big twist. When the twist finally comes I can't say that I was shocked because in reality there are just two ways that the story could have gone. I think something that really hurts the film is that the story just isn't interesting enough as it just feels incomplete. It also doesn't help that we get a very corny soundtrack that starts playing every time a "twist" happens. Both Sanders and Mineo are good in their parts but one wishes they had a better story to work with.

The story doesn't make much sense as long as we stick with the rules of reality. However, seems to me the point is that three people, not just one, can be haunted by a spectre, but one who comes and goes for no apparent reason. The trouble with the storyline is that it gives no reason for the haunting or for the spectre's actions, while the ending sort of wanders off to no particular point. Whatever the Turgenev story, this adaptation comes across as a poor one.

However, there are several compensating features. The episode is very well mounted, with good attention to set decoration and detail. Also, cinematographer Ivano manages to work the visual elements into an interestingly spooky atmosphere. Mineo too is quite good as the afflicted boy. Still, I would have expected Sanders to convey some hint of menace as the spectre. But maybe his generally genial manner is meant to keep us off balance. Anyway, I agree with others that the storyline is severely lacking; still, there are compensations, particularly for fans of the early Mineo.