It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Excellent adaptation.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Blistering performances.

A man way overindulges in food and drink and then pays the price in bad dreams and hallucinations. All the man wants to do is go to bed and sleep it off but no sweet dreams for him. Instead there's a jumping and swirling bed, devil imps on the man's head, the drunk and the lamp post bit, and other well done special effects. Is this film historically important? Well, sure. It's directed by Edwin Porter and is inspired by a Windsor McCay comic strip and is a marvel of trick photography. And all of that is important. But what I found amazing (and perhaps shouldn't have) was how very entertaining and fun a 1906 six plus minute film could be. This little film is both fascinating and a lot of fun.

I saw two versions of this live-action version of Winsor McCay's comic strip Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend. The Google Video version had music suitable for the era and film. The YouTube version (which Google now links to as well) used Carl Stalling's music for Warner Bros. cartoon shorts along with Treg Brown's sound effects that seemed WAY unsuitable. Director Edwin S. Porter gives wonderful visual touches throughout from the whirling lamppost sequence to depict drunkenness to the bed jumping up and down while the drunk tries to sleep to his dreams of three devils picking at his head to him hanging on a swinging weather vane. Two bad the print of both versions were downright poor with washed out frames nearly constantly. Recommended mainly for film enthusiasts.

A man is having a bit too much of a good time out on the town – drinking and eating far too much. He stumbles home and goes to bed but it is clear to the audience that the effects of his drinking habits are far from being out of his system.A simple film this one but one that is interesting for its place in cinema history. The title is the plot and the first few scenes of the film are really just there to get our character into bed and falling into a drunken deep sleep. The main thing the film wants to do is how many visual effects it can then produce. In this case it achieves this really well and sets up a memorable dream sequence that is imaginative and technically impressive. As with all films from this period, it is worth keeping it in the context of the period and what other things were being done with other films. With this in the mind the film is worth seeing because it is imaginative but more than that it is technically impressive at a time when cinema was just starting to develop.

What an amazing cinematic experience! Just as Porter's influence was starting to wane, he makes what is arguably his most visually stunning film. Though not as famous as "Life of an American Fireman", Rarebit Fiend is a clever, captivating piece of film history.The 'plot' as such is irrelevant - what the film does is take opportunities to showcase as many new special effects as it possibly can. Tricks of space, dimension, time, both in-camera and on set, create one of cinema's first convincing nightmare perspectives. Predating the surrealist era by decades, Porter's film is a must see for all fans of non-linear and non-traditional film-making.