Going to Bed Under Difficulties
About Going to Bed Under Difficulties
In a hotel room, a man takes off his suit and trousers to go to bed. A coat and a hat appear on him. He pulls those off, and another hat and plaid trousers take their place. Each layer he removes is replaced. He gets more frantic. The end of the surviving picture is missing. A contemporary catalog says he rolls on the floor and the bed and then collapses.
Cast & crew
More about Going to Bed Under Difficulties
Georges Méliès directed and plays the man. Star Film numbers 312–313. The French title is Le Déshabillage impossible. The British title is An Increasing Wardrobe. The short runs 1 minute 30 seconds. Clothes are swapped by substitution splices. The American catalog mentions fast motion at the end. Those last seconds are missing, and this may be the only Méliès film that used that device.
Themes
Making
Méliès stops the camera between each layer of clothes so a new coat, hat, or pair of trousers is already on him when the shot resumes.
Technique
Substitution splices put a new set of clothes on the man every time he strips.
Preservation
The ending is lost. What survives stops before the collapse described in the contemporary catalog. A copy of the fragment is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- It is the second Méliès film of a man who cannot finish undressing. The first was Up-to-Date Spiritualism.
- The same gag was copied in Undressing Impossible (1901), Clothes Enchanted (1901), Undressing Extraordinary (1901), and The Inexhaustible Wardrobe (1902).
- The idea sits next to The Bewitched Inn, another Méliès room that will not behave.
- Wikidata lists the duration as 2 minutes. The Wikipedia timing of a print is 1 minute 30 seconds.
Scenes
- A coat and hat are on him the moment the suit comes off.
- Plaid trousers replace the pair he has just removed.
- The catalog ending has him rolling on the bed.
Influenced by
- Up-to-Date Spiritualism
- The Bewitched Inn
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Le Déshabillage impossible.webm)
