Dreams That Money Can Buy

1947
Approved
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

After learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.After learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.After learning how to look inside himself, a poetic bum sells people vivid dreams.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

972

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total

Photos

Top cast23

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Jack Bittner

Joe…

The Gangster
(as John Latouche)

Herb Campbell

A man - hands

Ethel Beseda

Mrs. A.
(uncredited)

Samuel Cohen

Mr. A
(uncredited)

Max Ernst

Le President
(uncredited)

Jo Fontaine-Maison

The girl
(uncredited)

Bernard Friend

Policeman
(uncredited)

Bernard Graves

The male voice
(uncredited)

Dorothy Griffith

Evelyn Hausman

Julien Lary

The man
(uncredited)

Anthony Laterie

The blind man
(uncredited)

Jo Mitchell

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
An experimental film shot for $25,000 in a Manhattan loft. It opened in New York in March, 1947 and went on to win the Venice Film Festival Award for the best original contribution to the progress of cinematography.

Quotes
(singing on soundtrack): Oh Venus was born out of sea-foam / oh Venus was born out of brine / but a girl of today / if she is grade A / is assembled upon the assembly line

Connections
Featured in Cocteau Marais - Un couple mythique (2013)

Soundtracks
The Girl with the Pre-Fabricated Heart
Lyrics by John La Touche
Sung by Libby Holman and Josh White, accompanied by Norma Cazanjian and Doris Okerson

User reviews13

Review

Featured review

7/10

If you can look inside yourself, you can look inside anyone!

I went on a long, hot walk around surprisingly dope Kansas City. Back at home base, I felt delirious, so I decided to return to Richter's Dreams That Money Can Buy.

It had been a while, but I can now say that you do NOT need the help of sun-drenched lunacy for this one. Perfect just as it is.

If there's any fabula, it's that bureaucracy sends people over the edge of mirrors, into bouquets of sterilized flowers resting in the dreams of others.

Really, it's all about the digesis: "Let memory of mortgages, loans and property sales // dissolve into the cries of nightingales!". Obviously you're watching this in part for image, but the VO and script shouldn't be overlooked. Alternating between a crisp, white sound, in the manner of 1950's instructional films, and other more slippery and sensuous words, voices and jazz numbers, sometimes there's singsong-y rhyme, often there are jabs at structure in favor of chaos ("Sign, sign every dotted line! What's the difference? You'll never belong to anything anyway.").

This is really a nice experience. Show it to hot friends and cool strangers.