Dream Me a Life
"Portrait of a man having a bad dream. His name: Roger Simpson Leeds. Place of residence: a retirement home. Roger Simpson Leeds, who since the death of his wife three years ago, has dedicated himself to living a life in which he touches no one and no one touches him. But now, contact has been made, and Mr. Leeds is about to find himself touched — by the Twilight Zone."
Having been widowed for three years, Roger Simpson Leeds (Eddie Albert), an old man in a retirement home, has distanced himself from everyone around him out of his fear of re-experiencing the loss. In recent nights, however, Roger has been finding himself in a peculiar, constantly-repeating dream, where he's placed in a candlelit room with a frightened woman, who frantically pleads for him to help her keep something from coming through a door. A new resident, Laurel Kincaid (Frances Hyland), soon moves into the retirement home. Much like Roger, she's also a widower, and the loss of her husband has left her catatonic for 10 years. Roger recognizes Laurel as the woman from his dream, and realizes that she's the one reliving the dream again and again, something pulling Roger in without either of their input. Deciding that he might be able to help Laurel in the waking world, Roger returns to the dream to open the door she forbids him from opening.
Tropes
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Roger is repeatedly forced to enter Laurel's recurring dream. The dream follows the same pattern each time: they're stuck in a room filled with candles, and Laurel begs Roger to help her in keeping something, seemingly a monster, out of the room. On the first few tries, Roger refuses to help her. When he enters her dream again, however, he realizes that he's not supposed to keep whatever's on the other side of the door out, but to let it in. The entity on the other side is actually the spirit of Laurel's husband, who died ten years earlier. He wants Laurel to accept his death and live her life again instead of remaining catatonic from her grief. The next morning, Roger cheerily approaches Laurel and invites her to breakfast. She then speaks her first words in ten years, developing a new love in Roger.
- But Now I Must Go: Laurel's husband turns out to be the creature that Laurel begs Roger to keep out of her dream room. When Roger finally lets him in, it's the right thing to do, as he wants Laurel to move on from him and keep living her life.
- Catapult Nightmare: After his first trip in Laurel's dream, a distressed Roger wakes up by bolting upright in his bed.
- Commonality Connection: Roger and Laurel are both widowers who have severe emotional baggage after their spouses' deaths. It's for this reason why Laurel's husband places Roger in his wife's dreams, as he knows full well how she feels and thus is the perfect man for her to start over with.
- December–December Romance: After Roger helps Laurel overcome her grief at her husband's death in her dreams, he asks the husband's spirit why he kept being called into the dream. Her husband replies, "I think you know." The next morning, in the real world, Roger dons a suit and takes Laurel to breakfast, the two of them developing a relationship.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The dream sequences are shot entirely in black and white, and they also make use of heavy cinematography to illustrate the surreal nature of dreams.
- The Dreaded: The unseen being on the other side of Laurel's dream door, which she begs Roger to keep out. It's later revealed to be the spirit of Laurel's husband, who she was trying to keep in her memories, only for the husband to appear to her and tell her to let him go.
- Dream Walker: Laurel's late husband keeps drawing the unwilling Roger into Laurel's dream so he can help her to come to terms with her overwhelming grief at his death, which caused her to become catatonic.
- Empty Shell: For 10 years, ever since her husband died, Laurel has been rendered catatonic from grief. Her husband's spirit contacts Roger, who is similarly mourning his wife Rachel, so he can help Laurel accept his death and get on with her life. After Roger does so, she speaks for the first time in a decade.
- Friendly Ghost: Laurel's husband, who pulls Roger into her repeating dream so he can help her move on from him.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Roger largely acts cold, dismissive, and aloof of everyone around him, but he's largely so grouchy because he refuses to get close to people, fearing that he would lose them like he did Rachel.
- The Mourning After: Roger is still devastated by the death of his beloved wife Rachel three years ago. Thus, he makes very little effort to interact with his close friend Frank, their fellow residents, or even his children and grandchildren. The experience of helping Laurel overcome her grief at her husband's death through her dream allows him to do the same thing. As a result, Roger gains a new lease on life and offers to start a romantic affair with Laurel.
- The Reveal: The being that Laurel demands Roger keep out of her room turns out to be the spirit of her husband, and Roger is supposed to let him in so he can tell Laurel to break out of her funk and live the years she has left.
- Voice of the Legion: Laurel has one in the dream, as part of its otherworldly nature.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Roger burns his hand on one of the many candles in Laurel's room after he enters her dream, causing him to wake up. He immediately realizes that the experience was real when he finds that he has a large burn mark on his hand.
"Mr. Roger Simpson Leeds, lately returned from a journey into shadow, who found that there is no darkness so complete that it cannot be penetrated by the human heart, or — the Twilight Zone."
