Then burgeoning young Spanish assistant director Luis Buñuel (“The Fall of the House of Usher” & “Siren of the Tropics”) teamed with Spanish Catalan surrealist painter Salvador Dalí for their debut which remains one of the best-known surrealist films of the avant-garde movement of the 1920s and was voted by “Premiere” as one of “The 25 Most Dangerous Movies”..

The film’s dream inspired opening scene, ranked by “Premiere” at number 10 in “The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History”, gives way to a barrage of surrealist imagery involving featured performers Simone Mareuil and Pierre Batcheff dealing with dead donkeys, handfuls of ants, a death’s head moth and cameos from Buñuel and Dalí.

The filmmakers were prompted by striking dreams to engage in Freudian free association of this imagery in which “no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted” for film which was doubtlessly revolutionary for its time but has since been reduced to little more than a curiosity piece.

“Once upon a time…”