Probably one of the Segundo de Chomon's more popular efforts, "Ah! Beard" or "A Funny Shave" is a pretty comedic little film which uses both simple effects and overdone comedy to make an interesting short that for the time was quite innovative. This is one of the director's earlier films made to take away his rival's, french filmmaker Georges Méliès, market--and it's a pretty good attempt.
A man, when trying to shave, finds the shaving cream to his taste and eats some of it. This causes him to experience some weird hallucinations in the mirror--like freakish faces--and he's so scared at one point he smashes the mirror. There are quite a few interesting points to be made about this. First of all, the single viewpoint it is filmed from is quite close to the actor, which makes for a medium closeup, something somewhat rare for the time. Secondly, the actor here breaks the fourth wall quite a bit, and is rather humorous in his interactions with the viewer. Audiences in 1905 must have really laughed. Third of all, the effects (which are simplistic enough) actually tell a story that is entertaining and original, unlike what Méliès was doing at the time. Truly a step up in filmmaking and very unique for the year it was made.
One of the interesting details in the film that some people might miss is the Pathé Frères cock, which is engraved into the set at the edge of the mirror. This was done entirely for copyrighting reasons, since most film companies back in the day were used to people stealing copies of their films and releasing them to take credit for their making. Hence, to prevent this, they would hide their company's in the film to prove it was theirs--so if anyone took credit for it, they could sue them. Film company logos like this can be glimpsed in many films from the silent era, and it's interesting whenever you spot one.
The effects, of course, are obvious. When comparing the mirror with the faces in it versus the mirror reflecting the man, it's easy to see that they just substituted the actual mirror with a piece of cloth so the heads could be puppeteered through a hole from the other side of the set. The cuts themselves are seamless, and work well in achieving their goal: it's nice to see a film that doesn't try to show off its effects but using them as part of a narrative. Definite proof that even in his early years Chomón was capable of making something original. He would unfortunately fail to realize his potential for a few years yet until he began experimentation with stop-motion animation, however.