“Sherlock Jr” (1924) 45min
Directed by Buster Keaton, Written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell, Produced by Joseph M. Schenck and Buster Keaton, Cinematography by Byron Houck and Elgin Lassley, Edited by Buster Keaton, Starring Buster Keaton and Kathryn McGuire.
Buster is a movie theatre projectionist and janitor. When the cinema is empty, he reads the book “How to Be a Detective”. He is in love with a woman. However, he has a love rival, and both men have little money. When the love rival commits a crime to fund a gift for his beloved and frames the projectionist! our scrappy hero must use his newfound detective skills to prove his innocence and win back his love.
This film is brilliant verging on genius. Keaton blends solid comedy, skilful slapstick and a true mastery of the motion picture form as it was in 1924.
There is a great “bit” when he finds a dollar bill in his sweepings then a lady appears and starts looking for something so Buster asks her what she is looking for and she tells him she has lost a dollar. He tells her he found one and then asks her to “Describe it” so he knows it's her one. She indicates the size and says it has an eagle on one side… he looks at the bill and hands it over disappointed. I found that really funny. It’s definitely better to see it than read my lame description. Don’t let that put you off!
There is even a slapstick gag featuring a banana peel!
Stunt-wise this film has the Railroad water tower sequence that actually broke Keaton's neck but he was too hardcore to notice and there is an iconic sequence with Buster riding on the handlebars of a police motorcycle.
The motorcycle sequence also gives us an amazing look at Hollywood in the early 20’s its pretty wild seeing so much…land and less Hollywood (hope someone gets that gag)
The crowning glory of this 1924 (5 reeler) is when it almost goes meta.
Keaton as the projectionist is showing a movie called "Hearts and Pearls" he falls asleep then we see him step out of his body like a ghost walk through the auditorium and walk into the movie on the screen. Then there is a sequence where it is like the film is broken and he jumps around through different wacky and dangerous locations this sequence showcases Keaton's imagination and his mastery in the editing room.
Looking at film editing In 1902 Georges Melies in France was using film processing techniques and radical editing to create special effects in his short films then in America in 1903 you get “The Great Train Robbery” where twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations. He used a cross-cutting editing method to show simultaneous action in different places and that’s where American filmmaking stayed for a while.
Keaton embraced a brand new machine invented for editing film called a “MOVIOLA” This was the first machine that let the editor view the film while editing and instantly check their edits leading to a revolution in editing. These machines became available in 1924 the same year “Sherlock Jr” was made and Keaton was instantly using this newfound precision in editing to construct a unique and imaginative comedic sequence. Keaton adopting this technology to instantly elevate his work reminds me of a scene in the Hitchcock film “Murder!” (1930) which was one of his first films with sound. While some filmmakers at the time in England were struggling to adapt to the new technology, Hitch used sound as a device to ramp up suspense. We see a young woman but we hear an older woman talking out of frame her voice is muffled as she talks about a news story but we only hear the word “Murder” clearly and it repeats and becomes more frequent as the young woman becomes more rattled and emotional.
Sorry bit of a tangent there!
While our protagonist the projectionist is asleep and is dreaming that he has entered the film being shown in the cinema in the film we are watching… it becomes a mystery thriller where our projectionist is now the suave and debonair master detective Sherlock Jr arriving at a manor house to solve a theft. The guilty parties in the house attempt to kill the detective because they know since he is on the case it's only a matter of time until they are caught and unleash a series of harebrained schemes to dispatch the great detective but are foiled by Sherlock. Our hero wakes up and as you can imagine things work out for our guy.
This film is a lot of fun and even if you are not used to watching silent films I think this is a great one to start with. It has a modest run time of 45min and is genuinely funny.
It is available to watch for free on the Freevee streaming service.
