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Sherlock Jr. (1924)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
21 April 1924 (USA) morePlot:
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch. full summary | full synopsisPlot Keywords:
moreAwards:
1 win moreNewsDesk:
On DVD: The Minoru Kawasaki Collection, "The General"(From IFC. 18 November 2008, 7:26 AM, PST)
User Comments:
marvellous and inventive moreCast
(Complete credited cast)| Buster Keaton | ... | Sherlock, Jr. / Projectionist | |
| Kathryn McGuire | ... | The girl | |
| Joe Keaton | ... | Her father | |
| Erwin Connelly | ... | The butler / handyman | |
| Ward Crane | ... | The sheik / villain |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
45 minCountry:
USALanguage:
NoneColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 moreSound Mix:
SilentFilming Locations:
Larchmont Blvd. near Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USAFun Stuff
Trivia:
For the sequence in which Buster Keaton's "dream-self" enters the "movie within a movie," Keaton employed the power of suggestion. He shot an actual movie featuring Ward Crane and Kathryn McGuire in a living room setting. As the sequence begins, the movie is playing on the theater movie screen. The film cuts back and forth between Buster sleeping in the projection booth, and his "dream-self" climbing on stage as the movie is showing. In the scene where Buster's "dream-self" steps through the movie screen and into the movie, the living room setting was re-created on the theater stage, and a large hole was cut in the movie screen for Keaton to step through. The actors were placed in the living room setting, creating the illusion that Buster stepped inside the movie screen to join them. moreGoofs:
Miscellaneous: As Buster falls asleep, the film begins unspooling onto the floor. When Buster wakes up, if nobody fixed it, there should be a large pile of film on the floor. And if someone fixed it, why didn't they wake him up? moreQuotes:
The sheik: We are lost! He is sending for the world's greatest detective - Sherlock Jr.! moreFAQ
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This Keaton classic is both funny and extremely clever in its construction. Our hero is a cleaner but dreams of becoming a detective, always with his nose buried in a book on the subject.
The first third of the film is much like any other comedy. There are lost dollar bills, things sticking to other things, something stolen, mistaken identities. Our heroine is introduced in a charming scene where they seem terrified to hold hands. Her father is played by Buster's father Joe Keaton, who would appear in many of his son's films.
There's a mustachioed cad with slick hair and a sharp suit who is after the girl, a cartoon baddie who the audience instinctively knows deserves a hiss and not a cheer.
It is in Junior's other job as a cinema projectionist that the film comes alive. We are watching the film he has set up and then, suddenly, he is part of the action. In a sequence of great inventiveness, we see the film within a film changing scenes and watch with delight as the character adapts to each situation and surrounding.
Sherlock Jr is very funny but is also unusual and, in comparison with other comedies of the period, ahead of its time. It includes some excellent stunts that are the equal of anything done by Harold Lloyd in the same period, and, although it has a very short running time, manages to develop a good storyline throughout.
Justly feted as a masterpiece of silent comedy, Sherlock Jr represented one of the peaks of Buster Keaton's cinematic career. It is a film worth watching and has stood up well today.