21: Sherlock, Jr

USA  44m  Dir: Buster Keaton

Original Screenplay

I've seen quite a few silent comedies and on the whole they have a very simple premise of a character who gets into various scrapes in various scenarios. I was surprised then to find that Sherlock, Jr is more sophisticated in terms of story. 

It opens with Buster Keaton as a young projectionist who dreams of becoming a detective. He works hard to scrape together the money for an expensive gift but in the end is forced to buy a cheaper one. He hands the gift to his would-be-lover but then a rival for her affection arrives with a better gift. We see that the rival has stolen a watch and pawned it to afford the gift and then frames our young hero who is made to leave and never return. 

It's entertaining enough but the film really gets going when the projectionist returns to the cinema and falls asleep as he plays a film. In a moment of stunning visual effects for a film made in 1924, a corporeal version of the character steps out of his sleeping body and into the cinema screen. At first there's a series of fantastic sight gags where the background changes but Keaton remains in place meaning the character finds himself in amidst roaring seas, snowdrifts and even lions. 

Then the projectionist enters the film properly and we get a film within a film. In this a brilliant detective who looks suspiciously like the projectionist pursues a pearl thief who looks suspiciously like his love rival. We then get scene after scene of breath-takingly well rehearsed and choreographed visual comedy. There's a scene where the detective plays pool and amusingly avoids one ball which is secretly explosive by performing incredible trick shots- all of which were really performed by Keaton who took four months to learn them. There's also an incredible scene where Keaton is atop the handlebars of a motorcycle which with no driver and he narrowly passes in front of traffic and a train in scenes that were filmed in reverse. 

It feels like Keaton launched everything at this film from clever ways to perform dangerous stunts to incredible visual effects. What's even more impressive is the fact that it works in a unique and strong plot and is genuinely still stands up as being really funny. 

Silent films are not seen too often these days by the general population but they should be because this is genuinely one of the best films I've ever seen. Forty-four minutes of utter joy.