RSS
Home
Back to Basics - Sherlock Jr.
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Back to Basics is my effort to remedy the numerous film classics from through out the world that for whatever reason I have always managed to skip, miss or just have escaped my radar.
With all of the love being heaped upon Wall-E this year, it is important to remember how much classic silent cinema had an effect on the picture. The works of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd in particular, whose ability to tell vast, comedic, action packed tales without words, have their fingerprints all over the opening 30 minutes of that lovable robots adventure. That in mind, I ventured back to 1924 to finally watch Keaton’s second best known work, behind The General, and took in Sherlock Jr.
The best word to describe Keaton’s picture would undoubtedly be fun. The movie, a brisk 44 minutes, hits the ground running and is loaded with gags, some slow in build and others that zip by in the blink of an eye. Keaton plays the titular character, plus the quiet, sullen projectionist, who attempts to win the girl of his dreams with increasing trouble. Early on, the theater worker studies the art of crime solving, regularly brandishing a magnifying glass to prove his skills. He is then framed as a watch thief at his beloveds house, brought down by his insistence on adhering to the strict rules of his detective guide.
Keaton seeks out the truth, following sleuth rule number five, “Follow your man closely” literally. The actor’s physical comedy pops here, as Keaton follows inches behind his prime suspect, stalking him and mimicking every movement. He runs into stairwells, is nearly crushed and in a fantastic scenario is stuck atop a moving train, forced to jump off it at the last second, grabbing onto a water pipe, which flushes him onto the tracks. Keaton makes it all seem so natural yet quintessentially his own.
As the movie jumps forward, the film within a film Sherlock Jr. begins. Our projectionist unhappy with what’s being shown falls asleep, dreaming a ghosty form of himself that enters the movie forcefully. The camera tricks, directed by Keaton of course, amaze even now. While infiltrating the movie, our heroes environments flash to new ones, with Keaton standing in the road one second, a mountain's edge the next, even a lion’s den.
When the movie properly moves forward again, we meet the detective which has been hired to locate a set of pearls much to the chagrin of the thieves who seek to poison, cut in half or blow him up. Each plan wonderfully backfires. The title card then, quite proudly, states, “By the next day the master mind had completely solved the mystery - with the exception of locating the pearls of finding the thief.” Every scene clicks as a perfect short punch of laughs, while also building upon the last.
What concludes Sherlock Jr. is a massive chase like no other. Keaton’s stunt work flourishes, with his bipolar totally calm or entirely panicked mug set on his face. He flies from roofs, down poles and onto moving trucks, disappears by leaping through tie salesmen, rides unknowingly past speeding locomotives atop a motorbike with no driver. It all hits a note of absurdity that confidently begs for smiles.
Three people are credited with writing the movie but unquestionably its Keaton’s. His wide eyes telling the tale, a charmingly naive protagonist who remains ever vigilant. By the time he spryly spies at the screen for tips on how to woo his would be love, the only downside I could find with Sherlock Jr. was that it was over too soon.
Related Articles:
Comments
