Sherlock Jr ***** (1924, Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton) – Classic Movie Review 5106

Director and star Buster Keaton’s 1924 film is an unassailable silent comedy classic from one of the greatest comedians of any era. The Great Stone Face plays a projectionist who dreams of detective success to win the hand of his love, The Girl (Kathryn McGuire), and uncover the cad who stole her father’s watch.

Pioneering a similar device to that taken up by Woody Allen in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Keaton plays the film projectionist who dreams of entering the screen to find fantasy and reality becoming strangely mixed. Imaginative editing sends Buster around the world, from African veldt to windswept snowbank and the pleasure of fantasy begins to lose its appeal. In his dreams, the meek and mild projectionist becomes the debonair and renowned detective Sherlock Jr, who takes on danger to solve the case of who framed him for the theft of The Girl’s father’s pocket watch.

Sherlock Jr is a unique and complex film, often surreal in its perspective, with fantasy becoming more real than reality. It is still startling it its modernity, resulting in enduring audience appeal. This is brilliant Buster at his best.

Also in the cast are Ward Crane (The Local Sheik / The Villain), Joe Keaton (The Girl’s Father / Man on Film Screen), Erwin Connolly (The Hired Man / The Butler), Horace Morgan, Jane Connelly, George Davis, John Patrick and Ruth Holley.

It is written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean C Havez and Joseph A Mitchell, shot by Elgin Lessley and Bryon Houck, and produced by Joseph M Schenck and Buster Keaton.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5106

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