When I went through the AFI 100 list last year, I was pleasantly surprised to learn I enjoyed the work of Charlie Chaplin. I hadn’t really been exposed to the man’s work before and really dug it. I actually wondered why he disappeared since the movies I saw showed me he had a strong speaking voice too. Then I found out it was for his personal politics bothering too many people. That was both mildly depressing and completely unsurprising.
At any rate, why not give another classic comedian of the silent era a shot? With that in mind, I found Buster Keaton’s 1924 comedy Sherlock Jr on Hulu under Turner Classic Movies.
Sherlock Jr is, as told, two different stories. The first is how a poor, lowly projectionist attempts to woo the daughter of a well-off man while trying to learn how to be a detective. The second is the adventure of the title character in a movie-within-a-dream sequence. Both are played by the deadpan Keaton.
“Deadpan” is the best way to describe Buster Keaton. So named by, of all people, Harry Houdini, Buster Keaton basically keeps the same somewhat bored and stone-faced look no matter what’s happening around him. Keaton was also an early pioneer in using test audiences to know how much to trim his movies to produce maximum laughs, and he did all his own stunts. He actually broke his neck without realizing it while filming this movie in a stunt involving using a spout off a water tower to get off a moving train. And I learned that because TCM includes an introduction and conclusion from a host or two to give out some basic trivia about the movie. I can somewhat see why TCM needed it since by itself Sherlock Jr only runs about 45 minutes long.
But what about the actual movie? Well, Keaton is quite funny, and he can do the physical comedy and miming a silent film comedian needed to do in order to get the right amount of laughs. He lacks the general expressiveness of Chaplin, whose fluidity of movement seems far superior to Keaton’s own, but what Keaton lacks in movement he makes up for in content. Sherlock Jr has a somewhat high concept at its center.
After a rival for his girl’s hand steals her father’s watch and places the pawn slip into Keaton’s pocket, Keaton seems to be banished from the house. He’s probably lucky he wasn’t arrested, but there you go. Once back at his projectionist job, he falls asleep during some kind of romantic potboiler of a movie only to dream himself into some kind of an out-of-body experience. From there, he somehow steps into the movie. That leads to the movie-within-the-dream being recast with characters from the first part. Keaton is now Sherlock Jr, world’s greatest detective. His love interest is a victim of a theft, and her father is the character’s now much-wealthier father. His rival is again the thief, this time of a string of pearls. And this time, rather than frame him, the thief and a partner set out to violently murder Sherlock Jr with a variety of booby traps, most notably an exploding billiards ball.
I had fun with this one, though as I noted, Keaton isn’t quite on par with Chaplain. As expected, the projectionist is cleared, though in this case the girl cracks the case on her own by simply checking in with the pawn shop. Keaton gets the girl, and I get a few solid laughs. I’d say that’s a good deal.
Grade: B
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