# Sherlock, Jr. (1924)

### reviewed by
Brian Koller

    Sherlock, Jr. (1924)

    Grade: 73

"Sherlock, Jr." is one of the most famous of all silent films. It is a comedy, and is filled with many excellent stunts and gags.

Buster Keaton plays an everyman who has a dreary job running a film projector, but dreams of becoming a detective. He courts a pretty girl at her father's house, but has competition: a much bigger man who is also a criminal. The rival steals the father's pocket watch and frames Keaton. Keaton has lost his girlfriend unfairly.

At the theatre, Keaton falls asleep during a film he is showing. In a dream, he sees himself joining the movie's plot. Here, Keaton plays the great detective Sherlock Jr. His rival plots to kill Keaton so that he can continue stealing from others. This all leads to several incredible stunts, usually involving moving vehicles and intricate timing ordinarily found only in cartoons.

Keaton performs these stunts himself. Legend has it that years after the most famous stunt from this film (Keaton jumps from a moving train, grabs a watertower's drainage pipe, turning in downwards, thus dousing himself, leading to a nasty fall) Keaton went to a doctor for a checkup, and the doctor asked him "When did you break your neck?"

"Sherlock, Jr." is considered to be one of the best silent films. I assume that this is because of the stunts. However, these stunts only take up a few minutes (in total) of the film, and cannot have a major impact on its grade.

There is much to like about the film. There is genuine dramatic tension when Keaton is playing pool, surrounded by bad guys who are attempting to kill him. It is also easy to identify with Keaton, who dreams of a better life and courts his girlfriend with such innocence.

http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html

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