Silent movies - Sherlock Jr.

When I introduced my silent movie project, I told you that I grew up with them - again, re-runs, I'm not that old.
What I seem to remember best from those times are the comedies. Laurel and Hardy (shorts), Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, and of course Buster Keaton.

For today I chose a Buster Keaton film that's not feature-length, but I couldn't remember having heard of it before and it sounded like fun.
It's "Sherlock Jr." from 1924 about a projectionist dreaming of becoming a detective and winning the love of his girl.

The movie starts by introducing the main characters - "The Boy" who studies "How To Be A Detective" from a book, his boss telling him to do his job instead, "The Girl", "The Girl's Father" who "had nothing to do so he got a hired man to help him" (love it!), and "The Local Sheik" (the name is a reference to another movie) who's also interested in the Girl.
The Boy wants to buy the Girl, who obviously comes from a wealthier family, a big box of chocolates, but he doesn't have enough money. So finally he gets her the small box, but changes the sticker from $1 to $4 and casually makes her see the price to impress her. Then he puts a ring with a tiny stone on her finger for which she needs the magnifying glass the Boy has on him. You can tell she really likes him because despite being disappointed, she's hiding that from him.
Meanwhile the Sheik has entered the house. Since he too doesn't have money, but wants to trump the Boy, he takes the Father's pocket watch from the waistcoat hanging on the wardrobe to pawn it and buy the big box of chocolates.
When he gives it to the Girl, the Father comes in to tell about his watch having been stolen. Our wannabe detective says he'll take the case and turns to his book. The Sheik sees that the first rule is to search everyone and slips the pawn ticket into the Boy's pocket.
When the Father searches the Boy, he finds the ticket for $4, so having changed the sticker backfires, the Father tells him he has to leave and the Girl gives back the ring. You can see, however, that they are both very distraught about it.

The Boy suspects the Sheik and shadows him without any success, so he heads back to the movie theater.
The Girl, however, goes to the pawn shop to ask for a description of the man bringing in the watch. Just then the Sheik happens to pass by and the pawnbroker recognizes him to be the one which the Girl then tells her father.

Meanwhile, the Boy has started the movie and falls asleep.
His dream self gets up and sees that the characters in the movie have changed to those in his life, so he enters the screen.

After getting thrown out again at first and then going through a number of different scenes, he - "the crime-crushing criminologist" named Sherlock Jr. - is called because a pearl necklace is stolen by the movie Sheik and his associate. He looks very dapper in his elegant outfit completely with top-hat and spats and has a very close look at the beautiful socialite in the house.

The thieves try everything to save themselves and kill the detective, but he escapes all their attempts very nonchalantly ...

He follows the Sheik, accompanied by his assistant, and finally manages to retrieve the necklace and jump on the assistant's motorcycle who unfortunately falls off without Sherlock Jr. noticing.
Next up is an incredible chase with the car full of gangsters going after the detective on the driverless motorcycle who rides from one danger into the next.
One of the gangsters has the young lady in his power, but Sherlock Jr. manages to save her and they escape in the gangsters' car.
At that point the Boy wakes up again and finds it was all just a dream, but then the Girl turns up to tell him they found out about him being innocent. So he takes clues from the final scene of the movie, holds her hands, kisses them, puts the ring back on her finger, and kisses her. Only the final image of the couple on the screen and their two babies confuses him visibly.

After first screenings didn't go well enough for him, Keaton made several cuts to "Sherlock Jr.", but the film still received mixed reviews for not being regarded funny.
Therefore Keaton himself did not see this movie as one of his good ones, but over time people began to praise it as a masterpiece.
There is theater magic, movie magic, incredible stunts, and a lot of practice in this. You can find a making of video here which explains quite a bit and it's utterly fascinating.
Two of my favorite scenes are
- the part where the gangsters try to kill Sherlock Jr., for example with a bomb in a billiard ball - he had practiced those trick shots
- the gangsters chasing Sherlock Jr. on the motorcycle, it's absolutely incredible - despite a bit of trickery being used, he actually practiced riding the motorcyle like this, how crazy is that?

I honestly can't remember ever having watched a complete Buster Keaton film, it must all have been snippets in the compilation shows of my childhood.
Of course I was aware that he mostly did his own stunts and that many were death-defying, but I don't think I ever really got the chance to grasp that fully until now.
There's this stunt for example during which the water pressure made Keaton lose his grip and hit his head on a steel rail. Despite heavy headaches, he kept on filming and only years later it was found out during a doctor's appointment that he had actually broken his neck!
And I can't get up from my bed without moaning 🤪

Of course I knew him only stone-faced, but I never knew to appreciate the effect that could have on scenes that would usually ask for big emotion.
I didn't only gasp at the stunts, though, but also loved how he showed the relationship between two people who seem to come from different worlds, but are still so sweet with each other. I guess I'm a sucker for heartwarming at the moment.

There may not be much of a plot - Keaton said he wanted it to feel like a dream, and you can tell it's made by someone who loved the medium film - but remember that this isn't feature-length. If I have learned something from these 44 minutes it's that I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Selected sources:
1. Kieran Judge: 'Sherlock Jr.' at 100 - Review. On: The Film Magazine, April 21, 2024
2. Jeffrey Vance: "Sherlock Jr." (1924). On: Library of Congress - Programs - National Film Preservation Board, October 2024
3. David A. Punch: Sherlock Jr: Keaton's Cinematic Genius. On: The Twin Geeks, September 2, 2019
4. Chris Scott Edwards: Sherlock, Jr. (1924). On: Silent Volume, July 5, 2009
5. David Johansson: Sherlock Jr. On: San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Winter Event 2009.