Sherlock, Jr.

How funny that during 1924's SHERLOCK JR.'s mere forty five minute running time I was reminded of Woody Allen, Luis Bunuel, and James Bond films.  Among many others.  Each frame of Buster Keaton's masterwork has been imitated, stolen, co-opted, you name it.  But you know what they say about great artists.  And the astonishingly limber Keaton was one of the originals of comedy cinema.  He never really gets too silly, unlike many of his descendants.  There are near breathtaking chases across bridges with gaps filled by two passing trucks at just the right moment.  A man who shadows another down to the millimeter.  Deft billiard tricks.  I could go on and on.  Oh, there is a banana peel.

Keaton plays a hapless film projectionist/janitor who dreams of being a detective, and is smitten with a certain young woman.  He tries to woo the object of his affection with a box of chocolates, but his rival (looking suspiciously like Charlie Chaplin) buys a more expensive one.   The other guy's a thief, having lifted the girl's father's pocket watch and pawning it for enough to buy the chocolate.  He frames our hero for the crime, who then finds himself banished from the girl's home.  He sets out to solve this dilemma.  The girl does her own detecting.....

Most of the rest of SHERLOCK JR. features a film within a film, a mystery about a stolen necklace that our guy dreams he is the star of while asleep by the projector.  At first, the actors in the film try to boot him out! But eventually our Sherlock goes on a wild mission to foil the criminal and his gang.  The projectionist wakes up and finds his real life happy ending.

SHERLOCK JR. is regarding as Keaton's finest hour and it's hard to argue.  There isn't a wasted second.  This is a brilliant and creative piece of silent history.  The gags (and stunts) grow increasingly complex as the film progresses, but never overwhelming the film's heart.  It can be called surreal, and much of it may be some sort of commentary on cinematic escapism.  THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO certainly owes a debt, but so does THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS.