Sherlock, Jr.

(1924) dir. Buster Keaton
viewed: 05/04/06

I watched Buster Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr. as part of the 19th Century Mystery literature class that I have been taking. I am ashamed to say that I’d never seen it before and frankly haven’t seen enough Buster Keaton as I should. I mean, it’s great stuff. Totally, utterly great stuff.

We watched it as part of the evolution of the tropes of the mystery evolved into early cinema, how Keaton lampooned aspects of genre. The film is often most noted for its self-reflexivity, the cinema projectionist and his entry into the film, its play with film genres in general, as well as many of its technical stunts.

It’s an amazing film. The best scenes in my mind were when Keaton leaps through a window into a dress and is instantly changed into “disguise” as a woman, which is shortly after followed by a leap into a sidewalk salesman’s attache case that he is holding up and magically disappearing as if he had leapt “through” the man. The visual technique and the stunts are fast and wholly stunning, even 80 years later.

Having watched Sherlock, Jr. and the week previous segments of Louis Feuillade’s Les Vampires (1915), I am eager to watch more silent films, particularly more by Keaton. One really cannot say enough about this brilliant stuff.