![]() ![]() The collector and distributor Raymond Rohauer ended up with the ownership of all of Buster Keaton’s films, which was a good thing in the long run because Buster himself might have let them crumble into dust. With music scores by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Score Orchestra and Rodney Sauer the disc extra is a rare audio talk by Buster himself. Cohen’s Buster Keaton Collection series is up to Volume 4, with both shows featuring Italian restorations. Buster befriends a cow ( ! ) in Go West and conquers several sports in College. “Sherlock Jr.” is not only one of the best of these, but also a great gateway into that legendary silent film genre, the slapstick comedy.More Keaton is always a good thing - fans of The General and The Cameraman will find plenty to enjoy in these two classics. These films are not inaccessible, nor incomprehensible. ![]() Silent films represent some of the greatest works of cinema, and are regretfully neglected by most filmgoers today. ![]() It contains ground-breaking special effects: In one scene, after leaving his sleeping body, Buster walks into the film he is projecting - which is something Woody Allen did 60 years later in “Purple Rose of Cairo.” And Keaton’s intricately choreographed stunts, done with the crude technology of the time, were unparalleled before and have been since. One of the best and funniest comedies of all time, the film also grapples with questions about the nature of cinema - half of the action takes place in a film within the film within a dream, and this was 86 years before “Inception.”īy all accounts, “Sherlock Jr.” is way ahead of its time. Back in 1924, Buster Keaton was already challenging the conventions of film. He relied on nuance, transforming the smallest gestures into brilliant comedy.īut “Sherlock Jr.” transcends broad comedy. Keaton’s nickname was The Great Stone Face, because whatever befell him, he always retained his bemused expression. Every second is funny, which speaks to Keaton’s ability as both a filmmaker and performer. The film is saturated with gags, each one more hilarious than the last. More than anything, “Sherlock Jr.” is a funny paragon of slapstick comedy. In the raised stakes of the dream movie, Keaton must solve the crime and win The Girl, among a melee of hulking henchmen, high-speed car chases, incredible death-defying stunts and head-turning tricks. In this dream movie, which shares the plot and characters of his real-life conundrum but in a high-society setting, he is the suave, titular Sherlock Jr., “the best detective in the world.” The real fun begins when Keaton falls asleep in his projection booth and dreams himself into the film he is projecting. When a competing courter (Ward Crane) frames Keaton for stealing The Girl’s father’s watch, the aspiring detective decides to put his budding skills to the test. In this film, the object of that determination (as in nearly every slapstick comedy) is a beautiful ingénue, cleverly called The Girl.īut just when Keaton’s courting of The Girl is starting to go well, it all goes beautifully and hilariously wrong. The first scene shows him sitting in the back of the empty theater reading a book called “How to be a Detective.” As in all his movies, Keaton is a hapless, ingenuous but resourceful young man with high ideals and unflappable determination. “Sherlock Jr.” stars Keaton as a film projectionist who aspires to be a great detective. And in “Sherlock Jr.,” arguably his best film, Keaton is at the top of his game. Today, Keaton is remembered most for his amazing stunts, which he performed himself - he even sometimes did other actors’ stunts if they were too dangerous - but he was also one of the best directors of the silent era. Whereas many films of the time tended toward sentimentality, Keaton’s films were purely and unrelentingly funny. Of the great slapstick comedians, Buster Keaton was the funniest. One of the masters of this early film genre was Buster Keaton. The period’s reigning genre, the slapstick comedy - the best of which today are revered as high art - were originally enjoyed by every average Joe with a spare nickel. ![]()
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