Robs takes on Media and Entertainment: Sherlock Jr (1924)

I went down the rabbit trail of silent era comedies this week. This church is held up by the three pillars of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd (Their characters I have respectively titled as the Hapless, the Scamp, and the Buffon). Having watched several different works of art from these three, I think they should be considered required viewing and study for film making, stunt design, and comedy writing.

I think calling Keaton “hapless” is close - but not quite on the nose. He has an insane amount of luck, but just not when it comes to getting ahead in life. Chaplin's character is a homeless tramp, but he is more of a hilarious mischievous small-time criminal. And Lloyd, whether playing ‘Luckless Luke’ or ‘Harold’ with glasses has a graduate degree in clowning. They are all supreme stunt coordinators and performers.

I tried to make a critical comparison of the three, but I just don’t have it in me. They are all different and each very good. Keaton was my favorite. I did find a Chaplin movie called “One A.M” (1916) in which he plays a different persona than the Tramp. I believe he titled that character “the Inebriate” - it is 25 minutes of a well-to-do Chaplin trying to make it upstairs to sleep it off. It is very funny.

I will make this declaration - “Sherlock Jr” (1924) may be a perfect movie.

Buster Keaton plays an employee at a movie theater who gets into a bit of conflict with a cad who is trying to steal his girl. In the end all is set right. From top to bottom, you are looking at a hilarious character, a series of “dialogue” jokes with double meanings and wickedly clever puns, stunts that would make the “Fast and Furious” or “Mission Impossible” teams have to think hard, and visual effects that are really astounding (even without remembering this is from 100 years ago). Keaton takes you on this ride and makes you laugh and gasp and shake your head in disbelief. There are scenes in here that left me surprised he ever walked again. He uses very few inter-titles. He has mastered 'show, don't tell'.

I highly recommend it.

List of movies I watched - I laughed out loud during every one of them:

"Sherlock Jr" (1924) - Keaton
"One A.M' (1916) - Chaplin
"Safety Last" (1923) - Lloyd
"Neighbors" (1920) - Keaton
"The Railrodder" (1965) - Keaton

thanks Shaun - this is his LAST silent film ... and while not as fun as his much earlier work, it was a good example. He made one more after this just before he died of lung cancer.