As part of his SHERLOCK HOLMES WEEKEND, Gary Dobbs has done me the honor of posting a piece I wrote on the 1924 Buster Keaton film
Sherlock, Jr. You can find it
right here. The good news for
you is, you don't even have to read it - you can just click PLAY and watch the entire 45-minute masterpiece right there on the ARCHIVE. Check it out, and enjoy the amazing array of Sherlockiana Gary will be presenting all weekend.
One of my favorite flicks. I must post a link to this gem once a year on my site (http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/2008/07/silent-night-at-movies-sherlock-jr-1924.html). Easily, in the top ten of the greatest comedy films ever.
ReplyDeleteSHERLOCK JR. - One of the greatest of Keaton's works, and over-shadowed as ever, by the work of Chaplin. To any Sherlock Holmes fans out there, I have recently re-issued my novel, THE PANDORA PLAGUE, (http://www.pandoraplague.com/) which tells the tale of the first association (pre-dates the Daniel Stashower book publication) of Holmes and magician, Harry Houdini. It is enlarged and annotated. Check it out!
ReplyDeleteHi, first post here. Evan, your review is right on target (has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes, the movie really takes off about 14 minutes into the movie, etc.). Keaton is my favorite silent comedians (W.C. Fields my favorite sound comedian), and I think Sherlock Jr. is his funniest feature (although it's really more like a featurette, clocking in at 45 minutes). Funnier than the movie usually acknowledged as his masterpiece, The General. If anyone loved this movie, I'd also recommend The Navigator, Go West, The General, and Our Hospitality (another one of his films that doesn't really come to life until about ten minutes into the movie).
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys. I'm now definitely a Keaton fan. This film came on a DVD with 'Our Hospitality', a longer feature. While far less crazy, it too has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. I'll be looking for more.
ReplyDeleteRittster - I like your "About Me" line. Reminds me of the lyric in a Paul DeLay song. "I don't like girls who like guys like me anyway."
ReplyDeleteEvan, thanks for the compliment. Though to be honest, I ripped it off from Woody Allen, who ripped it off from Groucho Marx, who ripped it off from Sigmund Freud. Or so Woody says at the beginning of ANNIE HALL. And it's probably been modified and used by a ton of other people anyway, as you reference in your post about DeLay.
ReplyDeleteIn short, it fit the context, so I used it.