Scott: I’ll fourth everyone on the CFO score for Sherlock, Jr. It’s atrocious and so distracting that I actually muted the sound completely at one point out of frustration. And come back tomorrow for Matthew Dessem’s look at the sad history of Keaton’s co-writer, Clyde Bruckman. Connections Sherlock Jr is very funny but is also unusual and, in comparison with other comedies of the period, ahead of its time. Further up, in 1923’s Three Ages—the first film Keaton wrote, directed, and starred in—he performs an authentically terrifying stunt that gives acrophobic viewers instant chills.Just above, from the following year’s Sherlock Jr., we see a similarly heart-racing feat as Keaton clutches a roadblock gate and falls two stories into a speeding car. (It’s one who boasts about picking up distant signals using the then-new technology of short-wave radio.) Sherlock Jr. saw the fearless star hop across the carriages of a moving train which was rushing past a water spout. That company has done much to burnish Keaton’s reputation over the years.) A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch. It’s a simple gag, but the closeness with which Keaton pursues his prey and the meticulous way he mirrors his body language are both hilarious and virtuosic. It was a truly shocking realization, yet Keaton may have been thankful that worse had not occurred. These are films made closer to the Victorian era than our own, but they also offer proof that the history of film hasn’t been a steady march forward, as nobody has topped what Keaton and other silent comics did with visual gags. To me, it’s a return to and an extension of the work of Georges Méliès, who was an illusionist in real life and made films that reflected his mastery of misdirection. In fact he soldiered on for another decade or so before a trip to the doctors brought a diagnosis many years in the making. He is sending for the world's greatest detective - Sherlock Jr.! The man had an aura of sadness, regardless of the context—and that includes the Beach Party movies he appeared in in the 1960s, which were my first exposure to him. Keaton started in vaudeville but found insane success in movies. In the last analysis, nobody came near him…I wish I’d known him better than I did. Sometimes balls even return to the table. Nathan: I share your frustration with the CFO score, which nudges hard in the ribs when it should sit back and let Sherlock, Jr. and Keaton do the heavy lifting. We’ll talk next about the big walking-into-the-movies montage sequence, but that’s not the only place where Sherlock, Jr. plays with the idea of movie-life and real-life bleeding together, and it revisits that idea with this sweet final scene. His main areas of interest are history, particularly military history, literature and film. But the whole experience made me think about how much we’re missing when we watch and try to appreciate silent movies today. It's 100+ pages on what you need to know to make beautiful, inexpensive movies using a DSLR. Again, in the Keaton style, the camera stares dead ahead at the screen and the comedy is largely dead-center of the frame, with Keaton the stationary (or would-be stationary) figure in a flurry of dramatic action. The mark, for my money, of a great stunt is the ability to tell that someone is really doing the amazing, dangerous, foolhardy thing they appear to be doing on screen. Joseph A. Mitchell (story), It’s an all-time great giallo, full of lurid colors and phantasmagoric prog rock, but in its centerpiece scene, all of that fades away and you come face-to-face with a video documentary about a man, dressed as a zombie, fighting an actual fucking shark. On the way down however he hit his neck on the rail. But it also offers a strange, post-modern-before-it-had-a-name exploration of movies, viewers, and the relationship between the two. Do those external factors—the ones that Keaton had no control over—bother any of the rest of you? (How did he jump through his friend’s chest?) “He was also a superb director. Entertainment Weekly called him the 6th greatest director of all time and funnily enough, the rise of TV meant that people found Keaton in the 1950s. That being said, it’s worth sparing a thought for the pioneers of motion pictures, who performed jaw-dropping feats that could have got them killed long before the introduction of health and safety standards. Like you, I kind of hate that CFO score. Noel: To me, the key to understanding Keaton is to recognize that he never seemed to have as much of a grand plan as Chaplin. So did Chaplin’s, but Keaton never tries to pull on the heartstrings for empathy. And that’s the other way to watch Keaton: His films are hilarious, packed with one remarkable gag after another, from setpieces executed on a mammoth scale to little bits of character work. Although audience members gasped at some of the special effects, there were very few laughs, and Keaton began re-editing the film to make it funnier. How to Write a Screenplay During Quarantine [FREE 100-page eBook], You Can Now Rent an Entire AMC Theater for Only $99, Hollywood Has a Bullying Problem (And It's Real Bad). © 2020 Pitchfork Media Inc. All rights reserved. For an enhanced browsing experience, get the IMDb app on your smartphone or tablet. A modern example would be. As the onscreen evidence shows, he completed the move. | When Sherlock Jr., escaping gangsters, leaps headfirst through the body of his assistant, Gillette (who is disguised as an old lady selling neckties) and disappears, Following his "entrance" into the "movie within a movie," the scenery changes around, Sherlock Jr.'s assistant, Gillette, is named after, A title card in the film-within-the-film "Hearts and Pearls", during which. However, the second preview screening was more disappointing than the first, and Keaton continued cutting the film down to a very short 5-reel film. Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. Check out some of his best stunts with his audio commentary below. For arguably his most famous stunt, the front of a house fell on top of him in 1928’s Steamboat Bill, Jr. Whilst still suffering from a neck fracture he didn’t know about, Keaton hit a certain mark so he’d remain unsquashed by the heavy facade. MovieWeb But in the movie, this seems like an actual business: an outdoor facility designed for men to come and hang out together. Quotes Clyde Bruckman (story), Netflix Developing New Sherlock Holmes Spinoff Sherlock Junior, Ernie Orsatti Dies: Famed Stuntman With Memorable Fall In ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ Was 80. The iconic, multitalented filmmaker, who became an outright star in the 1920s, performed countless daring feats throughout his career, namely the motorcycle stunts in Sherlock Jr., the falling house stunt in Steamboat Bill Jr., and who could forget The General, which features a dejected Buster sitting on the crankshaft of a train as it pulls out of the station? That the loose-limbed performer hadn’t noticed was a testament to both his strength of will and his recklessness. The storyline itself is rather preposterous but it seems petty to complain of such a thing when the movie keeps you happily entertained from beginning to end. One of my favorite sequences in Sherlock, Jr. is the bit with the train and the water pipe—a stunt that actually fractured Keaton’s neck. Joseph Frank Keaton, known professionally as Buster Keaton, was an American actor, comedian, film director, producer, screenwriter, and stunt performer. Keaton (real name Joseph Frank Keaton IV) possessed a famously high pain threshold, which was just as well considering his line of work. Still with Bartine Burkett and Buster Keaton in the American film The High Sign (1921). (How did he jump through his friend’s chest?) I think part of the beauty of the scene is that it sweeps us along dreamily, just as it does the protagonist. It’s funny and a testament to the varied pleasures that movies have to offer. It’s when the escaping surfer bank robbers, led by Patrick Swayze, skydive out of a plane, leaving behind a parachute-less FBI agent, Utah (Keanu Reeves). His work on films like Sherlock Jr. and The General are among some of the most unique and wonderful performances. Keith: There are two ways to watch Buster Keaton movies, and they overlap and complement each other. With Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Erwin Connelly. Buster Keaton and Ernest Torrence in Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) – cropped screenshot. His impassive features gave him the nickname “The Great Stone Face.” Adding to his mystique was a background on the vaudeville stage with all its tricks and sleight of hand.