A one man show for Keaton. He had honed his blank, Great Stoneface persona in a porkpie hat over years in vaudeville and in dozens of comedy shorts dating back to 1917, and by Sherlock Jr. he was at his peak. Buster plays a projectionist who aspires to be a detective. Unfortunately he is fitted up by his rival for his girl to appear the thief of her father's pocket watch.
Buster falls asleep showing a film about a jewel thief and dreams that he enters the screen and solves the crime. As it is a dream, the events become increasingly surreal. Other silent comics used incongruous back projection, but Keaton's (and his writers') imagination make it just that little bit more special with Buster also let loose in the film, destroying its realism.
But it is more than just a great idea. Keaton was also an extraordinary physical comedian, and the film is dense with amazing acrobatics, often of complicated, cerebral set ups. And so he stands on a huge water-pipe as it swings across the road and deposits Buster in the passenger seat of a getaway car.
The contrast between Keaton's deadpan exterior and his bizarre experiences is the key to his comedy. It is hard to watch Keaton's extravagant, show-stopping stunts and not be overwhelmed by his ambition and his craft. For me he is the most enterprising and gifted of all the twenties comedians and Sherlock Jr. is his greatest work, one of the best silent films ever made.
Despite a thin plot, this silent movie packs a punch nearly 100 years later with wall-to-wall shocking stunts.