Review of Sherlock Jr. (1924) by Kevin P — 25 Aug 2007

One of my favorite Buster Keaton films. Keaton always was the better director over Chaplin and Sherlock Jr. shows how. The story is a mere 45 minutes or so, but features as much ambition and thought into the comic scenes as any longer work by either Chaplin or anyt other.

Chaplin loved to allow a scene to linger to keep the laughs going, but that idea of storytelling has faded with a preference for shorter scenes and focused laughs. It is also generally hard to keep a story on track when one simple scene can take over eight minutes.

Keaton, later on with Steamboat Bill Jr., would test the endurance of every scene by playing it out too long, but in Sherlock Jr. he is very sane and masterful with the quick scenes and firery storytelling.

Sherlock Jr. isn't a short film. Academy standards say a feature length has to be forty five minutes. No one does that anymore. That's a shame.