A surrealistic silent detective story

For the milestone tenth year, Lea at Silent-ology is hosting the Buster Keaton Blogathon. You can click the image above to go to the full list of participants. This year, my topic is the magical 1924 film Sherlock, Jr. No matter how many times I see it, it always evokes such a surrealistic mood and pulls me right into this world blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.

Sherlock, Jr., originally called The Misfit, released 21 April 1924. Buster wanted his leading lady to be Marion Harlan, whom he’d previously worked with on Three Ages, but she took sick and was replaced by Kathryn McGuire, a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1923.

Another change was the co-director. Buster brought on his best friend Roscoe Arbuckle, who was still blacklisted by most of Hollywood and the American public after the scandal of 1921–22. Even after he was acquitted at the third trial and given an unprecedented personal apology from the jury, many people still refused to believe his innocence or support his career. Roscoe had to work under the pseudonym William B. Goodrich and move behind the camera.

Buster was one of the few people who stood by Roscoe through thick and thin. Not only did he remain friends, he also gave Roscoe the chance to work again. Roscoe was deep in debt from his long legal battle, and had lost his home and cars. Many film scholars believe the premise of Sherlock, Jr. is a tribute to Oscar Heinrich, the forensic scientist who helped to clear Roscoe’s good name.

Sadly, after a great beginning, Buster and Roscoe got into a big fight triggered by Buster correcting a mistake, and Buster had to direct the entire film himself. After all the trauma poor Roscoe went through, could he really be blamed for behaving irrationally in its wake? Trauma responses by definition aren’t rational, and anger is one of the most common ones.

Because of the surrealistic storyline and its complicated special effects, Sherlock, Jr. was Buster’s most challenging film to create. It took four months to film and edit, from January to April 1924, twice Buster’s normal production length. Buster later told film historian Kevin Brownlow, “Every cameraman in the business went to see that picture more than once trying to figure out how the hell we did some of that.”

Buster famously did all his own stunts, and often got injured because he refused to use doubles or dummies. During the filming of Sherlock, Jr., he unknowingly broke his neck when he grabbed a water spout while walking on top of a moving train. The back of his neck was bashed against a steel rail on the ground, and Buster blacked out. Filming wrapped early that day, and he had blinding headaches for weeks. Only in 1935 did he discover he’d broken his neck.

A relatively less serious accident happened when Buster’s motorcycle skidded straight-on into two cameras, which knocked over gag man Eddie Cline and tossed Buster onto a car.

The preview in Long Beach didn’t go very well, so Buster re-edited the film to try to make it funnier. The second preview was even worse, so Buster cut the film down to a mere five reels. He refused producer Joseph Schenck’s suggestion to add another thousand feet of film (about eleven minutes).

Sherlock, Jr. earned $448,337 ($8,086,242.84 in 2024), making it Buster’s first real failure in his long, successful career. The New York Times and Photoplay loved it, but other reviews were very negative. A century later, this film is much more highly-regarded by both critics and audiences. In 1991, it was chosen for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

A film projectionist in a small town spends his free time studying how to be a detective. While sweeping up the trash in the theatre, he finds a whole dollar (which went a lot further in 1924!) and feels compelled to return it to the pretty young lady who lost it. He also gives one of his own dollars to an older woman sifting through the pile. When a gruff-looking guy comes up, the Projectionist hands over another dollar without a fight, but the guy gives it back and looks through the pile to find a whole wad of cash.

With his last dollar, he buys a box of chocolates at a nearby shop and phonies up the price to look like $4 to impress his rich love interest. He also gives her a ring when he goes to her house. While they’re very demurely, shyly sitting together in the parlour, the local Sheik (Ward Crane) steals a watch from her father’s coat and pawns it. With the money, he buys the $3 box of chocolates the Projectionist hoped to buy earlier.

The father (Joe Keaton, Buster’s real-life dad) notices his watch missing, and Buster says it’s a good idea to search everyone. The Sheik slips the pawnshop ticket into the Projectionist’s pocket, and when it’s found on his person, the Girl’s father kicks him out of the house in perpetuity. (In a lot of old films, the person who makes an accusation is always believed, and the person accused is judged automatically guilty and not allowed to plead his or her case.)

The Projectionist’s detective book includes the suggestion to shadow his man, which he does. However, he’s quickly waylaid by the abovementioned incident with the water pipe, so he returns to his day job.

The Girl goes to the pawnshop to ask who got the ticket, and the pawnbroker describes the Sheik, who presently passes by. Meanwhile, the Projectionist falls asleep while projecting Hearts and Pearls, a film about the theft of a pearl necklace, which very closely mirrors the real-life situation. His dream self wanders down the aisle, climbs over the organ supplying live music, and tries to jump into the screen.

The first attempt is unsuccessful, but the second attempt succeeds. And here begins a movie within a movie.

He shifts back and forth between a bunch of different scenes before moving into the story of Hearts and Pearls as Sherlock, Jr., the world’s greatest detective. The actors transmogrify into the people involved in the real situation.

The Sheik and his accomplice (Erwin Connelly, the butler) rig one murderous trap after another for Sherlock, Jr., but he outwits them all—an exploding billiard, a chair with long-handled axes above it, poison. The next day, Sherlock, Jr. tracks them and more bad guys down to a shack and is captured.

The Sheik says the man struggling in a wicker cage in the next room is a detective, and that he’ll put Sherlock, Jr. in there next. He also says the Girl is at another shack. Sherlock, Jr. escapes and ends up in a wild chase on a cop’s motorcycle handlebars.

For almost the entire chase, which goes through one wacky situation and close scrape after another, he has no idea the cop fell off and he’s only moving through momentum.

The bike eventually crashes through the shed where the Girl is being held hostage, and she and Sherlock, Jr. have another close escape and wacky car chase.

The Projectionist wakes up to the Girl announcing they discovered the real guilty party and that her father is very sorry for the mistake. He proceeds to copy the actions of the hero in the romantic closing scene of the film he’s still projecting, but the final image of married life with twins might be a bridge too far.

A funny, ferocious feud of the 1830s, Buster-style

For the ninth year, Lea at Silent-ology is hosting the Buster Keaton Blogathon. You can click the image above to go to the full list of participants. I didn’t participate for the last two years, owing to how lockdown wrecked my mental health, so I’m very glad to finally start doing it again. This year, my subject is Buster’s brilliant 1923 film Our Hospitality.

Premièring 9 November 1923 and going into general release on 19 November 1923, Our Hospitality (originally titled just Hospitality) was Buster’s second feature-length film. It was a huge financial success, selling out at many theatres and earning $537,844 ($9,409,753 in 2023). Most critics absolutely loved it, an appraisal which continues to this day.

Our Hospitality has been remade many times in 21st century India.

Though the story is rather obviously based on the real-life Hatfield and McCoy feud, which began in 1863–64 and picked back up from 1878–91, Our Hospitality begins in 1810 and is set primarily in 1830. Buster changed the historical era because he loved trains so much and wanted to feature this mode of transportation in its very infancy.

Artistic director Fred Grabourne built full-sized, fully-functional train replicas that were accurate down to the very last minuscule detail. Buster decided to use the 1829 Stephenson’s Rocket because he thought it was funnier-looking than the 1831 DeWitt Clinton engine.

Some of the train scenes were filmed in Truckee, California and Cottage Grove, Oregon. Cottage Grove was later to become one of the primary filming locations for The General. Truckee was given a makeover to look like Shenandoah Valley in the 1830s. During filming breaks, Buster and his co-workers (both cast and crew) frequently went fishing in the Truckee River.

Replica of the DeWitt Clinton built for the 1893 Columbian Exposition

Contemporary drawing of Stephenson’s Rocket

In addition to the authentic antique train, Buster also made use of a dandy horse, a bicycle precursor which was most popular in 1816. By the 1830s, it had long since fallen out of fashion.

Joe Roberts, who plays Joseph Canfield, had an on-set stroke during filming. Though he soon returned from a Reno hospital to finish the job, he sadly died of a second stroke a few months later.

Another near-disaster happened when Buster, who refused to use stunt doubles, almost drownt in the Truckee River when his restraining wire snapped and he was swept into the rocky rapids. Ten minutes later, he was finally found face-down and immobile on a riverbank. After he recovered, he decided to film the rest of that scene on a movie set in L.A. instead of a real river.

Buster used miniature scenery for another dangerous stunt where he swings from a rope into a waterfall, also done on a movie set.

Three generations of Keatons appear together in Our Hospitality. Besides Buster, we also see his father, Joseph Keaton, who appeared in many of his films, as a grumpy train engineer. Buster’s 14-month-old son Joseph plays Willie McKay in the 1810 prologue, though he had to be taken off the set when the bright filming lights irritated his eyes.

Last but not least, Buster’s first wife, Natalie Talmadge, plays Virginia Canfield, the leading lady. Since she was pregnant with their second child, Robert, at the time, she had to be filmed in such a way as to conceal her condition as it became more prominent.

Sorry about the obnoxious watermark on a public domain image!

In 1810, John McKay is the last of his line. The last, that is, except his baby boy. He’s terrified because he heard Jim Canfield is in town, and their families have been feuding for generations.

In the Canfield home, Joseph tries to convince his fiery brother Jim to drop the feud already, but Jim says he came a long way to kill John McKay, and he’s bound and determined to do it tonight.

After the unthinkable happens, the Canfields vow to continue the feud, and Mrs. McKay sends her son Willie to her sister’s family in NYC.

Twenty years later, Willie has grown up to be quite the dandy, in a city far more rural and sparsely-populated than we think of it as. His familiar life is disrupted when he gets a letter asking him to come to Rockville to claim his late father’s property.

Before he leaves, his aunt tells him the story of the feud and makes him promise not to go near the Canfields.

But as it would so happen, also en route to Rockville is Virginia, whom Willie doesn’t yet know is a Canfield. While riding together in one of the bumpy carriages attached to the train, they start getting friendlier and friendlier.

Troubles encountered along the way include a donkey and cows wandering onto the tracks, wheels coming uncoupled, running over a big log, coke soot getting on everyone’s faces in a tunnel, and getting on the wrong track.

When they arrive after this very eventful journey, Willie makes the mistake of asking one of Virginia’s brothers where the McKay estate is. When asked why he wants to go there, Willie identifies himself as John McKay’s son. The brother then goes to buy a pistol.

While the Canfield men are busy at their pistol cabinet at home, Virginia invites Willie to supper.

Willie is very disappointed and stunned to discover the McKay estate is nothing more than a falling-apart shack.

Unfortunately, one of the running gags is more than just dated. Willie twice encounters a man choking and beating his wife, and he naturally intervenes. The wife gets really angry at him for interfering in their business. It makes me so uncomfortable to see domestic violence depicted like this, though I know Buster was only trying to be funny in the context of that era. Today we understand so much more about domestic violence.

The Canfields constantly try and fail to shoot Willie, though only outside. Mr. Canfield forbids his sons to commit any murders in the house, since it’s against the Southern code of hospitality. As long as Willie’s inside, he’s safe, but all bets are off the second he steps out the door.

Willie is on-edge the entire supper, and prolongs leaving as long as possible by shaking everyone’s hand multiple times, pretending his hat is missing, and playing with the dog.

He gets a reprieve when a parson who was also a guest opens the door to a huge rainstorm. Since it’s too dangerous for anyone to go outside, Willie quickly reaches outside for his suitcase and decides to spend the night.

The next day, Willie again prolongs his departure as long as possible, and finally escapes by cross-dressing. The Canfields, though, know it’s really him, and go on a murderous search for him at the train station and through the fields and woods.

The chase leads to a steep, dangerous cliff which Willie can’t find a way off of until one of the brothers throws down a rope to get a better shot. They both fall into the river below, and thus begins another desperate escape.

Willie thinks he’s finally safe when he commanders a train, but all bets are off when his car derails and sends him back into the perilous river. Now he has the difficult task of finding a way to safety, rescuing Virginia when she goes to look for him, and escaping the Canfields alive.

When avoiding bad luck creates even worse luck

Though Max Linder (né Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle) made hundreds of films between 1905–1925 and was the original screen comedian, he’s sadly not nearly as well-known today as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, or Roscoe Arbuckle. Even the overrated, creepy Harry Langdon seems to be more popular.

Like too many silent stars, Max also suffers from the misfortune of lost films. More than a few survive, but many others are lost. Thankfully, his daughter Maud (1924–2017) did a lot to resurrect his legacy and preserve his films.

Seven Years Bad Luck, released 6 February 1921, is not only one of Max’s best-known films, but is also widely considered one of his very finest among his surviving body of work.

Max gets absolutely schnockered at his bachelor party, and is so drunk he doesn’t even realize he’s in his own house when he comes home. In the morning, he awakens with a terrible hangover. But that isn’t the least of his troubles. Max woke up at the noise of a mirror breaking, caused by his amorous valet and maid.

John, the valet, immediately calls for a new mirror to be delivered to Max’s house, and lies to his employer that the noise was nothing but Mary, the maid, dropping a napkin. While Max is still in his room, John gets the chef, who very much resembles Max, to dress up as their employer and pretend to be him on the other side of the now-empty mirror frame.

The ruse works very well at first, as the chef exactly copies Max’s every single movement. However, Max eventually realizes there’s another person on the other side. When he leaves the room, the deliveryman arrives with the new mirror.

Max returns and throws a shoe at the mirror, thinking his chef is still standing there. Alas, the new mirror immediately breaks, and Max is horrorstruck. Being very superstitious, he believes he’s been dealt seven years of bad luck.

Max decides to call for his horse instead of taking his car to visit his fiancée Betty (Alta Allen), then imagines himself getting into a terrible accident and decides to just walk there. This proves even more dangerous than either driving or riding a horse, and Max barely makes it there in one piece.

While waiting for Betty, Max asks her supposed psychic maid to read his palm. She says she sees a dog threatening his happiness, and Max promptly grabs Betty’s cute little fluffy white dog Frizotto and sticks him in a vase.

Max tries to prevent Betty from seeing this, but she discovers it sooner rather than later, and is so outraged she calls off their engagement.

Betty’s mother phones Max and says Betty changed her mind and wants him to come back, then tells Betty she ought to give Max a second chance and not behave too rashly over something so silly. This attempted reconciliation ends in another breakup when Betty walks in on Max jamming on the piano to a jazz record as the maid dances. Betty is horrified by such “scandalous” behavior.

Max asks his best friend to pay a call on Betty and try to get her to relent in her cruel edict, little realizing his supposed buddy has designs on Betty. His friend, who isn’t named, lies to Betty that Max decided to marry an ex. Betty then asks how she might get revenge, and the friend suggests she marry him.

Before Max can find out about this shocking new development, he steps into a fight between two strangers on the street and ends up robbed of his wallet. Max had been planning to take a train trip, but now has no money to pay for it, and must find a way to sneak aboard.

The comic situations only escalate from there, as Max continues to court bad luck in his attempted pursuit of avoiding it.

Will Max ever defeat his string of bad luck and reconcile with Betty?

An invisible boxer seeks exoneration and revenge

A&C Meet the Invisible Man was the third film in their popular A&C Meet… series, which eventually came to seven such mashups. It was originally intended as a straight horror film in the Invisible Man series, but the huge success of A&C Meet Frankenstein (1948) convinced Universal to rewrite the script as a comedy-horror film.

It was filmed from 3 October–6 November 1950, and released 19 March 1951. The special effects were the work of Stanley Horsley (son of English film pioneer David Horsley), who also did the special effects for The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Woman, and Invisible Agent.

A&C actually first met the Invisible Man (voiced by Vincent Price) in the fun twist at the end of A&C Meet Frankenstein, but the one they meet and help in this film is entirely different.

Bud Alexander and Lou Francis are graduating from detective school, and very excited to start their new career. Soon after they go into business, a man (Arthur Franz) enters their detective agency, draws all the blinds, and asks if they’re interested in a case. Before he can give details, the radio reports an escaped murderer named Tommy Nelson, who exactly matches his description.

Lou is typically the first to realise their client is one and the same, while Bud takes a bit more convincing. However, as soon as Bud figures it out, he’s chomping at the bit to get the promised $5,000 reward.

Meanwhile, Tommy phones his fiancée Helen Gray (Nancy Guild) and arranges to visit her and her uncle, Dr. Philip Gray (Gavin Muir). Once he arrives in the lab, Tommy begs for the invisibility potion he’s working with. Dr. Gray steadfastly refuses, pointing out the long-known side effect of eventual madness. He tells Tommy about the sad case of the potion’s inventor, Jack Griffin, and points to his photo on the wall (Claude Rains, who played the original Invisible Man).

The cops pull up outside, and Dr. Gray and Helen stall them for time as Tommy hides. Against the dire warnings, Tommy injects himself.

Soon afterwards, Lou comes upon the scene, forced to be in a room alone with Tommy while Bud talks with the cops and demands the reward. Lou’s terror at being so close to a believed murderer increases when he shakes hands with Tommy and sees Tommy’s hand disappearing. Bit by bit, his entire body disappears, and all that’s left is a pile of clothes.

No one believes Lou’s story, and he’s sent to a shrink, Dr. James Turner (Paul Maxey). The therapy session fails miserably, as Lou instead hypnotizes not only Dr. Turner, but also several cops and anyone else who ventures into the room. Bud is outraged at Lou’s incompetence, particularly since it cost them a big reward.

Bud cheers up a bit when Helen comes to see them and begs them to prove Tommy’s innocence. She gives them $500 and a suitcase to deliver to Tommy in Riverside Park at night. Before she leaves, she asks them to tell Tommy her uncle’s working on the re-agent.

Of course, Lou is the one forced to go to the park alone at night while Bud waits by the car, dreaming of collecting the reward after all. Tommy emerges with his head wrapped in bandages, wearing the clothes from the suitcase. When the cops arrive, Tommy has once again disappeared.

Bud finally believes Lou’s story about invisibility when Tommy makes himself known and expresses outrage at Bud’s attempted double-crossing. While they’re driving away, Tommy explains what happened and why he’s innocent.

Their next stop is the gym, where Tommy elucidates a few more details. He then begins working a punching bag at incredible speed, making it look like Lou is doing it. The trainers are so impressed, they take Lou on as a boxer.

Many hilarious hijinks ensue, all while Tommy remains fixed on his goal—proving his innocence and getting revenge on the promoter who murdered his trainer. But the longer he’s invisible, the stronger the serum’s effects become, and the greater the chance of something going wrong during the big showdown in the ring.

Wrapping up an era with mummified hijinks

Released 23 June 1955, A&C Meet the Mummy was the duo’s final Universal film, and penultimate film overall. By this point in their career, it’s obvious the films were more geared towards kids than their original adult fans. Newer, younger comedy teams were like Martin and Lewis had taken their place.

The boys were also getting on in years; Lou was in his late forties, and Bud was almost sixty. Not that there’s anything wrong with older comedians, but their age clearly shows. It kind of spoils the illusion of them as ageless clowns.

A big part of A&C’s act always was their less than lovey-dovey relationship, but here the backbiting seems a bit too real, like they’re getting out off-camera frustrations. Bud’s voice sounds really raspy and angry, beyond his usual screen persona.

Though Bud and Lou are respectively called Pete Patterson and Freddie Franklin in the closing credits and script, they call one another by their real names through the whole movie. Talk about phoning it in and not even trying!

Bud and Lou desperately need some cash splashed their way so they can leave Cairo and return to the U.S. Towards this end, they’re delighted to overhear Dr. Gustav Zoomer (Kurt Katch) talking about a sacred medallion on the mummy Klaris, a medallion pointing the way to Princess Ara’s treasure.

Also overhearing this conversation are Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor) and a band of Klaris followers led by Semu (Richard Deacon). They all want that medallion for different reasons.

With dollar signs swimming in their eyes (and Bud as always planning to take the lion’s share), they go to Dr. Zoomer’s house to ask if they can accompany Klaris back to the U.S. Shortly before they arrive, however, Dr. Zoomer is murdered by two of Semu’s stooges. These assailants then steal Klaris.

There are a lot of mysterious disappearances and reappearances during Bud and Lou’s investigation through the house, with the “I saw what I saw when I saw it!” schtick they did so often. Some people feel it was really tired and worn out by this point, but I personally don’t have a problem with it. It’s just one of their trademarks for Lou to find something creepy, scary, weird, or suspicious, hysterically report it to Bud, find nothing when they return together, be accused of lying or seeing things, and then find it in another place when he’s alone again. Rinse, lather, repeat.

During their investigation, they of course stumble into finding that missing medallion, and now Semu’s band and Madame Rontru are in hot pursuit of them. 

The boys think they’re being helpful by taking photographs of Dr. Zoomer’s body and giving them to the newspaper, but thanks to the wrong images being used and the discovery of a joke tough guy recording Lou made with Dr. Zoomer’s tape recorder, authorities believe Bud is the murderer.

While they’re trying to evade discovery, we see the first of a running gag with Lou and snakes. Every time he plays the flute, a snake comes out of a basket behind him. Predictably, he freaks out and changes location, only for the same thing to happen all over again.

Madame Rontru offers $100 for the medallion, but Bud ups the asking price to $5,000, suspecting it’s worth far more. The deal is accepted, and Bud excitedly starts making plans for what they’re going to do with their newfound riches. Once again, he plans to give the most to himself and leave poor Lou with peanuts.

While they’re waiting for Madame Rontru at the Cairo Café, they discover the medallion is cursed. Both frantically try to pawn it off on the other, hiding it in a hamburger and switching their plates back and forth constantly.

Lou thinks he’s finally hoodwinked Bud into accepting the cursed burger, but the tables are turned, and Lou ends up eating it. Though we hear a lot of crunching, the medallion shows up in one piece in his stomach when he’s put under a fluoroscope.

Madame Rontru can’t read the hieroglyphics until Semu shows up, pretending to be an archaeologist and offering to lead the way to the treasure-laden tomb. Unbeknownst to any of the other parties, Semu’s followers have reanimated Klaris.

Now the scene is set for a murderous, mummified confrontation, which includes downright stupid scenes of Lou being chased by a bat and giant iguana, more “I saw what I saw when I saw it!,” and the fun “Take your pick” routine, hearkening back to “Who’s on First?”