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Cinema Lounge >> Buster Keaton
Program Notes
The wonderful pianist Frederick Hodges returns to the Balboa to accompany Keaton's SHERLOCK JR. and THE PLAYHOUSE, presented in 35mm prints.
You should go to Frederick's wonderful website where there is a great section on playing music for silent films: www.frederickhodges.com
Suzanne Ramsey
LIVE Vaudeville Show on stage featuring the sizzling Suzanne "Kitten on the Keys" Ramsey singing and playing the piano, and leading the audience in a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday."
James Hamilton
Adding to the fun will be the command return of James Hamilton (web site) whose magical wonders will keep you amazed.
Author John Bengston ("Silent Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood through the Films of Charlie Chaplin"; "Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton") will offer a brief lantern slide lecture on the making of SHERLOCK JR. and how Keaton accomplished the surreal special effects that have influenced moviemakers ever since. (See also: www.busterkeaton.com/Silent_Echoes/sehome.htm and www.silenttraces.net.)
John will have books for sale and be glad to autograph them for you.
There will be surprises and prizes, birthday cake and libations.
Diane Boate (www.danielakart.com) is once again baking our cake. She writes: "The main cake will be Luscious Chocolate Chiffon Cake, decorated with Coffee Cream Cheese Icing and Bittersweet Chocolate Drizzle, Enchanted Forest Cottage Design. In addition there will be Tender Brown-Sugar Oatmeal Teacakes with Balboa Theater Maple Magic Cream Frosting."
(Note : The Enchanted Forest Cottage Design was created in the late 70s by Ms Boate (The Cake Lady) for The Nosheria on Maiden Lane when Harry and Lillian Fireside were the owners. It was a best seller and appeared in Macy’s windows and ads.)"
SHERLOCK JR
DIRECTOR: Buster Keaton
WRITERS: Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, Joseph Mitchell
STAR: Buster Keaton
1923, 45m
Critics Quotes
Official Buster Keaton Fan Club
"In Sherlock Jr., boiling along on the handlebars of a motorcycle quite unaware that he has lost his driver, Keaton whips through city traffic, breaks up a tug-of-war, gets a shovelful of dirt in the face from each of a long of Rockette-timed ditch-diggers, approaches a log at high speed which is hinged open by dynamite precisely soon enough to let him through and, hitting an obstruction, leaves the handlebars like an arrow leaving a bow, whams through the window of a shack in which the heroine is about to be violated, and hits the heavy feet-first, knocking him through the opposite wall. The whole sequence is as clean in motion as the trajectory of a bullet."
— James Agee, Comedy's Greatest Era (collected in Agee on Film)
"If any one Buster Keaton feature comedy can really be said to be his best, then Sherlock Jr. is that one."
— William K. Everson.
"Fast moving, gag-filled comedy which ranks among its star’s best."
— Leslie Halliwell
"Keaton reached his pinnacle with this brilliant and hilarious story...Sublime study of film and fantasy, which has undoubtedly influenced countless filmmakers such as Woody Allen, Jacques Rivette, even Buñuel."
— Leonard Maltin
"Wonderfully imaginative, full of extraordinary tricks so immaculately executed that they look simple."
— Pauline Kael
The impeccable comedian directs himself in an impeccable silent comedy. The man with the flat hat and the dead pan has a night job as a movie theater projectionist but daydreams about becoming a famous (and natty) master detective. In real life he is falsely accused by a shameless cad of stealing a watch from his girlfriend's father. At work that evening he sleepwalks himself into the film he's projecting (its plot eerily mirrors his real-life problem) and solves the crime in a series of magnificently imaginative, physically perilous, perfectly orchestrated gags. Things work out all right for him as well in the waking world. Is this, as some critics have argued, an example of primitive American surrealism? Sure. But let's not get fancy about it. It is more significantly, a great example of American minimalism—simple objects and movement manipulated in casually complex ways to generate a steadily rising gale of laughter. The whole thing is only 45 minutes long, not a second of which is wasted. In an age when most comedies are all windup and no punch, this is the most treasurable of virtues.
— Richard Schickel - Time Magazine
Buster Keaton’s artistic breakthrough remains to this day absolutely the funniest film ever made. Buster plays a movie theater projectionist who is falsely accused of stealing a gold watch from his girlfriend’s family and banished from her home. Keaton immediately hops on the trail of the rival suitor who framed him. Eventually, he falls asleep while projecting a movie, and winds up stepping into the screen itself in a dream state(in a casually brilliant sequence of tricky optical effects that people still talk about), where he imagines himself to be the dapper star of a film about Sherlock Jr.., the world’s second greatest detective. Unbelievable stunts (Keaton did his own, as always) and complicated gags ensue, moving this 45-minute film along at a fever pitch. You'll likely be floored by Keaton’s pool game if nothing else. Chuck Jones, Woody Allen, Wes Craven, Jackie Chan, and Steven Spielberg are among the filmmakers who have paid explicit homage to Keaton’s irrestible shenanigans, and his remain perhaps the most accessible of all silent movies.
— excerpted from Deep-focus.com
“A cinema operator falls asleep at his machine and dreams he is a great detective—the kind that only the cinema can produce...”
— From the original Jun. 2, 1924 review from the TIME Archive
Super Snoop
To put it plainly, Sherlock Jr. is my choice for the greatest film ever made.
In my book, for a film to qualify as the greatest, it must be made by one of the cinema's most supreme artists; that is, a filmmaker with a consistent and personal vision, a technical innovator, and a brilliant entertainer. Only a few filmmakers fall into this category for me: Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Bunuel, Val Lewton, and the man behind Sherlock Jr., Buster Keaton.
Between those seven filmmakers, at least 40 great films have been made. Sherlock Jr. rose to the top for various reasons. One is that I got to see it on the big screen, twice.
I also got to see Sherlock Jr. on an early date with the girl who became my wife.
Sherlock Jr. is wonderfully compact. It runs a scant 45 minutes but feels just like a feature-length film. It doesn't feel too long or too short. It also contains some of the most astonishing and thoughtful special effects ever put on film.
The story begins with a "boy" (played by Keaton at 29 years old) working in a movie theater and studying to be a detective. He and his rival both show up on the doorstep of the girl sporting boxes of candy. The rival has stolen a pocketwatch from the girl's house to pay for his candy, but before Buster can put his detective skills to work to solve the crime, he himself gets blamed for the theft. Dejected, he goes back to work where he starts the film, then falls asleep. He "leaves" his body and enters the movie screen where he is caught in a series of cuts (this sequence never fails to astound). For example, he is about to dive into a body of water, when the picture cuts to a snow bank. Buster completes his dive headfirst into a pile of snow. When the film is finished having its way with Buster, he wakes up in the middle of a movie mystery story in which he plays the brilliant Sherlock Jr., a real detective with all the confidence that Buster lacks. He defeats certain death, solves the mystery and participates in hair-raising chases, such as the one where he rides alone on the handlebars of a motorcycle, thinking that his faithful servant is driving.
The whole scenario is an early meditation on the nature of cinema in life. The best reason anyone can think of why we go to the movies is to identify with some glamorous person or story, to become intimately involved with them and forget our own dreary existence for a while. Keaton has made a film about that very notion. He dreams of being a detective, no doubt from having seen detective films. In real life, he fails miserably and without fanfare. But in the film (in his dream), he is invincible. The sequence with Buster caught in the "cutting" of the film is even more brilliant. By showing the movie screen slightly framed with the interior of the movie theater, Keaton is inviting us to participate in three worlds; the real-life audience, the audience within the movie, and Buster himself, caught in the film. The fact that he remains in position during the cuts allows us to continue to identify with him. If he were to suddenly disappear, we would be aware that he was part of the film, and not an outsider trying to fit in.
I love this sequence, but to me, the best sequence comes at the end, when Buster is finally allowed to kiss the girl (who has solved the real-life mystery on her own with no help at all from Buster). Buster peers through the window in the projection booth to look at the film for tips on how to kiss the girl. Now that he's back in the real world, Buster still looks at film for ways to enhance his own dreary life. The great joke comes when the film "fades to black" and fades up again with the movie couple surrounded by children. Buster's confused face says it all. (The censorship of sex is something relegated only to movies. Our own lives can be quite X-rated by comparison.)
Russsian Poster
Did I mention that, besides being brilliant, Sherlock Jr. is funny? That's the good part. One ought not to have to slog through great films that are no fun. And if one gets to laugh, that's a rare bonus.
Keaton’s imagination runs wild in Sherlock Jr.," the hilarious story of a cinema projectionist who fancies himself a detective who travels to the far corners of the world in the name of love. After falling asleep on the job, Keaton forces himself onto the screen and into the movie he's projecting, only to find himself confronted by perils and predicaments as the action around him changes in rapid montage. More than just a gag, the sequence is "an astonishingly acute perception of the interaction between movie reality and audience fantasy, and the role of editing in juggling both" (Time Out Film Guide).
THE PLAYHOUSE
DIRECTOR: Buster Keaton
WRITERS: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton
Cast: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts
1921, 22m
Critics Quotes
This Buster Keaton short is quite a feat of the writer-director-star's technical prowess. An early sequence has Keaton playing the conductor of a show and each of the members of its orchestra, cast, and audience. At one point Keaton appears on screen nine different times. His various characters, instantly recognizable members of various stereotypes, are innovative, as is the elaborate, detailed scheme of gags. Don't let your eyes leave the screen for a second!
— from rinkworks.com
The Playhouse, which Keaton made in 1921, when he was only twenty-six years old. Simply put, it's a special effects extravaganza. In the first half, Keaton plays every single character -- cast, crew, orchestra and audience -- in a small playhouse.. And this isn't the cheesy, static "split the screen down the middle" school of doubling actors. I looked at some of his scenes on freeze-frame and, even knowing where the seams should be, I had a hard time finding them. Now, add this: the characters are interacting with each other, with absolutely perfect timing. What's most amazing, and easy to lose track of in the world of digital, are the tools available at the time for doing this sort of thing -- a camera and a mask. I don't know if the optical printer had been invented yet eighty years ago, but even if it had, the meticulousness with which these shots are constructed is stunning.
In the second half of the film, Keaton presents us with Virginia Fox playing twins, and complicates the issue as his character starts seeing double, then seeing double in mirrors. Now, according to other sources (there are no credits on the film) we have one actress playing two parts here, both of them interacting with Keaton at the same time. You figure out how he did it. I can't. In fact, I can't think of any work like this in film until decades later, with David Cronenberg cloning Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers.
Needless to say, everything escalates to disaster, with stunts and gags abounding. Keaton builds a running joke out of two one-armed veterans in the audience with a unique way of applauding, he dances a duet with himself, and also gives us one of the strangest Zouave routines ever filmed. As always, it all comes to a really big finale.
The Keaton Family’s vaudeville act.
The only flaw in The Playhouse is strictly a product of history -- the performance on stage is a minstrel show, common in the 1920's, long since gone. Luckily, the contrast of the film is such that it's hard to tell that all nine Busters onstage are wearing blackface, but we've already seen the poster in the lobby. At least the film is silent, although it doesn't look like Keaton is portraying any of the nine as Stepin Fetchit. Somehow, I doubt that he would have. The whole concept might be questionable, in light of the fact that the Confederates are the heroes in The General. But again, the Civil War was as near in time in 1926 as the beginning of World War II is to us now, so there were still plenty of participants from both sides around, and we've certainly seen recent American films set in that latter war with sympathetic Japanese or German characters. It's an unfortunate relic, but it's nowhere near the shrieking racism presented by D.W. Griffith.
— from Jon Bastian, Film Monthly
Buster Links
Buster on DVD
Silent Classics at Kino Video
- The Ultimate is the collection of silent classics distributed by our friends at Kino. (The Keatons are currently on sale from 15-30% off.)
- The definitive and fascinating documentary Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, is out-of-print. It has not been released in the US on DVD but used VHS copies can be found. Grab it while you can. A British version is on DVD but requires a multi-standard DVD player. Read about it here.
- The “Buster Keaton So Funny It Hurts MGM Collection” (and here)
- Read about Buster Keaton: The Great Stone Face Collection of sound shorts and Industrial Strength Keaton, a collection of rare footage, shorts and TV appearance.
- There are many other Keatons available including his pairing with Jimmy Durante in SPEAK EASILY and MEET THE BARON, IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, the RAILRODDER shorts from National Film Board of Canada, early television shows, LIMELIGHT (his only on screen appearance with Chaplin).
A Hard Act To Follow
Documentary available only on UK DVD
The MGM Collection
The Great Stone Face Collection
Industrial Strength Keaton
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