Sherlock Jr.

A cinema projectionist wants to be a detective. When he falls asleep, his dreaming self stands up, walks into the screen and becomes the hero of the film showing there. That transition is one of cinema's most famous tricks and it was built entirely by hand. Keaton described it: they constructed a stage with a big black cut-out screen, then built the front row and the orchestra pit, and lit it so it looked like a picture being projected. In what follows, as the character is thrown between locations inside the film, Keaton and his cameraman used surveyor's instruments to place themselves at exactly the same distances each time so the continuity held. There was a hidden cost. During the water tower stunt the water came down far harder than expected and threw him to the ground, his neck striking a steel rail. He lost consciousness and had severe headaches for weeks. That he had actually broken his neck only emerged in 1935, nine years later, from an X-ray. It runs 45 minutes. Preview audiences barely laughed, and Keaton never counted it among his big ones. The National Film Registry took it in 1991. Who it is for: anyone looking for a way into silent cinema, and anyone who wants to know how the trick was done. Who it is not for: viewers who want character depth. This is a mechanical demonstration from beginning to end and does not pretend otherwise.