OUR HOSPITALITY/SHERLOCK, JR.

Details

• Release Year: 1923
• Genre: Comedy
• Plot: Perhaps no other film offers as exciting a rollercoaster ride through the golden age of comedy than Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr. Dramatizing the uproarious exploits of a meek theatre projectionist-turned-amateur sleuth, the film blends the knockabout physical comedy normally associated with slapstick with more subtly-crafted moments of humor -- such as the sequence in which Buster leaps 'through' the silver screen and lands in the midst of the action.; ; Packed within its modest 45 minutes is enough comic material for several ordinary features, but Keaton chooses to compress it all into a dazzling display of cinematic inventivemess that races along like the driver-less motorcycle hurling through a traffic-clogged city in the film's unforgettable climax -- with a stone-faced Buster perched obliviously on the handlebars.; ; This DVD also features the wonderful film Our Hospitality. In many ways a companion piece to his 1926 classic The General, it stars Keaton as a New York man who returns to his southern antebellum homeland to find himself embroiled in a long standing feud between his family and that of the woman he loves.; ; What might have been an ordinary comedy of manners is transformed into a spectacle of visual surprises, with no farcical opportunity left unexploited. The sequence in which Buster travels southward by rinky-dink locomotive is a most sublime example of the director's craft -- a truly astounding series of comic vignettes that represents but a tiny portion of the extraordinary talent that characterizes The Art of Buster Keaton.
• Cast: Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge, Joe Keaton
• Director: John G. Blystone, Buster Keaton
• Runtime: 1:59
• Media Format: Movie