A humble movie theater projectionist and janitor is in love with a sweet girl, but he has a rival—the smug "local sheik." The rival frames him for stealing the girl's father's pocket watch, and Harold is banished from her home.

Heartbroken, he returns to his job. While screening a detective movie about a stolen necklace, he falls asleep and dreams himself into the film, becoming Sherlock Jr., a suave, brilliant detective. The characters in the dream mirror those from his real life, and in this alternate world, Harold gets a second chance to prove himself.

Sherlock Jr. is perhaps Buster Keaton’s most experimental and technically daring film. Released in 1924, it pushes the limits of visual storytelling with a playful and surreal narrative. Keaton himself said that the idea of a character walking into a movie screen was the driving force behind the entire film.

This film is one of the earliest examples of metacinema, blurring the lines between reality and fiction with ingenious visual gags and optical illusions. The famous dream sequence, where Keaton enters the film and is thrown into a rapidly changing series of locations, is a masterclass in editing, blocking, and timing.

Sherlock Jr. isn’t just a technical feat—it’s also a tender, self-deprecating comedy about unrequited love, social awkwardness, and the power of fantasy to compensate for life's disappointments.

While filming, Keaton suffered one of his worst on-set injuries. In a scene involving a train and a water spout, the water hit him with unexpected force, throwing him to the ground. He continued shooting, despite weeks of blinding headaches.

The film also features some of Keaton’s most complex in-camera effects, including the famous suitcase jump—an old vaudeville trick passed down from his father.

Though only a modest success at the box office upon release, Sherlock Jr. has grown in stature. In 2005, Time magazine included it among its All-Time 100 Movies, and in 2012 it was ranked #61 on the list of best-edited films by the Motion Picture Editors Guild.

It has had a lasting influence on modern directors, notably Woody Allen, who paid direct tribute in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985).

Sherlock Jr. was also Keaton's most complicated film for special optical effects and in-camera tricks.

Trivia

• Originally titled The Misfit, the film changed direction during production to emphasize its dreamlike and cinematic themes.

• The entry into the movie screen was achieved using precise lighting and surveying tools to line up Keaton and the background perfectly.

• Lead actress Marion Harlan had to be replaced mid-production by Kathryn McGuire, a rising star of Keystone Studios.

• The suitcase jump is based on a vaudeville illusion invented by Keaton’s father, and later replicated on stage.

• The film presents an early version of the idealized self within a dream, a concept that would reappear in psychological and surrealist cinema decades later.

The Soundtrack

Caspervek's Soundtrack for Sherlock Jr. follows the band's usual pattern of scoring slapstick comedies, alternating swing, and classic jazz and adding, this time, some twists on the detective movie music style.