Sherlock Jr. was Keaton’s most inventive film, in which a cinema projectionist dreamed himself into the movie he was showing.
Sherlock Jr. was released in 1924. Keaton played a film projectionist who wanted to be a detective. After being falsely accused of stealing a watch, he fell asleep in the projection booth and dreamed that he walked into the film on the screen, becoming Sherlock Jr., a master detective who solved a theft in a country house.
The dream sequence was a technical marvel. As the film within the film changed scenes, Keaton stayed in the same spot while the background changed around him, from a garden to a street to a cliff edge. The effects were achieved in camera, without the computer tricks of later cinema, and they still impress today.
Sherlock Jr. was one of Keaton’s shortest features, running under fifty minutes, but it was also one of his most original. It was a film about films, about dreaming and about how a small man could imagine himself as a hero, and it remains a favourite with audiences who love silent comedy.