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Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr., ed Andrew Horton
Review Notes |
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| Jenkins Karlyn Parshall |
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| Kathleen Rowe Karlyn, “The Detective and the Fool” Comedy allows the testing of roles & models Cinema, psychoanalysis, and the detective hero: parallel developments Thesis: pp. 93-94 Classical detective: logic, ‘elementary’ specific to liberal democracy: disruptive forces can be isolated, removed Freudianism dream disruptive forces relate to family, sexuality Sherlock Jr.: two worlds, two quests 1. frame quest: task in public sphere with woman as reward in private sphere opponents: father, strong masculine rival 2. dream quest: reverses dynamics Sherlock Jr assumes masculine role from ‘good father’ Holmes and uses it to defeat ‘bad father’ Shiek The girl in the picture: 1. frame: Victorian but powerful balanced frame compositions takes initiative in romance solves the crime 2. dream: Jazz age but ultimately ‘erased’ reducted to victim effectively disappears Solution of the crime in the frame removes the romance (girl) as the issue Sherlock Jr’s “present, with the boys” masculinity presented ambivalently misogyny of the detective model homosocial dimension The detective and the Fool: parody of Sherlock Holmes model detective & fool both liminal figures detective a figure of mediation Fool a figure of mockery Sherlock Jr.: ultimately an exposure of conventions of masculinity |
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| Peter F. Parshall, "Houdini's Protege" Sherlock Jr. explicitly indebted both to magician and dream Dream magic in the fantasy film sequence: - typical dream substitution: people from life replace characters - parallel elements from first scene reappear for reliving in dream - illogicality of dream Hero as magician - transformation - escape - fantasy triumph - series of stunts done without trick photography - Sherlock Jr.'s magical control - Sherlock Jr. as mirror image of the boy |
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