Sherlock Jr. is a 1924 American silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton and written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, and Joseph A. Mitchell. It features Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, and Ward Crane.
In 1991, Sherlock Jr. was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2000, the American Film Institute, as part of its AFI 100 Years... series, ranked the film #62 in its list of the funniest films of all time (AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs).
Plot
Buster is a movie theater projectionist and janitor. When the cinema is empty, he reads a book on How to be a Detective. He is in love with a woman. However, he has a rival, the "local sheik". Neither has much money. He finds a dollar note in the garbage he swept up in the lobby. He takes it and adds it to the $2 he has. A woman comes and says that she lost a dollar. He gives it back. But then a sad old woman also says that she lost a dollar, so he gives that also, leaving himself with $1. A man comes and searches the garbage and finds a wallet full of money. The projectionist buys a $1 box of chocolates, all he can afford, and changes the price to $4 before giving it to the woman he loves at her house. He later gives her a ring.
The sheik comes into the house and steals the woman's father's pocket watch and pawns it for $4. With the money, he buys a $3 box of chocolates for the woman. When the father notices that his watch is missing, the sheik slips the pawn ticket into the projectionist's pocket unnoticed. The projectionist, studying to be a detective, offers to solve the crime, but when the pawn ticket is found in his pocket, he is banished from the house. However, when the sheik leaves, he walks closely behind him and shadows every movement. The sheik loses him by shutting him in a train car. Later, the woman takes the pawn ticket to the pawnbroker and asks him to describe who pawned it. He points to the sheik outside.
While showing a film (advertised in the lobby as "Hearts and Pearls") about the theft of a pearl necklace, the projectionist falls asleep and dreams that he enters the movie as a detective, Sherlock Jr. The other actors are replaced by the projectionist's "real" acquaintances. The dream begins with the theft being committed by the villain with the aid of the butler. The woman's father calls for the world's greatest detective and Sherlock Jr. arrives.
Fearing that they will be caught, the villain and the butler attempt to kill Sherlock through several traps, poison, and an elaborate pool game with an exploding 13 ball. When these fail, the villain and butler try to escape. Sherlock Jr. tracks them down to a warehouse but is outnumbered by the gang to which the villain was selling the necklace. During the confrontation, Sherlock discovers that they have kidnapped the woman. With the help of his assistant, Gillette, Sherlock Jr. manages to save the woman, and after a car chase, manages to defeat the gang.
When he awakens, the woman shows up to tell him that she and her father learned the identity of the real thief after she went to the pawn shop to see who actually pawned the pocket watch. As a reconciliation scene happens to be playing on the screen, the projectionist mimics the actor's romantic behavior.