Artist Sherlock Jr.

The best Buster Keaton films are defined by their signature sequences. The 1924 fantasia Sherlock Jr. has plenty of magical moments strewn across its story of a projectionist who becomes an amateur detective, but the scene everyone rightly remembers is the one where the stone-faced comic falls asleep and dreams himself onto a movie screen, facing peril with every cut. It’s a concept that’s been repeated to great (The Purple Rose Of Cairo) and not-so-great (Last Action Hero) effect, but never with such transporting magic. 

Updated 11/24/2009