Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Projectionist: [as Sherlock Jr., riding on the handlebars of a motorcycle, unaware the driver fell off] Be careful or one of us will get hurt.

---

The sheik: We are lost! He is sending for the world's greatest detective - Sherlock Jr.!

---

The sheik: [to Sherlock Jr. about a man locked in a tight cage] That's a detective. When he's dead I'll put you in there.

---

read more quotes from Sherlock Jr....

For the scene where Sherlock Jr., escaping some gangsters, leaps headfirst through the body of his assistant, Gillette (who is disguised as an old lady selling neckties), and disappears, Buster Keaton used an old magician's trick. Prior to the trick, Gillette is seen standing with his back against a wooden fence. A section of the fence was sawed out and placed on hinges, so that it opened up and back like a garage door. Ford West (the actor playing Gillette) was then strapped to the underside of the cutaway section, so that when it was opened, West's body was hanging parallel to the ground, but his head and arms stuck out through the upper part of the opening in the fence. The dress and open suitcase were then hung from West's shoulders, so that they hung down in front of the fence, concealing the opening. Both the dress and the suitcase had holes cut in them. With the cameras rolling, Keaton leaped headfirst straight through the hole in the suitcase, the hole in the dress, and the opening in the fence. (He later recalled that he "landed face-first in the dirt" on the other side.) The cutaway fence section was then swung down to close the opening, so that West's body landed perfectly inside the dress. Attendants on the other side of the fence cut the straps holding West's torso and feet to the cutaway A a 14" x 36" poster for Rex Ingram's Scaramouche is prominently displayed outside the theatre.
This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1991.
read more facts about Sherlock Jr....