Trivia / Sherlock, Jr.

• Creator Backlash: Buster Keaton considered the film "alright [but] not one of the big ones", possibly due to the fact that it was his first real failure after a then 25-year career on stage and screen.
• On-Set Injury:
  • Buster Keaton grabs a water spout while walking on a moving boxcar train. The water unexpectedly flooded down on him much harder than anticipated, throwing him to the ground. The back of his neck slammed against a steel rail on the ground and caused him to black out. The pain was so intense that he had to stop shooting later that day and he had "blinding headaches" for weeks afterwards, but continued working, having a well-known high threshold for physical pain. It wasn't until 1935 that a doctor spotted a callus over a fracture in his top vertebra in an X-ray. The doctor informed Keaton that he had broken his neck during the accident nine years earlier and not realized it.
  • While filming the climactic chase, the motorcycle Keaton was riding skidded and smashed into two cameras, knocking over Eddie Cline and throwing Keaton onto a nearby car.
• The Other Marty: After previously casting her in Three Ages, Buster Keaton cast Marion Harlan as the lead actress, but she became sick and was replaced by up-and-coming Keystone Studios actress Kathryn McGuire, who had previously starred in The Silent Call and was a Wampas Baby Star of 1923.
• Referenced by...:
  • In Vertical Cinema, "The Struggle Buggy" features the main character hanging onto a car gate in a scene reassembling one from Sherlock, Jr.
  • In If I Fall, If I Die, Will and Jonah watch Sherlock Jr. in Will's living room. Jonah tells Will that he looks like Buster Keaton when he skates.
• Working Title: The Misfit.

---