
Buster Keaton's most ingenious film — and at 45 minutes, possibly the most perfectly constructed comedy ever made. Keaton plays a movie projectionist who dreams of being a detective. When he falls asleep in the booth, he literally walks into the film on screen, and the movie becomes a playground of impossible gags: backgrounds change around him mid-scene, he leaps through a window and lands in a completely different setting, reality bends to the logic of cinema itself. It's a film about film, decades before anyone used the term "meta." The motorcycle chase alone — Keaton perched on the handlebars of a riderless bike hurtling through traffic — would secure its place in history. That he conceived, choreographed, and performed every stunt himself is almost beyond belief.
Buster Keaton's most ingenious film — and at 45 minutes, possibly the most perfectly constructed comedy ever made. Keaton plays a movie projectionist who dreams of being a detective. When he falls asleep in the booth, he literally walks into the film on screen, and the movie becomes a playground of impossible gags: backgrounds change around him mid-scene, he leaps through a window and lands in a completely different setting, reality bends to the logic of cinema itself. It's a film about film, decades before anyone used the term "meta." The motorcycle chase alone — Keaton perched on the handlebars of a riderless bike hurtling through traffic — would secure its place in history. That he conceived, choreographed, and performed every stunt himself is almost beyond belief.

Buster Keaton
Projectionist / Sherlock, Jr.

Kathryn McGuire
Girl

Joe Keaton
Girl's Father / Man on Film Screen

Erwin Connelly
Hired Man / Butler

Ward Crane
Sheik / Villain

Doris Deane
Girl Who Loses Dollar Outside Cinema (uncredited)
Christine Francis
Candy Store Girl (uncredited)

George Davis
Conspirator (uncredited)

Kewpie Morgan
Conspirator (uncredited)

Steve Murphy
Conspirator (uncredited)

John Patrick
Conspirator (uncredited)

Betsy Ann Hisle
Little Girl (uncredited)
Ford West
Theatre Manager / Gillette (uncredited)
cinematographer
writer
cinematographer
writer
writer