The Release
You know, before watching these movies the only thing I knew about Buster Keaton was his name and that he was an actor in early Hollywood. I didn’t know that these films were comedies, silent comedies at that (naturally given the time of creation), and they’re actually quite funny. In Sherlock Jr., Keaton plays a young man who works at a movie theater. When he’s not flipping reels he’s busy cleaning up, but on this day he’s consumed in a book called “How To Be A Detective.” Soon after being told by his boss to get back to work, Keaton brushes his pile of trash out towards the front of the theater where he gets distracted by a local confectionery shop. He purchases a box of chocolates for a love interest but he isn’t the only one interested in her. Over the course of the next thirty or so minutes, he gets involved in a mystery to locate a stolen pocket watch. Dialogue is kept to a minimum and the comedy flows steadily with great body language and some very good slapstick scenes. Movie buffs may also recall the dream sequence that was really a filming making feat at the time which is actually discussed in one of the extra features.
The second movie in this release, Three Ages, is Buster Keaton’s first feature film. It runs quite a bit longer than Sherlock Jr., and weaves together three tales of love from across three different time periods (Stone Age, Roman Age, Modern Age). The idea as is presented at the start of the film is that the only constant in humanity’s time throughout the ages is love. I’m not sure how often Keaton combined romance and love themes with his comedy in his films, but both Sherlock Jr., and Three Ages rely on those themes. Anyway, Three Ages tells all three stories at once by switching between the ages at different times. In each case, Keaton’s characters are working towards a romantic relationship that ultimately becomes successful.
These are obviously very old movies but Kino managed to get them looking and sounding rather good, especially given the source material. Expect a mostly clean image with some film wear but nothing too overt to make it unwatchable by any means. Each film includes a few different audio tracks as well. For Sherlock Jr., the Mont Alto Orchestra Score in 5.1 DTS-HD is selected by default, but viewers can also select the same score in 2.0 LPCM or The Club Foot Orchestra Score in 2.0 Stereo. Additionally, “Vintage Music Synchronized by Jay Ward” in Mono is available. For most purposes, the default setting will clearly be the best choice. Three Ages includes the following audio options: Robert Israel Score in 2.0 LPCM, Lee Erwin Organ Score in Mono, and an Anonymous Piano Score in Mono.
Both films contain several extra features. The extras for Sherlock Jr., include:
-Audio Commentary by Film Historian David Kalat
-Touring of Film Locations (10m, HD) – Author John Bengtson talks about the locations used in filming the movie. Lots of vintage footage and some maps are shown; it’s probably something you’ll only watch once, but it’s interesting.
-Movie Magic & Mysteries (22.5m, HD) – A documentary written by David B. Pearson with Patricia Eliot Tobias in which a study of some of the film techniques and tricks used in Sherlock Jr., are examined. The double exposure techniques used to create the dream sequence was pioneering for its time. Very interesting documentary.
-Stills – A collection of twenty-nine still images from the movie are included for your viewing pleasure.
And for Three Ages you’ll get:
-Tour of Filming Locations (9m, HD) – Similar to the extra of the same name for Sherlock Jr., this extra provides vintage footage and information on the locations used for filming the scenes of Three Ages.
-Man’s Genesis (8m, HD) – A portion of D.W. Griffith’s 1912 short that was the inspiration for Keaton’s view of the Stone Age in Three Ages.
-Three (Separate) Ages – A re-edit of the film combines each of the ages into their own short film.
-Stills – Another twenty-nine image collection.
With that, lets get to the summary…