Cinemagoers across the North East will soon get the chance to see Buster Keaton’s classic silent film Sherlock Jr – although it probably won’t sound the same as it did when it was first shown in the region 101 years ago.
The film, to be released in early-February, will have a soundtrack featuring indie rockers REM, with music taken from their mid-90s albums ‘Monster’ and ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’.
This new mash-up is the work of Josh Frank, an Austin, Texas-based writer and drive-in cinema-owner. Under the banner ‘Silents Synced’, he has already produced a version of the horror classic ‘Nosferatu’ accompanied by British band Radiohead. That film was seen in the North East at Halloween, after being shown at several hundred independent cinemas in the US.
Frank’s influences include the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which he says he watched many times in his youth. And he also remembers a movie shown at a local planetarium, which synced the music of Pink Floyd to a trippy laser extravaganza.
He had the idea of Silents Synced during lockdown, when his cinema was overwhelmed with customers in their cars but there were few new films doing the rounds. He says he asked himself, “What new type of experience would give people a compelling reason to go out to a movie theatre?”
Jaw-dropping stunts
Finding the right music proved to be a complicated and time-consuming task. While Sherlock Jr and the other films Frank has used are now in the public domain, some bands haven’t wanted to work with him, and some have simply asked for too much money.
REM, however, were delighted with the project. The band’s guitarist Peter Buck says, “Buster Keaton is one of my favourite actor/director/writers in movie history. I’m honoured that in some small way REM is collaborating with him from beyond the grave.”
Sherlock Jr was Keaton’s third feature, and it sees him play a hapless cinema projectionist who turns detective after being framed for stealing a pocket watch. It is a wonderful, fast-paced mix of meticulous editing and jaw-dropping stunts.
One stunt left Keaton with a broken neck, although he didn’t realise it at the time, while another one sees his character actually walk into the film he is projecting. Keaton later described that scene as “the reason for making the whole picture”.
A delightfully droll story
Many critics now consider the film a masterpiece, and some see it is an early – and still rare – example of American surrealism. The US Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. And in 2005, Time magazine named it one of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time.
And Britain, too, fell under its spell. “There is not a single dull moment in the entire footage,” trade paper the Kinematograph Weekly said. “The whole production is well-nigh flawless.” The Bioscope, meanwhile, called it “a delightfully droll story, rich in absurdities, elaborately mounted, and guaranteed to amuse any class of audience.”
In Newcastle, Sherlock Jr was pronounced “a highly amusing comedy” by the Daily Chronicle. It was shown at the Grainger Picture House in the city, and also at the Queen’s Hall in Northumberland Place, which had oak panelling, ornate plasterwork and a red carpet.
In the early weeks of 1925, in fact, the film was shown all over the North East.
A whistling violinist
At the Empire in Consett, it was declared “The most original, cleverest, and the funniest comedy ever made”. And at Black’s Palace in Sunderland, a onetime Presbyterian chapel, customers were promised “Five Reels of Laughter”. It was also shown at the Westoe Picture House in South Shields, where there was no carpet – red or otherwise – and the seats were just bare wooden forms.
In Blyth, at the Central Cinema, Sherlock Jr was accompanied by an orchestra – “Blyth’s finest orchestra” – led by Joseph Q Atkinson. A native of the town, Mr Atkinson had begun playing the piano in cinemas when he was little more than a child. And he combined his duties there with those of bandleader at the tea room inside Fenwick’s department store in Newcastle. He could have as many as twenty musicians under his baton at any one time, including someone newspapers described as a “whistling violinist”.
REM never had one of those, even in their pomp. They did, however, play Newcastle several times, doing so first at the Tyne Tees TV studios, for an episode of the Tube, and last at the City Hall. And they did so twice at the Tiffany’s Ballroom on New Bridge Street.
An uncanny match
The music that now accompanies Sherlock Jr come from half-way through the band’s thirty-year career. “There’s a lot of fun to be had in those two albums and their songs,” Josh Frank says, “and Buster Keaton’s films are very action-packed and filled with movement.”
The tracks he has used include hit single ‘Crush With Eyeliner’ alongside other favourites, such as ‘King of Comedy’ and ‘Star 69’. They were suggested by REM themselves. And the members of the band are pleased with the finished result. “The guys like the uncanny way their music and Sherlock Jrmatch up,” their manager, Bertis Downs, says. “It’s kind of perfect.”
The next Silents Synced film will be ‘A Woman Of The World’, pairing silent siren Pola Negri with grunge rock favourites Pearl Jam. And future projects are set to feature Pixies and They Might Be Giants.
For now, though, Sherlock Jr is showing in a number of places, including various Cineworlds, Odeons and Vues. It can also be seen – and heard – at the Tyneside Cinema on Pilgrim Street in Newcastle, which is only yards from the place where the Queen’s Hall used to stand.
