Keaton's Sherlock Jr - undercranking study by Ben Model

This is a brief deconstruction of the "trailing the suspect" sequence from Buster Keaton's "Sherlock, Jr." (1924), showing how Keaton and his cast and staff carefully chose cranking speeds and adjusted or choreographed their movement and action to create the desired effect onscreen. This is an aspect of Silent Film that is (and was) key to the language and is unique to the medium. [NOTE: my line at the end "...didn't hurt him a bit" is meant as a joke -- as Keaton broke his neck doing this gag when his neck hit the rail.]
For a full explanation of this topic, watch "A Study in Undercranking", my disc extra on Criterion's DVD/Blu-ray of Chaplin's "The Kid".
For more videos like this search for "undercranking" on my channel‪@silentfilmmusic‬.
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