Projectionist Buster becomes an amateur detective via correspondence course in order to foil the villain who has stolen his sweetheart and her watch. His screen-dreams of devilish clever heroism merge with reality in one of the most astonishing sequences in cinema. "Sherlock Jr. is Buster's exquisite 8-1/2, a comical and lyrical contemplation of the film medium by a master of its magic. Among its famous set pieces are the haunting walk from the projector to the screen, the series of foreground-background jokes of breathtaking sophistication, and the pungent analysis of physical gags before they are performed. Yet amid all the self-conscious aestheticism and convoluted Pirandellianism, the caper-fantasy plot of Sherlock Jr. merrily rolls along at a hectic pace. What is truly astonishing is the facility with which Keaton can shift gears from his narrative to slapstick track. Despite the general unavailability of Keaton's films in the sound era, a maverick group of critics at the 1955 Brussels Fair had already seized on Sherlock Jr. and were promoting it as the best film of all time." (Andrew Sarris, Tom Allen, Village Voice)