9 Incredible Action Sequences From Non-Action Movies

Motorcycle Madness – Sherlock Jr.

I cannot remember if it was Siskel and Ebert who, during an At the Movies episode on comic directors Woody Allen and Mel Brooks, compared those comedy titans to the two dueling comic personalities from the silent era, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Allen was like Chaplin, inserting poignant drama into his lampoons to make them more emotionally resonant. Meanwhile, Brooks was like Keaton, who tried to make the same kind of film over and over again, refining the slapstick and wit that audiences had come to expect.

Buster Keaton was more than just a remarkable actor and director, though. He was a superb magician and acrobat. He was a magician because of the seamlessly edited effects tricks he employed, an acrobat because he did many of his own incredible stunts. While many of Keaton’s comedy classics ended with an elaborate chase sequence, the finale of his 45-minute masterwork Sherlock Jr. is one of the most exhilarating set-pieces ever committed to film. Incredibly, the film came out 90 years ago – before green screen technology or rear screen projection was introduced. What you are seeing is masterful stuntwork of the highest order.

Beginning with a breakneck pursuit of the main character – who earlier in the film jumps through a movie theater screen to become the star of his own mystery – the gangsters pursue his detective character in a car. (He is on a motorcycle, narrowly evading a car crash, meandering through traffic and guiding the unstable vehicle on his own.) It seems like any obstacle that could come in his way does. Part of Keaton’s genius is how he set up the upcoming close calls, preparing the audience for the challenge ahead and building suspense as we wonder how he is going to make it through the next obstacle. The pacing doesn’t slow down at all to let anyone catch his or her breath.

Another comedic layer to the scene is how the character does not realize the motorcycle’s original driver has fallen off near the start of the chase. It is a terrific grace note to close off a miraculous, slapstick-filled chase, and one of the most outrageous in film history.