Blank Check with Griffin & David: Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak

Published 2023-05-14; 2:15:56 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David” and the episode “Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: James Urbaniak.

Subject films: Sherlock Jr. (1924), The Navigator (1924).

On the transcript: No speaker labels and heavy cross-talk; two ad blocks (Audible Dracula, Video Game Town, around 0:29:40-0:32:30; MUBI around 1:19:42-1:21:46) were skipped. Some attributions of host lines (Griffin vs David) are low confidence.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

The [unnamed John Ford film with Roddy McDowall and Donald Crisp] I believe is How Green Was My Valley, since the hosts say it beat Citizen Kane for the Oscar, but the title is never said.
Spelling corrections in mangled_names (Elgin Lessley, Kathryn McGuire, Corridor Crew, Veronal, Judd Hirsch, etc.) come from my own knowledge, not the transcript.
The 'Thief of Baghdad (Korda/Powell and Pressburger version)' target is the 1940 remake, inferred from the director names.
Lubitsch's 'Three Women' is the title I inferred for the 'Three' mentioned at 2:13:58.

Films that came up

Claims (64)

people (future-stars cast): Beware of the Gonzo → Dazed and Confused. Like Dazed and Confused, the young cast included many future stars.
“It was hour dazed and confused.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:14:32 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (period look): The Fabelmans → Back to the Future. The prom set full of extras looked like Back to the Future.
“And it looked like back to the future.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:16:01 · James Urbaniak (0.80 sure it was them)
craft (directing style): Steven Spielberg → Ed Wood. Spielberg called out where to look mid-take during the long projector shot, like Ed Wood calling directions.
“It was almost like Ed Wood going, walk through the door.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:19:21 · James Urbaniak (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (joke analog): Beware of the Gonzo → The Fabelmans. Griffin jokes that Beware of the Gonzo is the Fabelmans of its time.
“the Fabelmans of its time.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:20:12 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (dismissed): Robert Altman → Citizen Kane. Altman told Urbaniak he never thought Citizen Kane was that great.
“I never thought Citizen K was that great.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:25:20 · James Urbaniak (0.85 sure it was them)
contrast (sentiment contrast): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin can be accused of sentimentalizing and acting cute, which Keaton's understated style never does.
“you can accuse Chaplain of sentimentalizing, a chaplain of sort of acting cute.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:39:20 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (persona contrast): Buster Keaton → Harold Lloyd. Lloyd plays a regular guy; Keaton is an irregular guy.
“Harold Lloyd is sort of playing a regular guy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:39:41 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (analogy): Buster Keaton → Typeface: Helvetica. Keaton's clean, streamlined, unaffected style is like the Helvetica font.
“It's like Helvetica font.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:40:35 · James Urbaniak (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (critic's description): Walter Kerr → Buster Keaton. Kerr's book The Silent Clowns describes Keaton's serenity as resignation to catastrophe, not happiness.
“he actually has a great description where he talks about Keaton's serenity.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:41:42 · James Urbaniak (0.80 sure it was them)
unmapped (canonical reference): The Crowd → Jean-Luc Godard. Godard reportedly said there was no need to make films about ordinary people because The Crowd already existed.
“the crowd has already been made.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:43:39 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (acting style contrast): The Crowd → Sherlock, Jr.. Naturalistic acting in The Crowd coexisted in the same era with semaphore-style silent acting, which Keaton avoided.
“There's an indicating quality where fingers are being waved in the air and that's a stream that coexisted.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:44:00 · James Urbaniak (0.50 sure it was them)
people (acting contrast within the film): Sherlock, Jr. → Buster Keaton. The rival and his crew do stereotypical heavy silent-film acting, which makes Keaton's modern performance stand out.
“those 2 guys are absolutely doing what most people think of as silent film acting.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:45:14 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (ahead of his time): Buster Keaton → New Hollywood acting. Keaton acts like a talkie actor decades early, exploiting that nobody can hear the dialogue.
“he's acting like a talkie actor, but he's using the fact that you can't hear what he's saying.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:45:30 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (vaudeville lineage): Buster Keaton → Houdini. Keaton watched Houdini from the wings and the Keaton family were pals with him.
“I love that he was his family were pals with Houdini.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:46:20 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (practical vs showy): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin will make potatoes dance but Keaton's character is practical and just tries to solve the problem.
“But Keith wouldn't do that because it's not practical.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:49:40 · James Urbaniak (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (technical rigor): Buster Keaton → Stanley Kubrick. Keaton is highly technical, mechanical and formal in framing, which makes him a little Kubrickian.
“if you'll allow me, please, I think he's a little Kubrickian.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:50:07 · James Urbaniak (0.70 sure it was them)
contrast (temperament contrast): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin is warm with emotions at the surface; Keaton is cool with emotions under the surface.
“Chaplin is very, very warm.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:50:22 · James Urbaniak (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): Buster Keaton → Wes Anderson. A line of rigorous frame control runs from Keaton to the Coen brothers and Wes Anderson.
“the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:50:38 · James Urbaniak (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (action direction): Buster Keaton → James Cameron. As an action director Keaton is likened to James Cameron.
“he's also like fucking James Cameron as an action director.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:51:04 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
contrast (character contrast): Buster Keaton → Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin's tramp would pocket the money or even lift the wallet, while Keaton is not a scoundrel.
“which once again, Chaplin would not only not hesitate for a moment to pocket the money, he would pull the wallet out of the back pocket of someone.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:52:15 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (possible source): Sherlock, Jr. → Merton of the Movies (stage play). Keaton had seen a satiric play that may have given him the idea of a story set around a movie theater.
“there's a satiric play apparently called Merton of the movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:53:06 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (borrowed magic bits): Sherlock, Jr. → Houdini. The dream sequence let Keaton use vaudeville and Houdini-style magic bits in a movie grounded in reality.
“there were magic bits that he knew from vaudeville, from Houdini and other magicians”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:53:54 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (co-director): Sherlock, Jr. → Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle. Arbuckle was brought on as co-director and given the pseudonym William B. Goodrich, then edged out.
“this is the movie where he came up with uh, William B. Goodrich, which was his, like, nom de plume for directing, uh, Freddie Arbuckle.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:55:49 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (reassignment): Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle → The Red Mill. Keaton's memoir says he and others conspired to get Arbuckle a job on The Red Mill, though historians say the dates do not fit.
“conspired to get him a different job on a different movie called the Red Mill.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:57:44 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (critical standing): Sherlock, Jr. → The General. Sherlock Jr. has supplanted The General as the critical consensus perfect Keaton movie.
“I feel like it's supplanted the general as sort of the critic consensus, perfect Keaton movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:58:18 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (best work): Charlie Chaplin → One A.M.. Griffin says Chaplin's one-man drunk-on-the-staircase short is the best thing Chaplin ever did, better than his features.
“which, for my money, is still the best thing Chaplain ever did, over his features.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:58:42 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
unmapped (Keaton-esque): One A.M. → Buster Keaton. Chaplin's non-tramp drunk short plays more like a Keaton picture in its directing style.
“it's more Keatney”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:59:13 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (theater-viewing): Sherlock, Jr. → Rear Window. A CalArts teacher argued certain films, like Sherlock Jr., should be seen in a theater while Rear Window can be appreciated at home.
“you can watch rear window at home and appreciate it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:00:20 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
craft (joke structure): Buster Keaton → The Simpsons. Keaton is great at the Simpsons-style 'plus joke', a joke with another joke on top.
“Keaton is great at the Simpsons style plus joke.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:05:02 · James Urbaniak (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (comedy opening): Sherlock, Jr. → Kumail Nanjiani. Nanjiani says a comedy should open with a guy spilling hot coffee, and Keaton opens with a guy under the boot.
“the opening of any comedy movie should be a guy accidentally spilling hot coffee on himself.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:05:29 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (namesake): Sherlock, Jr. → Rudolph Valentino. The villain is called the Sheik after Valentino.
“the sheik's so named because a la Rudolph Valentino.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:07:31 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (parody): The Frozen North → Nanook of the North. The Frozen North is a Nanook of the North parody that uses an intertitle for a dark joke.
“I think that's sort of his Nanook of the North parody.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:14:33 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (coincidence gag): Sherlock, Jr. → Pulp Fiction. The wrong-man-walks-by coincidence in the pawn shop is compared to Ving Rhames walking by in Pulp Fiction.
“much like Ving Reims and Pulp Fiction, just happens to walk by at that moment.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:16:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (effects analysis): Sherlock, Jr. → Corridor Crew (YouTube channel). A YouTube channel was stumped by three of the film's special-effects sequences, more than by modern movies.
“they were more stump trying to figure out the special effects of Sherlock Jr. than most modern movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:18:51 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (cinematographer collaboration): Sherlock, Jr. → Elgin Leslie. Keaton and his long-term DP set up the black-velvet and matched-position effects together.
“Shout out to his long-term DP.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:22:31 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Sherlock, Jr. → The Navigator. The same long-term cinematographer, Elgin Leslie, shot both Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator.
“who was named Elgin Leslie, who shot this and the navigator and the bulk of his shorts and most of his features of this era.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:22:33 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (intrusion gag): Sherlock, Jr. → Bugs Bunny cartoons. The film rejecting Keaton's linear-time presence is like Bugs Bunny messing with Daffy.
“It's Bugs Bunny fucking with Daffy.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:27:58 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (vaudeville pool): Sherlock, Jr. → W. C. Fields. Vaudevillians really could play pool; W. C. Fields had an eccentric pool bit in his act.
“WC Fields also had a bit in his act where he did eccentric pool and he does them in some films.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:29:13 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (cartoon logic): Sherlock, Jr. → Wile E. Coyote cartoons. Keaton riding the handlebars without noticing the driver is gone follows Wile E. Coyote logic.
“it's Wiley Coyote logic.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:36:50 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (homage): Sherlock, Jr. → What's Up, Doc?. The Chinese-dragon bicycle chase in What's Up, Doc? is a complete homage to the stag-party sequence.
“The bicycled Chinese dragon sequence and what's up dog is complete homage to this sequence.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:38:39 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (childlike innocence): Sherlock, Jr. → Dumb and Dumber. Keaton's baffled reaction to the sudden babies is compared to a childlike, non-sexual innocence like Dumb and Dumber.
“where he has a childlike innocence, so he is not drawn towards sexual situations, if I may be permitted in comparison.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:41:03 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (archetype guess): The Confidence Man → Vince Vaughn. David guesses the rogue who reforms is a Vince Vaughn type.
“So I'm going to guess he's a Vince Vaughn type rogue.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:45:24 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (archetype guess): Girl Shy → Michael Cera. Harold Lloyd's shy boy is likened to a Michael Cera type.
“He's more of a Michael Sarah motherfucker.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:46:33 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (modern equivalent): The Navigator → I'm on a Boat (Lonely Island video). The Navigator is a feature of boat bits, the I'm On a Boat of its day.
“That basically this was the I'm on a boat of its day.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:49:36 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (same hook): The Navigator → The General. Both started from Keaton getting hold of a vehicle and building the movie around it, but The General is a real movie while The Navigator is a series of bits.
“It is so similar to what the general eventually is where he's like, vehicle?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:50:29 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (same setup): The Navigator → Cabin Boy. A fancy lad must prove he is a tough man at sea, a setup that Cabin Boy repeats while looking like a Harryhausen movie.
“Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick's cabin boy is such a Buster Keaton setup.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:51:04 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Cabin Boy → Ray Harryhausen. Cabin Boy is coded visually and tonally as a Ray Harryhausen movie, with stop motion and forced-perspective giants, even as its story is a Keaton setup.
“that movie is obviously so coded like visually and tonally as a Ray Harryhausen movie, but Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick's cabin boy is such a Buster Keaton setup”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:51:04 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (boat movie): The Navigator → Steamboat Bill Jr.. Steamboat Bill Jr. is another boat-bit movie but with a real emotional spine about the father.
“is another boat bit movie, but it's a boat bit movie that's more about the father.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:54:07 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (co-director): The Navigator → Donald Crisp. Keaton hired Crisp as a dramatic co-director, then shunted him aside when Crisp wanted gags.
“One thing about this movie that's interesting is it's codirected by Donald Crisp.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:56:31 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (acting credit): Donald Crisp → The Birth of a Nation. Crisp played Ulysses Grant in The Birth of a Nation.
“a dramatic actor and director who plays Ulysses Grant in the birth of the nation.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:56:34 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (acting credit): Donald Crisp → Roddy McDowall. Crisp played Roddy McDowall's dad in a John Ford film and won an Academy Award.
“And he plays Roddy McDowell's dad in the great John Ford movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:56:40 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (reaction style): The Navigator → Harold Lloyd. In the ghost-painting bit Keaton panics like a Harold Lloyd character instead of staying deadpan.
“He actually had kind of a Harold Lloyd reaction to this.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:58:32 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (period-accuracy obsession): The General → Stanley Kubrick. Keaton's obsessive uniform and detail accuracy on The General was Kubrickian, a push as a director beyond comedy.
“he was so obsessed with like fucking, you brought it up, James, but like Kubrickian, every fucking uniform has to be period accurate.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:59:49 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): The Navigator → Victor Herbert. A Navigator title card jokes about singing Kiss Me Again to the music of Alice, Where Art Thou; the speaker looked up that Kiss Me Again is by Victor Herbert.
“Kiss Me Again is an up-tempo, like, waltz. That I can imagine. I can basically picture what that's written by Victor Herbert”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:01:09 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (acting credit): Noble Johnson → King Kong. Noble Johnson, who plays the chief in The Navigator, also plays the chief in King Kong.
“who also plays the chief in King Kong.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:02:28 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (critic's reading): The Navigator → Dennis Schwartz. A modern reviewer says its theme of civilized man versus the machine explains why it was a hit.
“its theme of civilized man versus the machine, seen as making life difficult for modern man because we have become so dependent on it”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:05:54 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (Rube Goldberg gag): The Navigator → Pee-wee Herman. The pulleys-and-ropes kitchen sequence is described as Pee-wee Herman and Rube Goldberg stuff.
“they pee wee Hermann at the kitchen.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:06:26 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (real-life basis): John Gilbert → Babylon. Brad Pitt's character in Babylon is obviously based on John Gilbert.
“John Gilbert, who Brad Pitt's character in Babylon, is very obviously based on”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:09:22 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (remake): The Thief of Baghdad → The Thief of Baghdad (Korda/Powell and Pressburger version). Griffin has seen the Korda, Powell and Pressburger version, an all-time great special effects movie.
“one of the all-time great special effects movies of the 1st half of the century.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:11:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (acting credit): Noble Johnson → The Thief of Baghdad. Johnson plays the Prince of the Indies in The Thief of Baghdad, another indigenous potentate in his long list of credits.
“And Noble Johnson, who we already mentioned.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:12:04 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (remake): Seven Chances → Chris O'Donnell. Seven Chances is one of the rare Keaton films that was remade, with Chris O'Donnell as the Buster Keaton of our day.
“Yes, with the with the Buster Keaton of our day.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:19:17 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (remake): Our Hospitality → S. S. Rajamouli. S. S. Rajamouli also remade Our Hospitality.
“I didn't realize that SS Rajamuli also remade our hospitality.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:19:27 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (joke remake): The Navigator → Captain Phillips. Griffin quips that The Navigator was remade as Captain Phillips, with fewer gags.
“and the navigator was remade as Captain Phillips.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:19:36 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (beat it at the Oscars): Roddy McDowall → Citizen Kane. Griffin says he used to think the Roddy McDowall film shouldn't have beaten Citizen Kane, then saw it and changed his mind.
“oh, that's the movie that shouldn't have beaten Season K.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:20:28 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Fun items (25)

fun, about Steven Spielberg: On the Fabelmans set, Spielberg greeted Urbaniak with a pun on 'thanks for having me.'
“And Steven Spielberg said, thanks for being had, which was cute.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:18:00 · James Urbaniak (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Killer App: James was cast in an Altman and Garry Trudeau miniseries about early computers whose 'killer app' was live video that looked good.
“And the killer app of the title was live video that looked good.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:23:47 · James Urbaniak (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Robert Altman: Altman told James he never thought Citizen Kane was that great, after he had followed Orson Welles through Paris.
“I mean, Orson Wells is fine, but I never thought Citizen K was that great.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:25:20 · James Urbaniak (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about James Urbaniak: As a first grader a kid told him he sounded like Mr. Spock; his voice is his dad's Jersey loudness plus his mother's over-careful articulation.
“you sound like Mr. Spock.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:32:59 · James Urbaniak (0.95 sure it was them)
fun, about Buster Keaton: James: Keaton is the ultimate non-indicator; Helvetica was a reaction to ornate German type and is the New York subway font, so 'modern' also means clean.
“It's basically Helvetica is an anti-Nazi font.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:40:46 · James Urbaniak (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: The opening lost-dollar bit is James's favorite Keaton bit; the title card just says 'describe it' and he later repeats the rectangle callback.
“It is my single favorite Buster Keaton bit of all time.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 0:46:50 · James Urbaniak (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Buster Keaton: The average silent had about 250 intertitles; Keaton never went above 55 in any movie.
“the average silent film had about 250 in her titles, and he never went above 55 in any movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:02:04 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: Seen in a theater, the 'describe it.' title card got a huge laugh and the whole audience was suddenly in.
“and then the title comes up that just says, describe it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:03:07 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: The first joke of the film is a close-up of the book How to Be a Detective, followed by the licked-thumb fingerprint.
“And then he takes the book down and he's has a picture.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:11:06 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: Keaton broke his neck on the water-tower gag in Sherlock Jr. and only learned years later from an X-ray that it had healed.
“someone took an x-ray of him and was like, you have broken your, like, at some point you broke your neck.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:13:49 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Frozen North: A Keaton short whose dark joke lives in the title card: he shoots a couple, then 'wait, this isn't my wife.'
“wait, this isn't my wife.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:14:40 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: Gillette's title card plays on razor brands (Gillette, Ever-Ready, Gem); the studio's name on screen, Veronal, was a sleeping drug.
“And Vernal was a sedative.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:18:02 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: Walking into the movie screen looks like a miracle: it is a second set built behind the proscenium and lit differently so it reads as a flat projected image.
“And he just steps casually into the screen, and it feels like a miracle”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:23:08 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: Keaton matched his body position across cuts to wildly different locations, shots made hours or weeks apart, by overlaying the earlier film.
“they had an initial shot of him and then they like put the film over the film.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:25:00 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: In the Sherlock Jr. jump through the old woman's suitcase, a disguised Gillette is the old lady, a vaudeville magic bit that startled a 1990s Film Forum audience.
“that really is a what the fuck moment when you see it with an audience.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:34:06 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: In the gag where Gillette falls off the motorbike, it is really Keaton doing the stunt for the actor, and the handlebar ride mixes real shots and process shots.
“So Keaton did the stunt for the actor who played Gillette.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:36:47 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: Keaton's baby-gag reading: every other movie cue he can copy in real time, but he cannot produce twin babies; contributors read it as a joke about movies skipping the 9 months.
“This is going to take 9 months.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:41:33 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Sherlock, Jr.: The pool-table sequence stumped the crew for an hour until Keaton chalked the balls and solved it in a day.
“He coated the balls with chalk and would just like figured it out, like within a day, how to do it all.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:43:02 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Buster Keaton: The silent-era box-office game: the 1924 chart has a movie simply titled America, and Feet of Clay about a shark attack.
“I'm just gonna make a movie called America.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:48:26 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Navigator: Breakfast gag: she puts unground coffee beans in a kettle, he drinks it, silently leaves to vomit and returns miming a phone call.
“he makes a gesture saying, I had to make a phone call.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:55:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Navigator: Studio gave Crisp the dramatic scenes; they reportedly told him the film was done and then shot the deep-sea-diving sequence without him.
“Apparently they literally told him the film was done and then filmed the deep sea diving sequence”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 1:57:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Navigator: A title card says going on a honeymoon without a bride is like singing 'Kiss Me Again' to the tune of 'Alice, Where Art Thou' (a fast waltz versus a slow plaintive song).
“going on a honeymoon without a bride is like singing in the words of Kiss Me Again to the music of Alice, where art thou?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:00:45 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Navigator: The last 20 minutes (island of cannibals) are old-school white panic racism, where Keaton's timelessness 'falls to the ground'.
“It's 20 minutes of old school white panic racism.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:02:10 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Navigator: A cut gag sent a starfish with a badge directing fish traffic; previews showed the audience was caught up in the story and it cost 10 grand.
“apparently they'd spent 10 grand on that gag and they had to cut it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:04:14 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about James Urbaniak: On Law and Order SVU James played a red-herring creep who put cameras in women's restrooms; his character's name was Wade Donato, an aquatic pun.
“his name was Wade Donato, and I always felt Wade was a sort of aquatic pun.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak · 2:18:21 · James Urbaniak (0.90 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Treats Sherlock Jr. as a perfect film and loves seeing silent comedy in a theater, where he says it transformed him at CalArts. Prefers Chaplin's One A.M. to his features, and is a sucker for meta jokes about film language and for Cabin Boy-style references. He sours on The Navigator's cannibal-island finale for its racism.
David Sims (host): Prepared with printed plot synopses and notes, and loves tight gag construction, Keaton's streamlined modernity and trivia (title-card puns, cast and box office). Has an eye for casting names and silent-era minutiae. He gets the box office game right and enjoys obscure film-history jokes.
James Urbaniak (guest): Loves old-timey stuff, the history and styles of acting, Robert Altman, Tony Randall and the Simpsons-quoting camaraderie of fellow nerds. He admires Keaton as a non-indicating, anti-sentimental, serene and modern performer, favoring cool restraint over Chaplin's warmth. He dislikes hammy over-indication and is a sucker for the specific, throwaway behavioral bit.

The show's recurring bits

The box office game: Guessing the film's opening weekend and what it was up against.
The sung theme: "Blank Check with Griffin and David", sung; the transcriber garbles it.

Names the transcriber got wrong

'Brad Jack' / 'Black Jack' in the cold open: the opening intertitle read of the Sherlock Jr. title card, likely garbled; unresolved
'Bobby Kinevali and Roseburn' = Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne (Medea at BAM)
'Heather Ross' / 'Dale Close' for the New Leaf shirt gift: unresolved, probably a documentary-maker and a subject name
'Josh McLagler' = Spielberg's first AD, probably Josh McLaglen
'fading ins' = The Fabelmans
'Jud Hurst' / 'Jud Hirsch' = Judd Hirsch; 'Gabby Labelle' = Gabriel LaBelle
'Camel Scott' = Campbell Scott; 'name is Sedaris' = Amy Sedaris
'Lewin Davis' = Inside Llewyn Davis; 'Brewster McLeod' = Brewster McCloud; 'Citizen K' / 'Season K' = Citizen Kane; 'Nev Campbell' = Neve Campbell
'Goddard' = Godard; 'Walter Kurr' / 'Monter Kerr' = Walter Kerr; 'Gary Mayers' / 'Gary Mirror' = CalArts teacher, spelling unknown
'Catherine McGuire' = Kathryn McGuire; 'Elgin Leslie' = Elgin Lessley; 'Joe Skank' = Joseph Schenck; 'Ford West' likely right
'Ward Bonda' = Ward Bond (aside); 'Ving Reims' = Ving Rhames
'Dan Schwartz' / 'Dash Schwartz' = Dennis Schwartz (reviewer)
'Camille Nanjiani' = Kumail Nanjiani; 'quarter crew' = Corridor Crew; 'Michael Sarah' = Michael Cera; 'Steve Zissu' = Steve Zissou
'Thomas Meagan' = Thomas Meighan; 'Virginia Valley' = Virginia Valli; 'Peckham Heart' = Peg o' My Heart; 'Vernal' = Veronal; 'Julia Fay' = Julia Faye; 'Charles DeRoche' = Charles de Roche
'Ramon Navarro' = Ramon Novarro; 'Anime Wong' = Anna May Wong; 'Rod La Rock' = Rod La Rocque; 'Corda. Pow Pressburger' = Korda / Powell and Pressburger; 'Eileen Pringle' = Elaine? spelling uncertain
'SS Rajamuli' = S. S. Rajamouli; 'Chris O'Donn' = Chris O'Donnell; 'Plan of the Apes' = Planet of the Apes
'Tony Reynold' / 'Tony Randall' variants = Tony Randall; 'Keith' = Keaton; 'Chaplain' = Chaplin; 'Mike Shyamalan' = M. Night Shyamalan
'13 dead end drive' at 1:28:34 is an unresolved film or street reference; 'Grooms, Buffy / Benedict Bafo' is a joke name

Blank Check with Griffin & David: Sherlock Jr. / The Navigator with James Urbaniak

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

subject (2)

passing (34)

compared (15)

anecdote (15)

recommended (5)

dismissed (1)

Claims (64)

Fun items (25)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong