The Navigator (1924)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Directors:

Donald Crisp
Buster Keaton

Writers:

Clyde Bruckman (writer)
Jean C. Havez (writer)

Release Date:

13 October 1924 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Two spoiled rich people find themselves trapped on an empty passenger ship.

Plot Keywords:

Ship | Sea | Scuba Diving | Millionaire | Slapstick

Cast

Buster Keaton	...	Rollo Treadway
Kathryn McGuire	...	Betsy O'Brien
Frederick Vroom	...	John O'Brien

Runtime:

59 min | Sweden:75 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Portugal:M/6 | Spain:T | UK:U | Sweden:Btl | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Lake Tahoe, California, USA

Company:

Buster Keaton Productions

Trivia:

This ship in the movie was actually the SS Buford, named after prominent Union Civil War cavalry officer and hero of Gettysburg Gen. John T. Buford. It was an army troop transport in WW Im then became a civilian passenger ship. Its most famous passenger was Emma Goldman, the fiery anarchist, when the ship was used to deport 248 political radicals and other "undesirables"--many of whom were actually American citizens--to the Soviet Union in 1923 during the "Red Scare" period.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Leader of a small gathering: Gentlemen, the enemy have just purchased the steamship Navigator.
[Walks over to open the double doors, and gestures to a vessel outside]
Leader of a small gathering: There she lies now, and it is our patriotic duty to destroy that ship. We will send her adrift in the fog tonight before the new crew goes aboard. The wind - the tide - and the rocks will do the rest.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Le fantôme d'Henri Langlois (2004)

One of Buster's best features - packed with fun

I found this one of Buster's best feature films with so much invention and cleverness in the gags that one is constantly amazed at his ingenuity.

Famous sequences/moments: Buster's going by car to propose to his co-star, who lives across the street; Buster and his leading lady just missing each other the first morning on board; Buster's screwing open the milk can only to find he has screwed through the bottom; the pulley seesaw; the faint co-star in the collapsing deck chair (a precursor of his undressing scene in SPITE MARRIAGE); Donald Crisp's painting swinging back and forth outside the port hole; all the cabin doors opening as the ship sways; the pulleys and inventions for the organized breakfast (stemming from a similar sequence in his short THE SCARECROW); the underwater swordfish fight; the co-star's using Buster as a boat to paddle to safety; the toy cannon attached to Buster's foot and of course the surprise rescue at the end.

It never stops and it is never less than hilarious. A must-see for Keaton fans.

KINO's print is crisp and clear and the musical accompaniment is played by a combo of violin, drums, piano and horns.