The Navigator (1924)

Directors:

Donald Crisp
Buster Keaton

Writers:

Clyde Bruckman (story) &
Joseph A. Mitchell (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

13 October 1924 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Ship | Sea | Octopus | 1920s | Native

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Buster Keaton	...	Rollo Treadway
Kathryn McGuire	...	Betsy O'Brien
Frederick Vroom	...	John O'Brien
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Clarence Burton	...	Spy (uncredited)
H.N. Clugston	...	Spy (uncredited)
Noble Johnson	...	Cannibal Chief (uncredited)

Directed by
Donald Crisp
Buster Keaton

Writing credits
Clyde Bruckman		(story) &
Joseph A. Mitchell		(story) (as Joseph Mitchell) and
Jean C. Havez		(story) (as Jean Havez)

Produced by
Buster Keaton	....	producer (uncredited)
Joseph M. Schenck	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Robert Israel		(1995)
William Axt		(uncredited)
Claude Bolling		(1969) (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Byron Houck		(photography)
Elgin Lessley		(photography)

Film Editing by
Buster Keaton		(uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Denver Harmon	....	electrician

Other crew
Fred Gabourie	....	technical director
Joseph M. Schenck	....	presenter
David Shepard	....	video producer: 1995 alternate version (as David H. Shepard)

Production Companies

• Buster Keaton Productions (A Metro-Goldwyn Attraction)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn Distributing Corporation (1924) (USA) (theatrical) (on print)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1925) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Universum Film (UFA) (1925) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Galba Films (1969) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Image Entertainment (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Kino Video (1995) (USA) (VHS) (Included with "the Boat" and "The Love Nest" in "The Art of Buster Keaton Volume 2")
• Image Entertainment (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2002) (Spain) (DVD)
• Kino Video (2012) (USA) (DVD)
• Kino Video (2012) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-Ray)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

59 min | Sweden:75 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

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

Filming Locations:

Lake Tahoe, California, USA

Company:

Buster Keaton Productions

Trivia:

The ship in the movie was actually the USAT Buford, named after prominent Union Civil War cavalry officer and hero of Gettysburg Gen. John T. Buford. The ship had begun life as the S.S. Mississippi for the Atlantic Transport Line in 1890. It was later purchased and renamed by the US government in 1898 and became an army troop transport in the Spanish American War and in WW I. Its most notorious incarnation was as the "Soviet Ark" (or "Red Ark") when the ship was used to deport 249 political radicals and other "undesirable" aliens, among them the fiery anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, to the Russian SFSR in December, 1919, during the Palmer Raids of the first "Red Scare" period in the U.S.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) is supposedly boiling eggs in a large pot, but he grips the edge of the pot, as well as a utensil that's been hanging inside the pot, without burning himself.

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:

Featured in "Silent Clowns: Buster Keaton (#1.1)" (2006)

Not Keaton's best but still rich with inspired moments

While his set-pieces were certainly on a lower scale than Harold Lloyd, and his films were less politically and socially aware than Charles Chaplin, the great Buster Keaton was certainly a resourceful man, and wholly dedicated to the art of prop comedy. In 1924, he would buy his biggest prop in the USAT Buford, a liner that served in World War I and was destined for the scrap heap until Keaton stepped in. Keaton and co- director Donald Crisp sat down to write a new comedy based around their new toy, a giant ship that was ripe with endless comedic possibilities, and one which Keaton had free reign. And out of this came The Navigator, one of Buster Keaton's most loved comedies.

Bored rich-kid Rollo Treadway (Keaton) decides one day to get married, and travels across the street to propose to neighbour Betsy (Kathryn McGuire). Confident that she will say yes, he asks his servant to book honeymoon tickets for Honolulu that very night, but naturally, she turns him down. Rollo decides to go anyway, and a mistake leads to him getting on the wrong ship, the SS Navigator, which has just be sold to an enemy by Betsy's father in an unknown war. Her father is seized while checking the ship by some local gangsters, and Betsy, hearing her father's shouts, wanders onto the ship before it is cut loose. The ship drifts out into the Pacific Ocean, with Rollo and Betsy all alone to face the perils of savage tribes, dodgy equipment, and having to make breakfast all by themselves.

While I do prefer the films of Chaplin, Keaton's reputation as the greatest physical comedian of all time is well justified, with his doe- eyed, helpless expression providing some great subtle comedy between the prat-falls (his nickname was the Great Stone Face). One of the opening scenes aboard the ship has the two characters sensing each other's presence and running manically around the ship, missing each other by inches. It's a remarkably well-timed moment, and McGuire (who co-starred in other Keaton films) proves game and much more than the archetypal love interest. Although I much preferred the likes of Sherlock, Jr. (1924), The General (1926) and Steamboat Bill, Jr (1928), there are some inspired moments here involving Rollo's helpless attempts to open a can of food, a rickety deck-chair, and an underwater sword-fight with a swordfish. If the ending is tinged with a bit of racism (they're black and on an island, of course they're cannibals!), it seems to be more of a case of innocent ignorance, and The Navigator is a 60-minute hoot, though some plot-strands are left somewhat neglected and open-ended.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com