The Navigator (1924)

You won't be disappointed!

Pretty Good

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

The acting in this movie is really good.

Through a series of mishaps, a pampered rich boy (Buster Keaton) and his unrequited love find themselves the only two passengers on a huge steamer adrift in the middle of the ocean. Wouldn't be so bad, if they did not come across an island of cannibal savages who want to invite them to..ahem...dinner."The Navigator" breezes by quickly and easily, offering many chuckles and few outright chortles. There are some marvelous set pieces, like an underwater scene involving Keaton in diving gear, some swordfish, and an octopus. And there are other smaller but just as funny moments, like the scene where these two socialites who've never lifted a finger for themselves decide to cook dinner in a kitchen designed to make meals for hundreds. The depiction of the island savages is predictably cringe worthy in a film from 1924, but you just have to suck it up and get past it, accepting it as a product of its time. If you can get past that, there's much to enjoy here.Grade: A-

Perhaps not the greatest Keaton but probably my favourite. A likable film. Are there though different versions? I am sure I have seen a version where all the cabin doors swing open early on, in fact when Buster first starts to explore the Navigator. In my DVD though the scene occurs later on when Buster and the girl are worried about possible intruders.Again the DVD doesn't have the scene where the girl pumps too much air into Buster's diving suit. The suit is blown up like barrage balloon.In fact I believe I have seen two quite different versions of the scene in "The Boat" where the newly-constructed craft is launched and sinks like a stone.Has anyone else had these experiences?

Even though this wasn't my favorite of Buster Keaton films, it's still a really great one. Not only was the movie hilarious with the constant problems that was happening on the ship but I must give a huge pound of applause to the photographers and director Buster Keaton. The shots definitely helped the humor in the movie, especially in the scene where the two characters were running up and down the ship trying to find who else was on the ship but kept missing each other. The shots for that scene were fantastic because you could see each time how they just missed each other. Once again though Buster Keaton's over exaggerating movement and acting helped keep the film constantly comedy packed. As well as the chemistry with his costar Kathryn McGuire, the two of them keep the movie entertaining.

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