Buster Keaton, der Matrose

The scene where Buster and his girl, two rich youngsters who are stuck together alone on a ship, attempt to feed themselves is one of the funniest scenes I've ever watched. For about 10 minutes, I could not stop laughing. After that scene, the comedy is, well, I was going to say hit and miss, but that's not right. No joke really misses. It's just the difference between a smile, a chuckle, and a guffaw. I would say that, especially compared to my two favorite Keaton films, Our Hospitality and Sherlock Junior, The Navigator is considerably less funny (though almost anything is considerably less funny than those two films). Plus, the film never reaches a solid conclusion. A situation was set up at the film's start which was never advanced at all. Still, The Navigator beats out most modern comedies. Nothing can really beat Buster Keaton. I would give it a 7/10 if it lacked the food sequence, but I'll add 1 point for that, so a total of 8/10.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous are satirized in The Navigator, a silent film starring Buster Keaton and Kathryn McGuire, and interestingly enough, directed by Buster and Donald Crisp! Buster and Kathryn wind up stranded together on a ship with no crew or outside help, and as they try to fend for themselves, they give the audience plenty of chuckles. Kathryn picks out a few individual beans to brew their coffee, then ties a raw slab of bacon into a knot to make it look pretty. Buster repeatedly breaks eggs by trying to fish them out of boiling water without a spoon. Since they're that clueless, it's no wonder they have no chance of surviving! And to make matters worse, they're ex-sweethearts; at the start of the movie Kathryn rejects Buster's proposal.

There are a few cute moments to this movie, but there's also a large chunk of the movie that focuses on their dealings with island cannibals. That portion hasn't stood the test of time very well, but if you can put it in the back of your mind, you'll be in a better position to appreciate the underwater scenes and marvel at Buster who fights with an octopus while running out of oxygen in his deep sea suit.

This story of a helpless, spoiled rich boy set adrift upon a giant ship with his equally helpless girlfriend has a clever story line and a series of excellent gags, but the plot is slow to develop. It is held up by some slow-moving scenes which are not as funny as they try to be. Although the sequence of events which result in the stranding of the couple upon the sea are highly improbable, they were well-executed and the humorous possibilities to be explored make that easy to overlook. Most of the attempted humor pays off, but somehow the movie drags a bit. I especially found the underwater scene to be too long and was an anchor to the movie's momentum. However, it did lead to some very humorous moments when Keaton made it ashore. Keaton's trip back to the ship from the island may have inspired the scene in Woody Allen's Sleeper in which Allen and Diane Keaton escaped from the futuristic police by using an inflatable suit to float across a lake. Whatever one's opinion of the bulk of The Navigator, the ending is unquestionably inspired. This is a great example of Keaton pulling a rabbit out of a hat to the surprise of the audience. It's a great audience pleaser. I would not recommend this movie as an introduction to Buster Keaton, but if you're already a fan, then you have to see it.

While it might not be one of Keaton's very best movies, "The Navigator" is a good comedy that has some great scenes. It never quite hits high gear the way that some of Buster's masterpieces do, but there is a good variety of material, and it is pleasant and funny to watch.

Keaton and Kathryn McGuire work together well, and their scenes together make up most of the movie, including some of the funniest parts. Their scenes in the ship's kitchen are especially good. The well-known scene of Buster going deep-sea diving is also very entertaining, and must have taken some real skill to film at the time.

This is one that any fan of Keaton or of silent comedy should enjoy.

Buster Keaton's 'The Navigator,' as a film, doesn't feel quite as complete as many of his other works {'Sherlock Jr.' or 'The General,' for example}, but it remains an enjoyable hour-long string of amusing gags with an abundance of Keaton's trademark deadpan humour. The idea for the film emerged when Keaton heard of the imminent scrapping of the SS Buford, a former army troop transport ship turned passenger liner. Seizing the opportunity, the comedy star purchased the ship cheaply and built an original story around this mammoth film prop. Directed by Keaton and Donald Crisp, 'The Navigator' was released in the same year that produced his legendary 'Sherlock Jr.,' and these two pictures mark the only occasions on which Keaton co-starred with Kathryn McGuire. The two actors are virtually alone for much of this film, barring a multitude of native "cannibals," but they carry the film well, with an assortment of clever and impeccably-timed gags.

Rollo Treadway (Keaton) is a rich and arrogant young man who suddenly decides to marry his sweetheart Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire). Crippled by her immediate negative response of "certainly not!", Treadway embarks on the honeymoon by himself, but awakes the following morning to find that the passenger ship he boarded is empty and drifting aimlessly across the ocean. However, via a series of sinister events, it seems that Betsy has also stumbled aboard the doomed ship, and she and Treadway must work together if they are to survive. There are many moments in the film that will have you chuckling: the two hapless fools trying to concoct a suitable breakfast (especially Keaton attacking a tin of ham with a meat cleaver), their efforts to find a safe and comfortable place to sleep, the pair's encounter with a village of tropical island cannibals and Keaton's underwater fencing joust with a swordfish.

'The Navigator' is perhaps missing many of the mind-blowing stunts that make Buster Keaton's films so memorable, but there certainly are a few good ones in there. Perhaps unusually, the most hair-raising stunts are performed by the extras playing the cannibals (their leader portrayed by the prolific African-American actor Noble Johnson). The moment that springs immediately to mind was the collapse of an immense palm tree onto one of the tiny dugout canoes. Though the cannibal who gets crushed by the trunk is obviously a dummy (albeit, a convincing one), the extras who clambered out of the craft at the final moment were certainly placing their lives at risk. Overall, since it's powered by a very loose and poorly-developed narrative, 'The Navigator' is probably the weakest of Keaton's features that I've seen so far (following 'Sherlock Jr.,' 'The General,' 'Seven Chances' and 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.'), but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable. Also, for an excellent slapstick short that also features Keaton as a mariner, check out 'The Love Nest (1923).'