La barca

This funny short comedy has some good subtle gags, in addition to Buster Keaton's usual assortment of slapstick gags and gadgets. For having such a closely-confined setting, there is a rather impressive variety of material, and the story and the cast make good use of every possibility.

The movie starts with a clever opening shot, the kind of misdirection joke that Keaton was so good at carrying out in an offhand way. The opening scene also sets up the rest of the action very nicely. The comedy that follows on "The Boat" is at times unrefined, but it has some very amusing moments.

Buster gets pretty good mileage out of the props and also from the family relationships. Sybil Seely (who was in some of Keaton's best short features) portrays his patient wife, and the reactions of her and the children to some of Keaton's antics add to the comedy.

While I love everything Keaton did, I particularly like his short comedies the best. They're packed full of gags and it's always an endless laugh riot from beginning to end. The Boat is one of my favorites, along with The Scarecrow and One Week. Keaton's brusque treatment of his children in this short speaks to my heart since I'm not very fond of children, either. The gag where he measures the temperature of the water before jumping in to save his kid from drowning is priceless and I never cease to laugh. This short is also an early example of Keaton's ability to take one prop and base a whole story around it, a la The General. Sybil Seeley is also excellent as his patient wife and her performances in Keaton's other shorts are equally delightful.

Keaton always said that if he had not been a comedian then he would have become an engineer. This short shows that he had quite the talent with gadgets.

Keaton plays a family man who has built a boat and plans to take his family - his wife and two sons - out for a day's pleasure.

The first impediment he faces is getting the boat out of the garage in which he built it. The door is not big enough. Eventually the door is almost big enough, he pulls the boat through the enlarged door, and it takes enough of the rest of the supporting wall with it that one side of the house comes down, revealing furnishings within. I don't think that this was a tear down.

Next is the launching. You may wonder how a boat sank and then was retrieved from the water in OK condition. The boat launch, in which the vessel slides out of the launching ramp and sinks straight into the water, took three days to film and there were actually two 35 foot boats constructed for the short. The biggest problem was that the boat that was supposed to sink did not sink cleanly and multiple attempts were required.

This short is different in that, for once, Buster is not trying to get the girl. He already has her, is married to her, and has two children. What's surprising is that she is so easygoing about the destruction of her home and then the possibility of drowning at the hands of the weather and Buster's bad judgment. Sybil Seely played the wife in this film and in several other Buster Keaton shorts including "One Week".

This was a short that had no long term goals. If not from dumb luck, this movie could have been lost forever. This was found among a series of other shorts that Keaton had kept at home. In many ways, this is a rip off of Chaplin. Nothing seems to go right for this little "Tramp" as he is pushed around and put into one situation after another. Not as funny as many other Keaton classics, it is worth keeping on tape for future generations to enjoy. In many ways, this and The Love Nest are often found with Keaton's classic the Navigator. Both have to do with Keaton on the Ocean. This alone keep them together in a category. If you like Keaton, you'll enjoy this one. If not, you'll agree that this is a dime a dozen for Keaton.

This is definitely one of Buster Keaton's better short films. The key is the simplicity of the premise...Keaton's character builds a houseboat...and the multitude of problems that it causes.

The jokes are simple but usually funny (even now in our more "enlightened times" and Keaton's slapstick acrobatics are, as usual, simply wonderful to watch. He uses that one basic, if large, prop...the boat...to great effect.

And the final line, while an old joke, is still funny.