La croisière du navigator

The Navigator was a cute and funny film that displayed Buster Keatons classic gestures greatly. One of his best scenes is when he tastes horribly made coffee on the ship. You don't need sound to be able to understand what is going through Keatons mind. It's classic scenes like that that really showcase Keaton's physical comedy and acting abilities.

The Navigator was rich with physical gags and facial gestures that Keaton is best known for. He was famous for mechanical comedy, such as using hilarious contraptions to do simple things like grind coffee. It did lack in drama, and it didn't really allow for Keatons real heart warming side to show up, like in The General.

It was a great film that was adorable to watch.

Wealthy Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) preposes to his neighbor across the street, Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire), and sends his servant to book passage for a honeymoon sea cruise to Honolulu. Surprised that she would reject such a wonderful guy as himself, he decides to go on the trip anyway. Because the pier number is partially covered and it is nighttime, he ends up on the wrong ship, the Navigator, which Betsy's rich father (Frederick Vroom) has just sold to a small country at war. Agents of the other small nation set the ship adrift that night. Betsy boards the ship to rescue her father, thinking he is aboard, prior to the ship being cut loose.

So McGuire and Keaton are both onboard the same ship, alone except for each other, and don't know that the other is there. How they find each other is part of the fun. How they manage to grasp the simple things like making coffee and using a can opener - with great difficulty -is a running commentary on the idle rich of the roaring 20s since these two have always had servants to do every simple task for them.

The Navigator makes the gutsy choice for its time to allow African American actors the chance to be spear-chucking cannibals since such roles normally went to white actors in black face. It's also notable that these actors were performing their own stunts like the rest of the cast with Keaton, as always, taking the biggest risks with the most physically demanding stunts.

Donald Crisp, the co-director, was hired to direct the dramatic (non-boat) scenes, and was removed when he tried to direct the boat scenes as well. Keaton took over. In the gag where McGuire tosses the portrait that ends up dangling outside Keaton's window to frighten him, the portrait of the scary man is Crisp.

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.

Of all the Buster Keaton films I have seen it is certainly not the best, but it is also not the worst. The story of a spoiled man (Rollo) who falls head over heels in love with a helpless woman (Betsy) seems as if it would be easy to hit the audience with punch line after punch line, but the jokes come out at such a sloth worthy pace that it is painstakingly obvious what will happen next. There are some scenes that made me laugh so hard my sides began to ache, but others barely warranted a smirk. It did show off Keaton's incredible nac for physical comedy. The circumstances leading to getting on the ship, the bad coffee, and the experiences after he is off, all show why he was ahead of his time in the movie industry.