the audience applauded

Sorry, this movie sucks

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Rich sap Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) pines to marry sweetheart Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire). He sets all the arrangements to sail to Honolulu except she says no to him. Her father John O'Brien (Frederick Vroom) had sold his ship 'The Navigator' to one side of a conflict. The opposing agents intend to set the ship adrift and then sunk. John goes to retrieve some documents but is captured by the spies. Betsy goes on board to find him but is stranded on board as the ship is set adrift. Meanwhile Rollo goes to the wrong Pier and finds himself on board 'The Navigator'. He wakes up to find himself alone with Betsy on the giant ship.The setup is a little wonky. Once the two characters are alone on the ship, they get up some good hijinx. They don't have much chemistry at first but the more wacky adventure they get into, the better they become. She's almost just as game although Keaton's physical comedy is still king. The highlight is probably the underwater work and then fighting off the cannibals. It's always funny to have a monkey.

No, it's not Buster Keaton's first movie, or his greatest, but "The Navigator" is something quite wonderful: A primer in motion as to who he was and how he left so indelible an impression.In a way, "The Navigator" synthesizes the different facets of Keaton from each of his three prior features: There's the goofball war with nature seen in "Three Ages," the stoic but hapless victim of "Our Hospitality," and the anything-goes surrealism of "Sherlock Jr." Yes, the plot is weak, there are a couple of forced gags, and a cop-out ending, but try not to laugh watching this wonder of silent comedy.You can even call this a sort of sequel to Buster's first feature, "The Saphead." Buster again is a rich, sheltered playboy, one Rollo Treadway, who we are told right away is "living proof every family tree must have its sap." Rejected by his girlfriend Betsy (Kathryn McGuire) when he proposes marriage, Rollo defiantly decides to board their honeymoon ship alone, doing so the night before because he can't bear the thought of getting up in the morning. When the vessel is set adrift that night, it leaves Rollo alone - until he discovers Betsy there, too.I tried to shorten that synopsis, but it was tough. The best thing you can say about the convoluted plot is the film wastes little time getting you past it and into the action on board with Rollo and Betsy. Everything about "The Navigator" is so economic, yet the film is dense with gags, so many it's easy to find new ones with every new viewing.There are great comic sequences, each showing a different side to Buster's talent. The great opening on the ship, where Rollo and Betsy run around trying to find each other, is a masterpiece of comic timing, with each popping up just as the other disappears from the frame. It only works in a silent movie, where you can't hear the patter of their running feet which would clue them into the other's whereabouts in a trice. You laugh not just because it's funny, but for the thrill of the inventively weird symmetry on display.Then there's a kitchen sequence where Rollo and Betsy try to prepare food, each not knowing much about how it is done from being waited upon all their lives. So she makes coffee with three whole beans and a pitcher of seawater, while he tries to open a can of condensed milk with a drill. Then they sit down and try to eat what they have wrought.The knock on "The Navigator" is that it lacks a bit for heart, playing more like an extended short. The substance and depth are entirely in the gags, which is great when they are so good. Buster was said to have issues about the film, namely the work of his co-director Donald Crisp. But how about poor Frederick Vroom, playing Betsy's father! He's the third-billed actor, gets a couple of scenes, and then is literally dumped ten minutes into the movie, his fate left up in the air. He plays a war profiteer, sure, but they don't even bother to spell his name right in the credits!I'm not wild about a couple of bits, one involving a menacing portrait (said to be of Crisp, though it looks more like Mussolini) and the other when a record suddenly plays "Asleep In The Deep." They get chuckles but feel contrived, unlike everything else in the gag department here. Buster is brilliant here, either on land or in the water, and he's matched by McGuire, who executes her pratfalls with exquisite timing and no small amount of daring.No, I wouldn't call this the greatest Keaton film I've seen. It's just timelessly funny and completely disarming. Most importantly, it's a great introduction to newcomers of what Buster brought to the table that made him so unique. Worth a viewing, and worth another and another even more.

this movie i have to say if one of my favorite silent films i have ever seen. i found that the beginning and end were slightly abrupt, but definitely not anything i would give it a lesser rating for. the movie had an interesting plot, about a wealthy young man planning on getting married, but the girl he asks turns him down, and just later that day he finds himself stranded on a boat alone with the very girl he asked to marry. there are a few great chase scenes around the boat. the movie includes some very impressive underwater photography towards the end where Rollo(Keaton) attempts to repair a leak in the boat and ends up having to duel a swordfish with another swordfish. and of course a pretty girl never hurts. so overall a great movie, i have already recommended it to a few others.

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