|
Brilliantly exemplifying Buster Keaton's ability to mime rich humor from the inanimate, The Navigator is a classic of the Golden Age of Comedy, centered on and about a single extraordinary prop: an immense five hundred-foot yacht.
In a return to the "pampered youth" role he had played in The Saphead (and would return to in Battling Butler), Keaton stars as Rollo Treadway, an inexperienced lad of extraordinary wealth -- and surprisingly little common sense -- who finds himself adrift on "The Navigator" with no one else on board except an equally naïve girl (Kathryn McGuire). After discovering each other's presence in an ingenious ballet of unintentional hide-and-seek, the couple resourcefully fashion a home for themselves aboard the derelict boat, in spite of their unfamiliarity with the tools of domesticity.
They then embark on a series of misadventures on the ocean floor (where Rollo in a diving suit must parry the attacks of an aggressive swordfish) and upon the high seas, surrounded by a fleet of menacing cannibals, where the film reaches its explosively funny climax, with the aid of a crate of rocket flares.
As a special feature, this DVD includes two additional complete films that demonstrate Keaton's penchant for maritime mayhem.
In The Boat (Dir. Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline. U.S. 1921. Color-tinted B&W. 22 mins. Musical setting by Gaylord Carter.), Buster and family set sail aboard the homemade "Damfino," while in The Love Nest (Dir. Buster Keaton. U.S. 1923. Color-tinted B&W. 20 mins. Music arranged and directed by Robert Israel.) -- for decades a lost film until its recent rediscovery and restoration -- he trades sailboat for U-boat to plumb new depths of hilarity.
|
