The Navigator (1924 film)

Infobox_Film
name = The Navigator


caption = Theatrical poster
director = Buster Keaton
Donald Crisp
producer = Buster Keaton
writer = Clyde Bruckman
Jean C. Havez
Joseph A. Mitchell
Buster Keaton
starring = Buster Keaton
Frederick Vroom
Kathryn McGuire
music = Robert Israel
(1995 score)
cinematography = Byron Houck
Elgin Lessley
editor = Buster Keaton
distributor =
released = October 13 1924
runtime = 59 minutes
country = United States
language = Silent film
English intertitles
budget =
amg_id = 1:34676
imdb_id = 0015163|

"The Navigator" is a 1924 comedy directed by and starring Buster Keaton. The film was written by Clyde Bruckman and co-directed by Donald Crisp. [imdb title|id=0015163|title=The Navigator.]

Plot

Buster Keaton (as Rollo Treadway) is accidentally stranded on a ship with the girl who scorned him, Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire).

Background

The Navigator contains some of the most elaborate and well-known stunts by Keaton.

The actual vessel used was the "S.S. Buford", a passenger liner that had also served as a World War I troopship and was infamous as the "Red Ark" for carrying 249 Communists deported during the First Red Scare. Scheduled to be scrapped, Keaton bought it as a very large prop. [imdb title|id=0015163|title=The Navigator.]

Cast

* Buster Keaton as Rollo Treadway
* Frederick Vroom as John O'Brien
* Kathryn McGuire as Betsy O'Brien
* Clarence Burton as Spy
* H.N. Clugston as Spy
* Donald Crisp as Face on picture at porthole
* Noble Johnson as Cannibal chief

Critical reception

When the film was released, the staff at "Variety" magazine gave the film a mixed review, and wrote, "Buster Keaton's comedy is spotty. That is to say it's both commonplace and novel, with the latter sufficient to make the picture a laugh getter...The actual story carries little weight. It has Keaton as a wealthy young man being matrimonially rejected by the girl. Having secured passage to Hawaii, he unknowingly boards a deserted steamship selected to be destroyed by foreign and warring factions. The girl's father, owner of the vessel, visits the dock, is set upon by the rogues who are bent on casting the liner adrift, and when the girl goes to her parent's rescue she is also caught on board with no chance of a return to land. The entire action practically takes place on the deserted ship, with the girl (Kathryn McGuire) and Keaton the only figures." [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117793436.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0 "Variety"] . Film review, 1924. Last accessed: June 5 2008.]

More currently, film critic Dennis Schwartz praised the film, and wrote, "The film was shot in ten weeks, in Avalon Bay off the coast of Catalina Island. It proved to be Keaton's biggest commercial success. Its theme of civilized man versus the machine (seen as making life difficult for moderm man because we have become so dependent on it and it's not always reliable), was never used more effectively in cinema." [ [http://www.sover.net/~ozus/navigator.htm Schwartz, Dennis] . "Ozus' World Movie Reviews," film review, October 10, 2006. Last accessed: June 5 2008.]

ee also

* Buster Keaton filmography

References

Notes

External links

*
* [http://www.silentera.com/DVD/navigatorDVD.html "The Navigator"] at SilentEra