The Navigator & The Boat

Monday August 22, 7:00pm The Paramount Theater

"… living proof that a family tree must have its sap."

Without a doubt, the happiest accident of Buster Keaton’s film career was the discovery of an ocean liner headed for the scrap yards. Purchased for a song, he found this enormous prop in 1924 and created a story around it that was to become The Navigator. Two spoiled rich kids find themselves adrift on the deserted ship. The boy and girl race around wildly and after several hilarious close calls find each other. Coffee made with seawater and burnt bacon is the ridiculous result of their attempt to feed each other in the funniest sequence of the film. Buster has a losing battle with a deck chair and the two end up fighting off a tribe of cannibals with fireworks. The Navigator was Keaton’s greatest financial success and one of his best feature films.
The Boat 1921, gets off to a disastrous start when Buster demolishes his house towing the "Damfino" through the tiny basement door and everything goes downhill from there. Noteworthy is the rotating cabin interior used to throw the boatbuilder and his family around like wet socks in a dryer.
Droll and ironic in the nineteen twenties, Keaton now seems like the great grandfather of nerd chic.