The Navigator (1924)
A pampered rich man and the woman who has just refused his proposal end up the only two people aboard a deserted ocean liner drifting out to sea. The helpless pair slowly learn to fend for themselves, and a repair job in a diving suit drops Keaton among hostile islanders.
Keaton’s biggest hit in its own day, The Navigator turns an entire ocean liner into a machine for gags built around one small man and his equally helpless companion; it was added to the National Film Registry in 2018.
Background
The Navigator was Buster Keaton’s biggest commercial hit during his independent silent career, built around a simple but rich premise: two pampered, helpless young people find themselves alone aboard a massive ocean liner that has been set adrift. Keaton co-directed with Donald Crisp, and much of the film’s comedy comes from turning the enormous ship into an elaborate machine for physical gags, oversized kitchens, tangled plumbing, and awkward improvised tools.
What to watch for
Watch for the underwater sequence, in which Keaton, wearing a cumbersome diving suit, has to fend off hostile islanders beneath the surface, a technically ambitious sequence for its time. The film’s humor relies heavily on the mismatch between its two central characters’ privileged helplessness and the demands of basic survival, and it is a good example of how Keaton built comedy out of scale and mechanism rather than simple pratfalls. It was added to the National Film Registry in 2018.
