# Navigator, The (1924)

### reviewed by
Brian Koller

    The Navigator (1924)

    Grade: 67

"The Navigator" is a silent film starring Buster Keaton. Keaton, as usual, plays an ordinary man who must learn to perform extraordinary feats in order to win his love interest.

Keaton plans his honeymoon, buying tickets for an ocean cruise. However, the plans are spoiled when his girlfriend refuses to marry him. Keaton goes on the cruise anyway. A plot contrivance has Keaton and his girlfriend alone on the ship, which has been set adrift by foreign agents. Keaton must perform various heroic actions, especially to save the ship from a cannibal tribe.

Keaton has a flair for slapstick. There is a scene where he attempts to cook breakfast. He does everything wrong, with comic results. Keaton dons a scuba suit to repair the ship. The resulting underwater photography must have been innovative at the time.

With the emphasis on slapstick, the stunts that are so spectacular in subsequent Keaton films such as "Sherlock, Jr." and "The General" are largely absent here. The battle with the cannibals is impressive, however, with good panning shots of the island, the ship, and the cannibals rowing towards it.

I have a few minor complaints about the film. Keaton's character makes an unlikely change from klutz to hero. The word "formula" also comes to mind, as so many Keaton films have him playing a clueless man trying to win a love interest. Only the setting is different from "College", "Seven Chances", or "Sherlock, Jr."

http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html

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