1924, MGM. Directed by Donald Crisp and Buster Keaton. Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Frederick Vroom.
Decent Films Ratings
| Overall Recommendability |
?B+ |
|---|---|
| Artistic/ Entertainment Value |
? |
| Moral/Spiritual Value (+4/-4) |
? +0 |
| Age Appropriateness |
?Kids & Up |
External Ratings
| MPAA | ?NR | USCCB | ?NR |
|---|
Content advisory: Menace from spies and stereotyped island native “cannibals.”
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From a National Catholic Register review
By Steven D. Greydanus
Buster Keaton’s most popular vehicle in his own day, and said to be Keaton’s favorite of his own films, The Navigator isn’t as sophisticated and satisfying as his best work (e.g., The General), but it’s still brilliant slapstick comedy, with a rousing third act and a slam-bang climax.
In a familiar Keatonesque setup, the star plays a spoiled rich twit who seeks solace from a rejected marriage proposal in a long sea voyage. Then — through a complicated convergence of plot points involving rival factions of international spies, the sale of a cruise ship, and a mixup of pier numbers — Keaton and his intended (Kathryn McGuire) find themselves stranded on an otherwise deserted ocean liner, fending for themselves for the first time. (It’s a mark of the film’s naivete that, once the boat is adrift, the spy subplot is abandoned!)
Comic highlights include a virtuoso exercise in comic timing in which the hero and heroine, unaware of each other’s presence, wander the ship looking for another soul; their subsequent struggles to make breakfast; and Buster’s battles with a recalcitrant deck chair. Then the ship runs aground near an island, and Buster must battle swordfish on the ocean floor and cannibals assailing the ship. The final gag, when all seems lost, is a doozy.