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The Navigator (1924 film)

The Navigator
Poster - Navigator, The 02.jpg
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Directed by Buster Keaton
Donald Crisp
Produced by Buster Keaton
Written by Clyde Bruckman
Jean C. Havez
Joseph A. Mitchell
Buster Keaton
Starring Buster Keaton
Kathryn McGuire
Music by Robert Israel
(1995 score)
Cinematography Byron Houck
Elgin Lessley
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn
Release date
  • October 13, 1924 (1924-10-13)
Running time
59 minutes (6 reels)
Country United States
Language Silent film
English intertitles
Budget $385,000
Box office $680,406

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.

Wealthy Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) suddenly decides to propose to his neighbor across the street, Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire), and sends his servant to book passage for a honeymoon sea cruise to Honolulu. When Betsy rejects his sudden offer however, he decides to go on the trip anyway, boarding without delay that night. Because the pier number is partially covered, he ends up on the wrong ship, the Navigator, which Betsy's rich father (Frederick Vroom) has just sold to a small country at war.

Agents for the other small nation in the conflict decide to set the ship adrift that same night. When Betsy's father checks up on the ship, he is captured and tied up ashore by the saboteurs. Betsy hears his cry for help and boards the ship to look for him, just before it is cut loose.

The Navigator drifts out into the Pacific Ocean. The two unwitting passengers eventually find each other. At first, they have great difficulty looking after themselves (as they had servants to do that for them), but adapt after a few weeks. At one point, they sight a navy ship and hoist a brightly colored flag, not realizing it signals that the ship is under quarantine. As a result, the other vessel turns away.

Finally, the ship grounds itself near an inhabited tropical island and springs a leak. While Rollo dons a deep sea diving suit and submerges to patch the hole, the natives canoe out and take Betsy captive. When Rollo emerges from the ocean, the natives are scared off, enabling him to rescue Betsy and take her back to the ship. The natives return and try to board the ship. After a fierce struggle, Rollo and Betsy try to escape in a small dinghy. It starts to sink, and the natives swiftly overtake them in their canoes. Just when all seems lost, a navy submarine surfaces right underneath them and they are saved.

After the disappointing reception of Sherlock Jr., Keaton and his production team's morale was low and they were looking for a project that would be both exciting and successful. While Keaton's Art Director Fred Gabourie was scouting shipyards in San Francisco for another, outside project, The Sea Hawk he was shown the former USAT Buford, a 5,000 ton, 500 foot ship that was being sold for scrap metal. The actual vessel was a combination passenger/cargo liner that had served as an Army transport during the Spanish–American War and World War I. Prior to The Navigator, the Buford's most controversial service had occurred in 1919–20, during the First Red Scare, when it was used as the "Soviet Ark" to deport 249 "undesirables" from the United States to revolutionary Russia, among them the noted anarchist Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Gabourie was told that a film production could do anything with the ship, including set it on fire or sink it. Gabourie rushed back to Los Angeles to tell Keaton about the ship. Keaton immediately began planning a film centered around the Buford and had producerJoseph Schenck charted the boat for $25,00 with a crew and sail it to Los Angeles.


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