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The Navigator (1924)
In Buster Keaton's classic comedy, reportedly Keaton's
favorite film - a fish-out-of-water tale with many inventive sight
gags:
- the introduction provided by prologue title cards: "Our
story deals with one of those queer tricks that Fate sometimes
plays. Nobody would believe, for instance, that the entire lives
of a peaceful American boy and girl could be changed by a funny
little war between two small countries far across the sea. And
yet it came to pass. The spies of the two little nations were at
a Pacific seaport, each trying to prevent the other getting ships
and supplies."
- the story of well-to-do Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton)
and equally-naive flapper girlfriend and across-the-street neighbor
Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire), who had rejected his simple proposal
to get married ("Will you marry me?") with her simple response
("Certainly not"); he was forced to rip up a ticket he
had purchased for her to join him as his bride on a Honolulu honeymoon
cruise
- due to rival factions of international spies from
two small nations at war, the sale of a cruise ship (Betsy's father
John O'Brien (Frederick Vroom) had sold the steamship the S.S.
Navigator to one of the small countries at war, after which spies
from the opposing country set it loose), and a mixup of pier numbers
(12 vs. 2), Rollo and Betsy mistakenly found themselves deserted
and adrift on a foggy night on the S.S. Navigator - Rollo
thought he had boarded an ocean cruise to Honolulu, while she boarded
the same ship to look for her father
- sailing aimlessly on the Pacific Ocean on their first
morning, Rollo and Betsy did not know of each other's presence as
they roamed the deck - often just missing each other, until they
accidentally bumped into each other
- the numerous and elaborate sight gags first involved
the two spoiled rich kids' inept efforts to make breakfast: to brew
a few coffee beans in a pot using sea water, to open a can by whacking
it with a machete, to boil eggs in a large pot and remove them, to
open a can of tinned milk with a drill, and to use oversized cooking
implements as personal utensils
- the failed efforts of Rollo and Betsy to signal a
naval rescue ship (their hoisted yellow flag was interpreted as "quarantined"),
and to fearlessly drop a small rowboat from the deck into the water
in order to absurdly pursue the naval ship by pulling The Navigator (before
sinking the rowboat)
Dropping a Rowboat Into the Water
to Tug The Navigator
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- the classic sequence of Rollo attempting to set
up an uncooperative folding deck chair and put Betsy in it
- the first evening, the gag of a swinging-portrait
on a nail, seen through Rollo's porthole next to his bed, and thinking
it was a ghost
- in the dark, Rollo's mistaking a large box of
"GIANT FIRECRACKERS" and "ROMAN CANDLES"
for regular candles
- Rollo's failed efforts to shuffle a wet deck of playing
cards
- still drifting after weeks at sea, Rollo's many Rube
Goldberg-like inventions to make life easier in the kitchen
- their sighting of cannibals - and to avoid drifting
ashore and being captured, the scene of Rollo's underwater deep sea
diving (in an elaborate diving outfit with helmet) to patch a leak
in the ship, including his duel with a swordfish (by using another
swordfish!) and an encounter with an octopus, while a tribe of island
cannibals in an outrigger canoe kidnapped Betsy from the deck
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Heavy Deep Sea Diving Outfit
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Patching a Leaky Hole Underwater
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Fighting a Swordfish
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- the scene of Rollo's routing of the natives by scaring
them when he emerged on shore in his deep-sea diving outfit; after
returning to the Navigator, they circumvented the cannibals'
entry onto the ship by cutting away the gang-plank, throwing water
down on them, and exploding firecrackers at them
Betsy's Rescue From Cannibals
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- the classic scene of Rollo's encounter with a toy
cannon that was accidentally tied to his leg (he stepped into a
rope loop) that was continually aimed at him, while he was trying
to point it at the attacking cannibals
- as the Navigator's decks were completely
overrun by cannibals, Rollo and Betsy escaped to the outrigger
canoe vacated by the natives; but then they were again pursued
and appeared about to meet their demise via drowning, when they
were miraculously rescued by an emerging naval submarine underneath
them; they entered the hatch, closed it, and escaped as the submarine
descended
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A Kiss - and Tossed Around Inside Rescue Submarine
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- inside the submarine, Rollo was kissed by a grateful
Betsy, but then accidentally fell backwards onto an orientational
lever control, sending the galley's interior cabin slowly rotating
360 degrees around and tossing them about like they were within
a dryer, as the film ended
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One Country's Plot to Set The Navigator Steamship
Adrift
Betsy Rejecting Neighbor Rollo's Marriage Proposal
Searching For Each Other On The Navigator and
Eventually Bumping Into Each Other
Failing to Set Up a Folding Deck Chair
"Ghost" Seen Through Rollo's Bunk
Porthole
Firecrackers, Not Candles
Shuffling Wet Playing Cards
Sighting Cannibals on a Nearby Island
Betsy's Kidnapping
Doomed to Drown, But Saved By a Submarine
Emerging Underneath
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