Directed by Buster Keaton

Position on the list (at time of viewing): 685

And a little later in 1924, Keaton manages the hat trick of being the only director on the entire list to have three films in a row chronologically. This is a result of Keaton’s ludicrously fast work schedule and also his nearly unlimited creativity and innovation. It was truly his time to shine, and although this movie isn’t the greatest of this fertile year in his career, it serves as a nice follow-up and continuation of many of the themes and ideas that he was famous for.

The movie, in brief, deals with a couple of rich socialites (Keaton and Kathryn McGuire) who end up out of their depth (very literally in one case) on an abandoned and drifting cruise ship due to a series of typically Keaton-esque hijinks. They have to adapt to their new situation in order to survive, and watching how they do so and eventually get out of their predicament forms the dramatic tension of the movie. It’s really hard not to compare this to Keaton’s previous genius work, but I’m going to try. While this movie is much more conventional and less boundary-breaking, it certainly has its own merits to recommend it.

There are two great strengths that this movie has: first, its gentle mockery of the well-to-do; and second, its increased role for Keaton’s co-star. The inept rich kids have never had to do anything for themselves, and bereft of their servants, their Rube-Goldberg-like machinations to simply enable them to survive are endearingly funny. These set pieces are actually a call back to earlier short films like Keaton’s short “The Scarecrow,” but are greatly improved by a bigger budget and the maturity of the director. The other great strength of the movie is Betsy O’Brien (Kathryn McGuire), who actually keeps up with Keaton’s pratfalls and general insanity. It’s surprisingly rare in this era for the second-billed woman to get anything other than ‘romantic object’ or ‘straight man to the wacky main character,’ but McGuire more than holds her own in terms of ridiculousness and zany behavior. She is a natural physical comedian, and having both of them stumbling around like idiots really gives this movie a different tone than many others of the period. It’s a welcome change, and one of the strongest points in the movie’s favor.

On the other hand, the writing here is not as solid as in many other Keaton films, on a couple of levels. The most important is that the ending falls incredibly flat, feeling even more like a deus ex machina than most comedies of the time. It feels very much like the plot was written into a corner, and then the only way out was to just resolve everything through no agency of the characters whatsoever. All of a sudden, just as things are getting really sticky for our hapless heroes, the movie just…ends. It’s incredibly disappointing and left me frustrated. In addition, there are some really problematic presentation of savage tribe people in an extended setpiece toward the end that will make for incredibly awkward viewing today. While by no means out of the ordinary for 1920’s film (savage African tribesmen being a well-worn trope at that point), it still feels unpleasant to be asked to laugh at some pretty astonishingly offensive portrayals. Many will be able to laugh it off as a relic of the time period, but for me it definitely made a portion of the film less funny and enjoyable.

Other than that, Keaton remains much the same as he always has been. He executes astonishingly skillful setpieces, including one involving a diving suit (above) that remains one of his most iconic images to this day. The underwater scenes were notoriously difficult to film with the equipment of the day, and required weeks of work at both a pool (which was destroyed in the filming) and at Lake Tahoe. The plot is enjoyable and provides some standard vaudeville gags with a really impressive budget, and provides a bigger role for Keaton’s co-star than there would ever be again. Surprisingly (to me at least), this was actually Keaton’s most successful film ever in terms of box office returns. People really loved it, and spent over a half a million dollars on it in its two-week run. Keaton himself famously loved it, and often referred to it as his best film. While I’ll have to disagree with him there, there’s certainly some really impressive pieces within it that definitely merit a watch.

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