MUBI brings you a great new film every day.  Start your 7-day free trial today!
Watch a new film every day for $4.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.
 

The Boat

United States

1921

25 Min
Black and White
1.33:1
Silent
  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

   |   

DIR Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline

PROD Joseph M. Schenck

SCR Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline

DP Elgin Lessley

CAST Buster Keaton, Sybil Seely, Edward F. Cline

Synopsis

Buster’s handmade boat, The Damfino, is finished and is, of course, too large to get through the basement door. When he drives off with it in tow, the side of his house, then the whole thing, collapses. At the harbor he rides the boat out only to have it sink beneath him. The rest is a series of adventures he and his family have with the restored boat. —IMDb

Director

Original

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895, to a pair of vaudeville performers. Spending his childhood on the road with his family, he earned the nickname Buster at the age of six months. By the age of three, the youngster was appearing as part of his parents act whenever they could evade child labor laws. In vaudeville, Keaton developed remarkable talents as an acrobatic comedian with a superb sense of timing, and became a rising star by his teens. In early 1917, Buster left his act with his parents, and appeared in a Broadway comic revue later that year, but the key to Keaton’s future came when he met a fellow vaudeville comedian. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was starring in a low-budget two-reel screen comedy, The Butcher Boy, and invited Keaton to play a small role in the picture. The two hit it off and became a successful onscreen team, starring in a long string of comic hits. Fascinated by the medium of film, Keaton soon began writing their pictures, and assisted in directing… read more

Original

Edward F. Cline

Entering films as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops in 1913, Cline began assisting Sennett and by 1916 was directing shorts at Keystone. In the early ‘20s he co-wrote and co-directed seventeen of Buster Keaton’s shorts, including such classics as The Playhouse, The Boat, and Cops, as well as Keaton’s first feature, the Intolerance-parody The Three Ages. Later in the decade he was reunited with Sennett when he directed two-reelers for such comics as Ben Turpin and Carole Lombard. In 1932 Cline directed W.C. Fields in the memorable satire Million Dollar Legs and became one of the few directors whom the irascible comedian could tolerate. Called in to helm most of Fields’ scenes in You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (signed by George Marshall), Cline went on to direct the classic features that capped Fields’ career in the early ‘40s: My Little Chickadee (co-starring Mae West), The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Cline’s last important work was with Olsen and Johnson on Crazy… read more

Wall

Displaying 3 wall posts.
Picture of Trolley Freak

Trolley Freak

7Dec12

After the destruction of their home and the sinking of his car during launch, there's further peril on the high seas for Buster and his family as their rickety boat is caught in the eye of a vicious storm.. The Great Stone Face is on great form in a nice little short that was thought lost for several years until James Mason discovered it, alongside other films, in the mansion he had bought from Keaton in the 1950's..

Picture of Erik Gregersen

Erik Gregersen

6Nov11

My mind is blown by the house that they built for a 30 second gag.

Langston Young likes this

Picture of Matthew_Lucas

Matthew_Lucas

5Jul11

A sequel of sorts to Keaton's earlier short, ONE WEEK, THE BOAT follows the continuing misadventures of perhaps the unluckiest family of all time as they attempt to go for a simple boat ride that turns into a disaster. Keaton's deadpan humor is in top form here, relying less on elaborate set pieces as he is well timed slapstick.

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 45 fans.

Lists

Displaying 5 of 23 lists.

Reviews

Displaying 1 of 1

The Boat

By Adam Suraf on August 22, 2011
This might be Buster’s best short film, with an endless array of gags that easily fit into his most common obsessions, including, amongst others, the malleability of the living environment, water, and…

Forum

Displaying 0 discussion topics.