evanston_dad Buster Keaton just wants to take his family out on a pleasant boat trip to enjoy some sea breezes and sunshine. A simple enough request, no? Well if you've ever seen a Buster Keaton movie, you already know the answer to that question....A pretty funny short that involves many of the pratfalls you would expect in a slapstick comedy about a doomed boating expedition -- people falling in the water (a lot), a dinner preparation gone all wrong when nothing is tied down, a storm and its predictable outcome on our beleaguered hero. A cute twist at the end reveals that our protagonist family was never in any danger to begin with.The name of Keaton's boat is the Damfino, which provides a running joke and gives the film its final punchline.

jldmp1 This is not a bad short film...it's just not a cinematic one. Not everything we see here can exclusively be expressed in the film medium.On the other hand, there are some first rate sight gags. Buster is placed in this is as a 'builder', who destroys things far more often than he creates them. Hole in the side of the boat? Nail a pancake over it. Pancake falls off and springs a leak? Drill a hole in the floor for 'drainage'. Your boat capsizes over and over? Nail your shoes to the boards. Who sent the distress signal? "Dam f i no!" The rotating boat gag is extremely influential; the 'zero gravity' scenes in "2001" can claim lineage from this. But the gags only work as isolated events; nothing really ties this all together, and therein lies the movie's weakness.

Ron Oliver A BUSTER KEATON Silent Short.THE BOAT which Buster's family builds and launches immediately tries to kill them.This funny little film is an unusual one for Buster, in that he's already quite domesticated - with wife & children - when the story commences. The viewer is supposed to read Buster's lips to get the film's final joke.Born into a family of Vaudevillian acrobats, Buster Keaton (1895-1966) mastered physical comedy at a very early age. An association with Fatty Arbuckle led to a series of highly imaginative short subjects and classic, silent feature-length films - all from 1920 to 1928. Writer, director, star & stuntman - Buster could do it all and his intuitive genius gave him almost miraculous knowledge as to the intricacies of film making and of what it took to please an audience. More akin to Fairbanks than Chaplin, Buster's films were full of splendid adventure, exciting derring-do and the most dangerous physical stunts imaginable. His theme of a little man against the world, who triumphs through bravery & ingenuity, dominates his films. Through every calamity & disaster, Buster remained the Great Stone Face, a stoic survivor in a universe gone mad.In the late 1920's Buster was betrayed by his manager/brother-in-law and his contract was sold to MGM, which proceeded to nearly destroy his career. Teamed initially with Jimmy Durante and eventually allowed small roles in mediocre comedies, Buster was for 35 years consistently given work far beneath his talent. Finally, before lung cancer took him at age 70, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his classic films were being rediscovered. Now, well past his centenary, Buster Keaton is routinely recognized & appreciated as one of cinema's true authentic geniuses. And he knew how to make people laugh...

Vigilante-407 This is definitely one of Buster Keaton's better short films. The key is the simplicity of the premise...Keaton's character builds a houseboat...and the multitude of problems that it causes.The jokes are simple but usually funny (even now in our more "enlightened times" and Keaton's slapstick acrobatics are, as usual, simply wonderful to watch. He uses that one basic, if large, prop...the boat...to great effect.And the final line, while an old joke, is still funny.