IMDb RATING
7.1/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
Buster and his family go on a voyage on his homemade boat that proves to be one disaster after another.Buster and his family go on a voyage on his homemade boat that proves to be one disaster after another.Buster and his family go on a voyage on his homemade boat that proves to be one disaster after another.
Buster Keaton
- The Boat Builder
- (as 'Buster' Keaton)
Edward F. Cline
- SOS Receiver
- (uncredited)
Sybil Seely
- The Boat Builder's Wife
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen James Mason bought Buster Keaton's old house in 1952, he found this film and several other lost Keaton shorts in the cellar. As the rolls were nitrate, disintegration had taken its toll. Mason made sure that this and the other classics were saved and restored at a film lab.
- GoofsThe radio mast that Keaton erects on the boat is missing in the shots of the boat model.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Golden Age of Buster Keaton (1979)
Featured review
Tribulations
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.
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.
helpful•34
- jldmp1
- Nov 7, 2006
Details
- Runtime23 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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