The Navigator (1924)

In a familiar Keatonesque setup, the star plays a spoiled rich twit who seeks solace from a rejected marriage proposal in a long sea voyage. Then — through a complicated convergence of plot points involving rival factions of international spies, the sale of a cruise ship, and a mixup of pier numbers — Keaton and his intended (Kathryn McGuire) find themselves stranded on an otherwise deserted ocean liner, fending for themselves for the first time. (It’s a mark of the film’s naivete that, once the boat is adrift, the spy subplot is abandoned!)

Comic highlights include a virtuoso exercise in comic timing in which the hero and heroine, unaware of each other’s presence, wander the ship looking for another soul; their subsequent struggles to make breakfast; and Buster’s battles with a recalcitrant deck chair. Then the ship runs aground near an island, and Buster must battle swordfish on the ocean floor and cannibals assailing the ship. The final gag, when all seems lost, is a doozy.