TOP TEN FILMS

1. THE BOAT (1921)

roduced three years before Keaton’s famous , is a delightful short film about what not to do at sea. Buster builds his own boat in his garage and destroys his house as he tows it to the dock. The boat, (the name is a triumphant lob over the censors’ radar) is variously a real boat, stage construction and model, about which we suspend disbelief as Buster gloriously plays the nascent weekender afloat. With stunts from being knocked overboard by his patent mast-lowering system, to studio footage of the boat being rolled, and finally the dark scenes of a captain going down with his ship (until he surfaces under his hat), this is a hilarious and at times salutary film, with moments that can make you laugh out loud. The trusting shipmate wife is Sybil Seeley, but his two sons are uncredited. Apparently, James Mason, another great actor of sea movies, found this film when