The Boat (1921)

SOS Receiver: Who is it?
The Boat Builder: Damfino.
SOS Receiver: Neither do I!

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His Wife: Where are we?
The Boat Builder: Damfino.

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Buster Keaton's technical effects man, Fred Gabourie, constructed two boats for the filming. One was designed to sink, for the famous launching scene; the other was a fully working boat for the rest of the filming. Unfortunately, the boat that was designed to sink refused to do so; even when loaded with scrap iron, the bottom simply fell out of it and the shell bobbed on the surface. Conversely, the boat which was intended to float also refused to fulfill its obligations, constantly taking on water and threatening to sink. Gabourie finally solved the problem of the boats by attaching the launching scene boat to steel cables holding it to tracks below the water line, thus forcing it underwater; the second boat only floated by virtue of a crew manning hand pumps, concealed in the hull.
After several two-reelers co-starring Virginia Fox, Buster asked back Sybil Seely with the intention of combining The Boat and One Week into a four reel comedy about the misadventures of a husband and wife. However, the feature never materialized.
When 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.
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