The Boat

Keaton builds a boat in his basement, launches it through the house, and names it Damfino. 1921, two reels, directed with Edward F. Cline. Sybil Seely and the children come aboard. The boat sinks, rights, sinks again. The breakfast table is set on a sea that will not stay still. It is the domestic short as a disaster movie, and the disaster is design: a man who can invent anything except a vessel that floats. The last title, when someone asks where they are, is the name of the boat.