The Love Nest (1923) Online

Ever since the sixties, Buster Keaton has been championed by intellectuals, who like to place him with such 20th century masters as Kafka and Beckett. In claiming Keaton for high art, critics often exaggerate the strains of cynicism, pessimism, and irony in his work, while overlooking the sincere drama and laugh-out-loud comedy in the films, as well as the soulfulness and unflagging determination of Buster's characters. But if surrealism and black humor are what you want, The Love Nest is thoroughly dominated by both. It's not one of Keaton's most successful films, nor one of his funniest, yet I find it oddly compelling. If you want to see Buster at his nautical best, watch The Boat or The Navigator; but this is an interesting twist on the seafaring theme.

The last two-reel comedy Keaton made before embarking on full-length features, The Love Nest has several distinctions. It's the only one of his films for which Buster took sole writing and directing credit. And it's the only one that has no leading lady: a photo of Virginia Fox provides the only feminine presence. Having lost her, Buster sets out on a solitary ocean voyage in a tiny homemade boat (ironically called Cupid.) Days later, we see him adrift, weak, thirsty, and starving—and wearing a painted-on beard. He's rescued by a whaling ship (even more ironically called the Love Nest), which turns out to be captained by a sadistic tyrant (Big Joe Roberts), who punishes minor infractions by heaving sailors overboard and tossing memorial wreathes after them. The whaling ship is beautifully realized, with a grim, Melvillean raffishness; this section is remarkably similar to the later film The Sea Wolf in both look and theme. There are some wonderful moments. Buster gazes longingly at the view through a porthole, and then the captain comes up and takes the porthole away. Buster walks into the water with a gun over his shoulder and emerges with a fish he has shot. When he wants to escape in a lifeboat that's too heavy for him to launch alone, he goes below and smashes a hole in the whaling ship's hull, then sits in the lifeboat waiting for the larger boat to sink, calmly playing solitaire.

The beginning and end of the film are particularly weak, as though Buster wasn't sure how to justify the whaling ship sequence. (The very end appears to be missing, however, so who knows what the closing gag might have been.) I think at this point, Buster was eager to move on to feature films and weary of coming up with ideas for short films every other month. Many of his late two-reelers have odd structures, far-out premises, and a slightly tired, sour feeling. But The Love Nest is a strangely beautiful, dreamlike little film, and I like it because it's impossible to imagine anyone except Buster Keaton making it.

This short comedy is less polished than Keaton's best features, but it has some very funny moments, with a good finale that is clever and also suggestive. Keaton and the supporting cast pull of most of the gag ideas quite well. The setting might offer more limited possibilities than do many of Keaton's other short features, but they seem to have gotten the most out of the material.

The story opens with Buster, depressed because of romantic difficulties, setting off in a tiny boat to get away from it all, leading to many unexpected developments. Joe Roberts is well-cast as Buster's antagonist, and there are some amusing confrontations between the two. Virginia Fox also helps out.

Buster pulls off some good morbid gags, with his deadpan style serving well in making them work. There are also a number of nice subtle humorous touches. Most Keaton fans should enjoy this one.

Remarkable, typically inventive Keaton short, laced with a horrifying comic disregard of death and an emasculating admission of inadequacy. Buster is a heartbroken swain who decides to cure his loss by forswearing women and manfully taking to the sea. Here he meets a mad brute of a captain who throws overboard any of his crew that displeases him. Buster's entirely spurious skill endears him to the captain.

Besides being a wonderful parody of macho Ahab-like naval nonsense, this is another Keaton fantasy as metaphysical nightmare. Buster is cast adrift on a metaphorical sea, boarding the ship of death, with the Grim Reaper as his master. Prowess, ingenuity and sheer accidental good fortune keep him afloat until a climactic, heavily resonant, chase through a labyrinthine ship.

I don't mean to weigh the film down with pseudo-meaningfulness, but the humour of Keaton's films has an eerie, lingering, resonant effect on the soul, similar to the Alice books. Supposedly comic froth, visual metaphors from his films haunt the mind for years after as unerringly accurate encapsulations of the human condition. No wonder Beckett adored him, although I know whose comfort I'd rather have.

And the film is very, very funny, ridiculous, clever, awe-inspiring. The gorgeous clarity of the film's imagery, and the eerie composition of space combine to create a convincing landscape of the mind. Keaton's physical grace may seem less showy than Chaplin's, but its very suppleness in modesty astonishes, as does his graceful negotiation of obstacles and forbidding spaces. Indeed, it is Buster's very freedom of movement that is finally redemptive - although he is a mere automaton going through his creator's paces, his inevitable imperturbility and melancholy dignity achieves an aesthetic, transcendence of beauty and grace. The typical Keaton revelation that the movie is a dream is not bathetic - our dreams of adventure are never a joke; but more importantly, the anxieties and desires of these dreams are both recognisable and deeply , painfully disturbing.

Perhaps it is the clichéd framework of the film that puts me off; perhaps Keaton is not quite as ingenious in this film as in others. Whatever, `The Love Nest' lacks the effervescence of many of Keaton's shorts. He is quite innovative in some scenes, the best his being caught with a rifle in his hands; without losing pace, he proceeds to go out and shoot a fish. This is part of his true mastery, salvaging a situation with hilarious results. Joe Roberts, who appears in several Keaton films, is good as the sinister whaling captain.

If only a handful of excerpted highlights had survived from "The Love Nest" (a title which, incidentally, bears the most tangential reference to the action of the film, being an ironic comment on the hostile environment in which Buster ends up), we should probably be mourning it as a lost masterpiece. And indeed, in common with even the most unsatisfactory of Buster Keaton's shorts, it contains moments of pure originality: the man had an inspired talent.

However, on seeing it as a whole, I found it somewhat disjointed. The best of Keaton's work builds from one gag to its culmination in the next as a seamless whole, while this one comes across more as a series of assorted sketches, some of which sound good in isolation (the fish-shooting scene), some of which are in themselves a little lame ("All hands on deck"?), but only some of which really integrate into the central, darkly entertaining, storyline of the ship and her homicidal captain. And I have to confess to being disconcerted by some very poor quality special effects and the use of battered stock footage, in contrast to Keaton's usual emphasis on non-fakery: perhaps this was a deliberate statement of some kind on the nature of reality and non-reality, but if so it passed me by. While a number of Keaton's films, e.g. "The Frozen North" or "Sherlock Jr", rely on the dream-sequence theme, here it really came across to me as over-used: either the film is trying to be too clever for its own good, or else it strikes you as simply cheating...

Views on "The Love Nest" seem to be polarised between 'sardonic pinnacle of achievement' and 'not one of Buster's best'; those of us in the second category are evidently overlooking something! But -- while there are certainly sequences I should hate to see lost -- it's one of my least favourite silent shorts.

I consider The Love Nest (1923) to be woefully underrated. Is it as good as Cops (1922), One Week (1920), or The Boat (1921)? No. Is it as bad as The Blacksmith (1922), Daydreams (1922), or The Balloonatic (1923)? No way.

The gallows humor here beats out even Convict 13 (1920) and the infamously cynical ending of College (1927) in terms of sheer darkness. Here we have a ruthless captain who drowns his men for minor offenses and then throws a funeral wreath out onto the sea after them.

The gags are among Keaton's funniest in all his shorts, in my opinion. I love when he goes down underwater with a hunting rifle to shoot fish or how he plans to escape the eponymous whaling ship. Just wonderful.

Not a spectacular finish to Keaton's run of short work from the early 1920s, but it's still a worthy entry in his oeuvre.

Now here's a Keaton short I can confidently recommend.

In contrast to "The Boat", Buster is not at the mercy of physics here. This time he causes the chaos, and he's aware of it. He spends the duration wriggling his way out of trouble, instead of more deeply into it.

The absurd tone of the whole thing is set by the goofs in what is a sort of anti-"Dear John" letter ("PS If you do not receive this letter, write me").

But what makes this special is the revelation that this is one big slapstick dream. And...all of that is wrapped within another envelope of absurdity, exposed to us in brilliant visual shorthand -- add them up and you have something quite uniquely cinematic.

I watched this with my 2 kids aged 10 and 12 in attempt to give them some further experience of silent movies. We watched all the Our Gang comedies, including the silents, 5 years ago - we've seen several Chaplin films (Modern Times, City Lights). These few films we are watching of Keaton's will definitely start a new round of silent film appreciation. I think this is the funniest of the bunch we have right now, but my kids love the Navigator even more. They have even introduced a few of their friends to the joys of this classic era. It is painful to know of genius not recognized in its time, and I think that is why so many people compare Keaton and Chaplin so often. Chaplin got the fame and fortune, Buster got a bad deal and never lost his spirit. Keaton was an extraordinary human being as well as one of the film greats - remembered for his greatness of character and the depth of his on-film persona. I give this one a 10!

This comedy short marks the end of Buster Keaton's period of making 2 reeler comedy shorts of around 20 min. in length. I don't rank it very high among these shorts, but you may find it of interest,, as some reviewers did. At the end, you may be surprised to learn that most of the screenplay was just a bad nightmare. You should have noticed that, just before he spied the whaling ship, he lay down to take a nap in his ironically-named little boat: "Cupid"........I have a hunch that the very end of the film may be missing, as we are left with the identity of the woman swimming toward his boat undisclosed. Or, perhaps, we are expected to assume that she is his ex-fiancée, whose breakup with Keaton instigated his decision to take a long solo voyage by sea, to help forget her. As we see in the ending, part of the irony of his venture is that he forgot to untie his boat from the wharf!.......The title comes from the name of the whaling ship that Keaton later boarded. Given the cruel nature of the giant captain, it's a particularly ironic name. As usual, Joe Roberts serves as Keaton's chief nemesis, providing a marked physical contrast to Keaton, as was true of several popular film comedy teams through the years. Unfortunately, Joe would die later in '23, after taking part in the first two feature-length Keaton films, barely finishing the last one after suffering a stroke.......Keaton gets in trouble with the captain several times, but unlike most miscreants, he survives the captain's wrath. In fact, when the captain gets pulled overboard during the struggle with a whale, all assumed the captain would drown(apparently, none bothered to check out his status). Keaton immediately proclaims himself the new captain, and the crew seems in agreement. However, when the captain climbs over the railing, the rest of the crew are so unnerved that they immediately jump overboard, and later are seen in a lifeboat......See it at YouTube

This was Buster Keaton's last short before he switched to features. Buster's timing however looks off and his bits look formless and ill conceived.

Buster gets dumped by his girlfriend and sets out to sea solo in a covered Boston whaler, The Cupid. Once on the high seas he sinks and is rescued by a whaling ship with a captain that would make Bligh look like a progressive. With minor infractions meriting being tossed overboard (the captain keeps a supply of wreaths for such occasions) Buster soon finds himself a crew member with a bleak future.

The Love Nest has a few comic moments but its choppy and sloppy style, little attention given to the broken romance (the print I viewed had severe damage) and deus ex machina climax allows scant opportunity for Keaton to fine tune his act. When he does such as the scenes to board the lifeboat or hunt fish with a shotgun his timing seems off and the slapstick breaks down. Love Nest is mediocre Keaton.

This can be looked at as a deep Keaton comedy. Less than 30 minutes, most fans won't see more than just a Keaton short that pokes fun at himself. By the end of the movie, you don't see it coming, but the ending is at its very least a joke. Having it all been just a dream as well as Keaton's forget-fullness to untie the rope from the dock makes the ending a double laugh! Keaton had done this several times in other comedy shorts. Here, it is just as effective. You wonder at times, what is happening. By the end of the movie, you get it and everything makes sense. Not his best short, but playing alongside his other Ocean classic the Navigator, this is a great short to get your laughter buds ready for the feature film.

Buster's bride leaves him, and he swears off women and takes to the sea on his boat "The Cupid." He is picked up by a whaling boat called "The Love Nest," and joins their expedition. The captain (Joe Roberts) throws ships' boys overboard for spilling coffee on him, and tosses a funerary wreath after them! So Buster has to do his best not to get thrown overboard...

Buster can always make my smile. Lots of fun and laughs to be had here, as usual.

This was the last two-reeler Keaton made before graduating to features with The Three Ages, a much needed satire of Griffith's Intolerance.

It is the detail making difference by the other short films of Buster Keaton. A sad love story. A trip for cure the soul. A meet and a tyranic captain. A boat and military exercises. And the inspired end. The dream shadow is the perfect skin for what are more than adventures but interesting reflection about choices and heroism. And about adventures as root of perspective about life.

This isn't one of Keaton's greatest comedy shorts, but it still is fun to watch and provides a few good laughs. I think I liked the film because, at times, the film was pretty outrageous--with some bizarre twists.

Buster decides to head out to sea in his dinky little boat. However, instead of being a simple trip around the world (no big deal, right?), things go wrong from the outset. He becomes low on provisions and stranded at sea until a whaling ship comes to his rescue. Unfortunately, the captain is an ill-tempered maniac whose punishment for even the littlest mistake is to toss the man overboard along with a funeral wreath! I thought it was awfully funny that he actually had a big pile of wreaths and apparently made a habit of this! Later, Buster thinks he's gotten the crazed captain thrown overboard as well and makes himself captain. Then, when the guy returns, everything breaks loose! The very end of the film, to me, was very clever and wrapped the film up well.

All-in-all, a cute film with a few laughs that is ever so slightly better than Keaton's average short. While nowhere close to being as creative or funny as THE PLAYHOUSE or COPS, it is still a film well worth your time and a pretty good indication of the type humor that made Buster a star.

A BUSTER KEATON Silent Short.

Shanghaied at sea, Buster must keep clear of the skipper of THE LOVE NEST, a scurvy old ruffian who enjoys murder & mayhem.

Keaton takes some very serious ideas and develops them into a hilarious little film full of wild sight gags. Sadly, this marked the final appearance by Joe Roberts, who died in October 1923. Joe played memorable villains, huge & mustachioed, in many of Keaton's early films and was always great fun to watch. He was only 52 at the time of his death.

Born into a family of Vaudevillian acrobats, Buster Keaton (1895-1966) mastered physical comedy at a very early age. An association with Fatty Arbuckle led to a series of highly imaginative short subjects and classic, silent feature-length films - all from 1920 to 1928. Writer, director, star & stuntman - Buster could do it all and his intuitive genius gave him almost miraculous knowledge as to the intricacies of film making and of what it took to please an audience. More akin to Fairbanks than Chaplin, Buster's films were full of splendid adventure, exciting derring-do and the most dangerous physical stunts imaginable. His theme of a little man against the world, who triumphs through bravery & ingenuity, dominates his films. Through every calamity & disaster, Buster remained the Great Stone Face, a stoic survivor in a universe gone mad.

In the late 1920's Buster was betrayed by his manager/brother-in-law and his contract was sold to MGM, which proceeded to nearly destroy his career. Teamed initially with Jimmy Durante and eventually allowed small roles in mediocre comedies, Buster was for 35 years consistently given work far beneath his talent. Finally, before lung cancer took him at age 70, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his classic films were being rediscovered. Now, well past his centenary, Buster Keaton is routinely recognized & appreciated as one of cinema's true authentic geniuses. And he knew how to make people laugh...

"The Love Nest" is a 22-minute Buster Keaton short film, still in black-and-white and obviously silent. "Buster overboard" is the motto here as almost the entire film takes place on a ship, boat or just at the sea. Buster has to deal with a ruthless captain and as if that isn't already enough, when he finally gets off the ship he is at the wrong time in the wrong place and has Navy ships fire at him. Poor guy. This was one of the last short films with Keaton during his peak possibly. He was in his late 20s here and moved on to full feature films afterward. Many familiar names in this one: Cline, Roberts, Fox and Schenck worked with Keaton on many other movies too, behind the camera or in front of it. All in all, I was not too impressed by this one and did not find it too funny. Not among Stoneface's best.