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
Review of The Love Nest
