Review of “The General” (1926)

A friend of my dearly beloved has been involved in the restoration of an old theater in Fullerton, California, for some years. The theater was originally built in 1925, in the days of silent movies. My dearly beloved remembers seeing movies there in the 80s.

As a treat for some friends (and in hopes of raising some funds), this friend invited a group of friends to view the silent movie The General starring Buster Keaton.

The restoration is still in progress, but one very nice addition is the restrooms across from the main auditorium. Unfortunately, the designations for “ladies” and “gentlemen” have yet to be put up. Pushing on the mystery door,  I had a 50-50 chance of having to say, “Oh, excuse me, sir.” Happily, all went well.

But I digress.

An organist provided the soundtrack for the movie. I regret I did not get the young man’s name. He was terrific, blending the music on the electronic instrument seamlessly with the action. One almost would have thought it was part of the film.

The Plot:

Our hero, engineer Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton), so the intertitles tell the viewer, has two loves in his life: the beautiful Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) of Marietta, Georgia, and his train, The General.

When word comes of shots fired at Fort Sumter, Annabelle’s brother and father rush to enlist. Johnny joins them, only to be turned away. The recruiting people decide he’s more valuable to the South as an engineer, but they don’t tell him that. Johnny is dejected, all the more so when Annabelle tells him she won’t speak to him until she sees him in a uniform.

Harsh.

Disconsolate, Johnny sits on the drive-rod of the train. The engine moves, lifting him up and down, but Johnny’s face remains impassive.

A year later, Annabelle boards Johnny’s train at Marietta to visit her wounded father. At a stop for lunch, damn Yankee spies (Jim Farley and Glenn Cavender) decouple the boxcars and steal the engine. Unfortunately, Annabelle Lee is in one of the cars the damn Yankees steal. They tie her up.

Johnny chases after them.

Thoughts:

The train chase—which takes up most of the screen time—is amazing on many levels. Buster Keaton climbs over the train cars, the wood in the tender, and the engine. In one scene, he sits on the cow catcher—of a moving vehicle—holding a railroad tie while the damn Yankees throw another tie on the track to derail the train. He uses the tie to push the one on the tracks out of the way. How frigging dangerous is all that? But he makes it look like child’s play.

He chases the stolen train on foot (A for effort), with a handcar, and on a bicycle before he stumbles into a nest of damn Yankees and discovers their plot. He rescues Annabelle, of course, and steals a train back. A lot of slapstick is involved.

In one famous scene, the foolish damn Yankees run a train across a burning bridge, which collapses into a river. This was a real train. Until its iron was salvaged for WWII, it remained in the river. Bits and pieces of the bridge and wreck can still be seen.

Among other awards and nominations, The General was added to the National Film Registry in 1989 and was a 1927 Winner of the Photoplay Award for (really) Best Picture of the Month (March).

The movie was based (no credit given) on The Great Locomotive Chase, a memoir by William Pittenger about Union Army raiders who commandeered a Confederate train to disrupt Confederate supply lines—which brings up the next topic.

So, if the book was about an actual Union train theft in Georgia, why was the movie about a Confederate theft of a Union train? My guess has to do with the romanticized “lost cause” view of the Civil War, which was then in vogue. According to this piece of pseudohistory, the War of Northern Aggression was fought over states’ rights. It had nothing to do with slavery, which (if you believe the Florida State Board of Education) taught enslaved people useful skills.

But I digress once more…

In many respects, this movie is a lot of fun. There is a lot of action and a lot of derring-do.  There is some silliness, but the audience can identify with Johnny Gray.

The movie can be watched here:

For more info:


Title: The General (1926)

Writing Credits
Buster Keaton…(written by) and
Clyde Bruckman…(written by)
Al Boasberg…(adapted by) and
Charles Henry Smith…(adapted by) (as Charles Smith)
William Pittenger…(book) (uncredited)
William Pittenger…(memoir The Great Locomotive Chase) (uncredited)
Paul Gerard Smith…(uncredited)

Cast (in credits order)
Buster Keaton…Johnnie Gray
Marion Mack…Annabelle Lee
Glen Cavender…Captain Anderson
Jim Farley…General Thatcher
Frederick Vroom…A Southern General
Frank Barnes…Annabelle’s Brother
Charles Henry Smith…Annabelle’s Father (as Charles Smith)

Released: 1926
Length: 1 hour, 18 minutes