File:The_General_(1926)_-_Movie_Poster_2.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
The General
Sign in to saveAlso known as General
1926 film directed by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
Film · TMDB
7.9During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.
Cast
- Buster Keaton as Johnnie Gray
- Marion Mack as Annabelle Lee
- Glen Cavender as Captain Anderson
- Jim Farley as General Thatcher
- Frederick Vroom as A Southern General
- Frank Barnes as Annabelle's Brother
Themes
- cannon
- army
- general
- southern usa
- spy
- fiancé
- bridge
- engineer
- attack
- black and white
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Key facts
- Directed by
- Buster Keaton , Clyde Bruckman
- Screenplay by
- Al Boasberg , Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton, Charles Smith
- Based on
- The Great Locomotive Chase , 1863 memoir Union soldier, by William Pittenger
- Produced by
- Joseph Schenck , Buster Keaton
- Starring
- Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
- Cinematography
- Devereaux Jennings , Bert Haines
- Edited by
- Buster Keaton, Sherman Kell
- Music by
- William P. Perry (1970)
- Production companies
- Buster Keaton Productions, Joseph M. Schenck Productions
- Distributed by
- United Artists
- Release dates
- December 31, 1926 ( 1926-12-31 ) (Tokyo) February 5, 1927 ( 1927-02-05 ) (New York City)
- Running time
- 79 minutes (8 reels) (times vary with different versions)
- Country
- United States
- Languages
- Silent film , English intertitles
- Budget
- $750,000
- Box office
- $1 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Internet Archive
audioGeneral Ludd's Rage Against the Machines
Listen at Internet Archive →via archive.org
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 75
- FilmAffinity ID
- 228751
- Image
- The General, front.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- The General
- publication date
- 1927-02-24
- title
- The General
- capital cost
- 415232
- review score
- 92%
Sources (10)
via Wikidata · CC0
~18 min read
Article
The General is a 1926 American silent comedy film released by United Artists. It was inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, a true story of an event that occurred during the American Civil War. The story was adapted from the 1889 memoir The Great Locomotive Chase by William Pittenger. The film stars Buster Keaton, who also co-directed it along with Clyde Bruckman.
At the time of its initial release, The General, an action comedy film made toward the end of the silent era, was not well received by critics and audiences, resulting in mediocre box office returns (about half a million dollars domestically, and approximately one million worldwide). Because of its huge budget ($750,000 supplied by Metro chief Joseph Schenck) and failure to turn a significant profit, Keaton lost his independence as a film maker and was forced into a restrictive deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.