Trailer
Plot summary
Johnnie Gray works as an engineer for the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and the two things he cares about most are his locomotive, The General, and Annabelle Lee. When war breaks out, Annabelle's father and brother go to enlist, and Johnnie rushes to the recruitment office to be first in line. The officer turns him down, keeping the reason to himself: the South needs him at the throttle more than in the ranks. Annabelle, thinking he did not even try, refuses to speak to him until he wears a uniform. A year later word comes that her father has been wounded, and she rides north on a train pulled by The General. During a meal stop, Union spies under Captain Anderson take the engine, and Annabelle is still on board.
Cast
- Frank Barnesas Annabelle's Brother
- Charles Henry Smithas Annabelle's Father (as Charles Smith)
- Tom Nawnas Union General
- Henry Bairdas Soldier (uncredited)
- Joe Bricheras Soldier (uncredited)
Show all 20 cast
- Jimmy Bryantas Raider (uncredited)
- Sergeant Bukowskias Officer (uncredited)
- C.C. Crusonas Officer (uncredited)
- Jack Dempsteras Raider (uncredited)
- Keith Fennellas Soldier (uncredited)
- Eddie Fosteras Union Railroad Fireman (uncredited)
- Ronald Gilstrapas Union Soldier (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The General (1926)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Buster Keaton took the story from William Pittenger's 1889 memoir, which was written from the Union side, but decided audiences would never accept Confederates as the villains and flipped the point of view.
- Keaton wanted the real General, then on display at Chattanooga Union Station, and tried to lease it. The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway refused the moment it realized the film was going to be a comedy.
- The Oregon shoot was punished by accidents: Keaton was knocked unconscious, an assistant director took a blank cartridge in the face, a train wheel ran over a brakeman's foot and brought a $2,900 lawsuit, and the wood-burning engine started fires that cost the production $25 for every haystack burnt.
- Nobody cleared up after the crash. The wrecked locomotive lay where it fell in the riverbed and drew sightseers for nearly twenty years, until it was hauled out for scrap in 1944-45 during the Second World War.
- A fire during a large fight scene cost the production $50,000 and left so much smoke that Keaton and his crew abandoned Oregon on 6 August and went back to Los Angeles. Only heavy rain in late August cleared the air enough to resume.
- In one of his riskiest shots Keaton sits on a coupling rod between the locomotive's driving wheels as the train pulls away. A wheelspin could have thrown him off and killed him, and the shot was made in a single take.
