12 Movies Challenge: 'The General' (1926)

by Julian Spivey

Photo: United Artists

Even though I’ve been a huge classic film buff for more than half my life now, I’ve always had a weak spot regarding the silent film era in my classic film-watching history. So, it comes as no surprise that two of the 12 highest-ranked films on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest American films of all time I haven’t yet seen are silent films – Buster Keaton’s “The General” from 1926 and Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights” from 1931.

My pick for the shortest month of the year is the shortest film on my “to watch” list this year, Keaton’s “The General,” which ranks No. 18 on the AFI list.  

It’s the first Keaton film I’ve ever seen, despite having an interest in him as a filmmaker, performer, and likely the first great stuntman in cinema history.

“The General,” a 1926 action-comedy co-directed by Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, tells the story of Johnnie Gray (Keaton), a railroad engineer, who when the Civil War breaks out, tries to enlist to fight, but his job as an engineer is too essential to the South for him to be accepted. However, the rest of the folks in his town, including his love Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) and her family, view him as a coward – thinking he’s lying about not trying to enlist.

When Gray stumbles upon a Union plot to masquerade as Southern soldiers to hijack a train and use it to destroy railroads and telegraph wires, he attempts to stop it on his own – unaware at first that they’ve also kidnapped Annabelle Lee.

“The General” is based on a true story inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, which occurred on April 12, 1862, in Northern Georgia. Volunteers from the Union Army commandeered a train called The General and took it north to Chattanooga, Tenn., causing as much damage as they could. They were pursued by Confederate forces, first on foot and later on a succession of trains for 87 miles.

While based on a true story, it does bother me that the film – whether meant to or not – is a positive portrayal of the Confederate South – though certainly not in the way D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” was or even “Gone with the Wind” after it. However, the film is also nearly 100 years old and was closer in time to the Civil War than today in which it was viewed. Keaton was from Kansas, and I’m not sure he had any views on the war, which ended 30 years before his birth.

The story certainly made for a seat-of-your-pants action-thriller with Keaton’s stunts, all done himself, serving as literal death-defying moments, where he’s both running atop moving trains and riding on the cowcatcher at the front using wood beams to deflect other wood beams off the track ahead of him. It’s a marvel of that era of film – one I wish still existed in some aspects but is understandable for financial and safety reasons that it doesn’t. Who can afford to send an actual locomotive crashing through a burning bridge these days?

At only one hour and 18 minutes, the action of “The General” should be enough to keep your attention. However, if you find yourself drifting off, at least try to admire Keaton’s physical comedy and inventive stunts, which are still breathtaking nearly 100 years later.