The General (1926) - Movie Review

Buster Keaton's The General is by far my most favorite of his movies. Again he does his own stunts. Almost every stunt is meant to be hilarious or awe inspiring. Every interaction between the characters is meant to be hilarious or ironic.

The General is based off of the great locomotive chase which really did take place during the Civil War. The movie does a fair job of accurately portraying the raid itself. However, since this is a comedic adventure the raid is more of a secondary story.

The true story of The General is Johnnie's (Buster's) desire to prove himself and his love to Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), his fiancee. When the Civil War breaks out he tries to enlist, but when he tells the enlistment officer that he is an engineer for a railroad he is refused. The enlistment officer thinks that Johnnie would be more valuable where he is than in the army, but they don't tell him. Annabelle's father sees that Johnnie hasn't enlisted and thinks he is a coward and tells Annabelle. Annabelle confronts Johnnie and he says that he tried to enlist but they wouldn't take him. Annabelle tells Johnnie that she won't talk to him until he is wearing a uniform and he has enlisted.

A year goes by.

Annabelle gets word that her father has been wounded and she is traveling North to be with him. Johnnie is the engineer for the train she will be traveling on. When the train stops for lunch undercover Union soldiers steal the train. Unfortunately for Annabelle she is in one of the baggage cars and is taken along with the train. Johnnie takes off after the thieves... by himself, although he believes he has backup. Unfortunately for Johnnie he has to complete his task of retrieving his engine and his girl.

The next several minutes sees Johnnie chasing his engine in a variety of ways. He also has to contend with a myriad of obstacles thrown in his way. Many of these obstacles are hilarious. One of them is a train car that is left to slow him down. He pushes it to a bypass and then he continues on thinking he is rid of the car. He gets distracted by putting wood in the furnace and when he turns back the cars is back in front of him. At this point the "stone face" is back. Johnnie gets distracted again and when he looks out ahead of him the car is gone. He can't believe it and blinks twice thinking that he may have been seeing things.

Later, he finds Annabelle and together they steal his engine back so they can head south and warn the Confederate Army of an impending attack. The locomotive chase is reversed as Johnnie and Annabelle must create obstacles to hold up the Union Army. They are successful.

I won't give away the ending, except to say it is a happy one.

By the way the engine that Johnnie runs is named General.

I laugh every time I see this movie. Buster Keaton is one of my favorite comedians of all time. He is definitely in my top ten.

Using IMDB's scale of 1 to 10 stars I give this one a 10. It is hilarious and action packed.