The General
| December 21, 2007 at 6:00 pm | Category: Movie Spotlight |
| by hollywoodjoker | |
Story :
The General is a 1927 silent comedy starring Buster Keaton as Johnnie, a train engineer who loves 2 things his beloved train, The General and his girlfriend, Annabelle. When Civil war breaks out, Johnnie tries to get enlisted, but the officer thinks that he is far more valuable as an engineer, so turns him down. Annabelle, mistakenly believes that Johnnie did not even try for enlisting and so she gets upset with him.
Union spies hijack the train,”The General” and hold the passengers (including Annabella) onboard as prisoners. When Johnnie comes to know that his beloved General has been hijacked, he pursues them by taking another train, The Texas. Through a mishap he becomes the sole person aboard The Texas, but the Unionists think they’re outnumbered and continue to run. The funny chase scene shows keaton performing many amazing stunts. Buster Keaton performed most of the dangerous stunts by himself.
Buster Keaton in The General
Although according to keaton, this was his best film, it miserably flopped at the box office. It was also panned by many critics at the time of it’s release. The New York Times stated that in this picture Buster Keaton “is more the acrobat than the clown” and that he “looks like a clergyman and acts like a vaudeville tumbler.” But, today this film is praised by most of the film critics. Just like in stock markets, no one can predict what can happen at the box office.
Starring :
Buster Keaton as Johnnie Gray
Marion Mack as Annabelle Lee
Movie Gossip :
Burning all bridges : In the climax of the film, the train Texas is shown crossing a burning bridge only to collapse into the river below. For filming of the scene, Buster Keaton was not ready to accept any special effect or model of the train. He used a real train to collapse from a real burning bridge! This was the most expensive silent film scene costing $42000 at that time!! The production company could not afford to remove the wreckage after the scene was filmed, so they left the wrecked locomotive in the river bed, where it became a minor tourist attraction for nearly twenty years.
Youtube Trailer and Videos :
Movie Ratings :
Hollywood Jokes Rating : 7/10
Box Office :
Flop
Popularity: 3%
