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The General (1927) (1927)
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Also Includes: Cops and The Playhouse
Consistently ranked among the best films ever made, Keaton's "The General" (1926, 75 min., stereo) is so brilliantly conceived and executed that it continues to inspire awe and laughter with every viewing.
Rejected by the Confederate Army as unfit and taken for a coward by his beloved Annabelle Lee (Marian Mack), young Johnnie Gray (Keaton) sets out to single-handedly win the war with his cherished locomotive. What follows is, without exaggeration, probably the most cleverly choreographed comedy ever recorded on celluloid. Johnnie wages war against hijackers, an errant cannon and the unpredictable hand of fate while roaring along the iron rails -- exploiting the comedic potential of Keaton's favorite filmic prop: the train. Insisting on accuracy in every detail, Keaton created a remarkable authentic historical epic, replete with hundreds of costumed extras, full-scale sets and the breathtaking plunge ofan actual locomotive from burning bridge into a river. "Every shot has the authenticity and the unassuming correct composition ofa Mathew Brady Civil War photograph," wrote film historian David Robinson, "No one -- not even Griffith or Huston and certainly not Fleming (Gone With The Wind) -- caught the visual aspect of the Civil War as Keaton did."
In The Playhouse" (1921, 23 min., mono), a technical tour-de-force in which Keaton plays every member of a stage company, the entire audience and an undisciplined chimp to boot! "Cops" (1922, 18 min., mono) is the quintessential chase film, with Buster tumbling into a series of marvelous mishaps while fleeing hundreds of uniformed policemen. |
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