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The General

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The General

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Also known as General

1926 film directed by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton

OverviewAI-generated

The General is a film produced by Joseph M. Schenck Productions and Buster Keaton Productions in the United States of America. Directed by Clyde Bruckman, the movie was released on December 25, 1926. It has a runtime of 79 minutes and a budget of 750000, with reported revenue of 1000000. The film’s tagline reads, "Buster drives 'The General' to trainload of laughter."

Various records list different publication dates for the work, including January 1, 1926, December 25, 1926, December 26, 1926, and April 4, 1927. One entry specifies a duration of 75 and a capital cost of 415232. Review scores associated with the title include 9.2/10 and 92%. The film has been referenced by 189 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 21 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Internet Archive, TMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film · TMDB

7.9

During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.

Released: 1926-12-2579 minDir: Clyde BruckmanAction, Adventure, Comedy, War, Romance, DramaBudget: $750,000Box office: $1.0M

Cast

  • Buster Keaton as Johnnie Gray
  • Marion Mack as Annabelle Lee
  • Glen Cavender as Captain Anderson
  • Jim Farley as General Thatcher
  • Frederick Vroom as A Southern General
  • Frank Barnes as Annabelle's Brother

Themes

  • cannon
  • army
  • general
  • southern usa
  • spy
  • fiancé
  • bridge
  • engineer
  • attack
  • black and white

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Key facts

Directed by
Buster Keaton , Clyde Bruckman
Screenplay by
Al Boasberg , Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton, Charles Smith
Based on
The Great Locomotive Chase , 1863 memoir Union soldier, by William Pittenger
Produced by
Joseph Schenck , Buster Keaton
Starring
Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
Cinematography
Devereaux Jennings , Bert Haines
Edited by
Buster Keaton, Sherman Kell
Music by
William P. Perry (1970)
Production companies
Buster Keaton Productions, Joseph M. Schenck Productions
Distributed by
United Artists
Release dates
December 31, 1926 ( 1926-12-31 ) (Tokyo) February 5, 1927 ( 1927-02-05 ) (New York City)
Running time
79 minutes (8 reels) (times vary with different versions)
Country
United States
Languages
Silent film , English intertitles
Budget
$750,000
Box office
$1 million

via Wikipedia infobox

Internet Archive

audio

General Ludd's Rage Against the Machines

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~18 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The General is a 1926 American silent comedy film released by United Artists. It was inspired by the Great Locomotive Chase, a true story of an event that occurred during the American Civil War. The story was adapted from the 1889 memoir The Great Locomotive Chase by William Pittenger. The film stars Buster Keaton, who also co-directed it along with Clyde Bruckman.

At the time of its initial release, The General, an action comedy film made toward the end of the silent era, was not well received by critics and audiences, resulting in mediocre box office returns (about half a million dollars domestically, and approximately one million worldwide). Because of its huge budget ($750,000 supplied by Metro chief Joseph Schenck) and failure to turn a significant profit, Keaton lost his independence as a film maker and was forced into a restrictive deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The General” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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