rotten eggs

'The General ' is widely considered Buster Keatons finest film . The story is based on reminiscences of the Civil War, William Pittengers ' 'The Great Locomotive Chase' in which the author, a northern soldier, recalls a daring raid which he had taken part in. in 1862. The story obviously had great attraction to Keaton;of a band of soldiers disguised as southerners making there way from Tenessee into Atlanta to sieze a train while it's passengers were still at breakfast.The object being to run the train to Chattanooga where they would join forces with the union troops.along the way burning bridges and severing communications en-route,but despite delays, were overtaken , upon almost reaching there destination, by another borrowed locomotive which forced them to give up there prize.The men being apprehended and some, later, being eventually executed. Keaton was once asked why his film looked more authentic than ' Gone With The Wind ' to which he replied after a little thought ' Well' they went to the novel for there story....we went to History'.

The only major change to the original story Keaton made was to see the the story from the point of view of the Southern pursuers. Keaton plays ' Jhonnie Gray ' an engineer of the western and Atlantic Flyer's locomotive.Only two things matter to him , his train and his girlfriend ' Annabell Lee '.He becomes the first to enlist but is refused on the grounds that he is an engineer and much more usefull to the Southern cause.Unknown to Annabell and her family for his rejection she unwittingly thinks him a coward.Some time later she travels aboard Jhonnies train to visit her father who has been wounded. She still will not speak to Jhonnie. When reaching ' Big Shanty ' the train is hi'jacked by Northern spies with Anabell still on board.Jhonnie goes off in hot pursuit of his two most cherished loves....his train and the girl.Eventually reaching the house by various means of travel...a manual rail trolley , penny farthing and borrowed train....he enters the house and overhears the enemies plans to launch an attack next morning.After rescuing Annabel from there clutches Jhonnie re- captures ' The General '. Now the chase being reversed.After various escapades of thwarting the enemy....Jhonnie literally does come marching home victoriously with girl and train as he quite by accident blows up a dam which washes away the Union forces. A really wonderfull silent film with too many hilarious moments to mention. Favourites though has to be the one when he takes to the rails on the manual trolley and falls of his Penny Farthing while in pursuit of the enemy.The canon on the train is also great and timed to perfection.

There's a lot of very clever and funny moments in ' The General ' which are typical of Keaton and there all brilliantly realized throughout this film. Authenticity of the period really could not be bettered either . Attention paid to detail is quite staggering which was always Keatons forte.The sequence on the bridge by the way , when it collapses and the train plunges into thirty feet of water , is all real....no special effects here....in fact even to this day that train still lies there......somewhere in ' Oregon ' i think ,where most of ' The General ' was filmed. Buster Keaton Johnnie Gray Marion Mack Annabelle Lee Glen Cavender Cpt Anderson

CRYSTAL EGG