The General (1926)

Unrated  |   |  Action, Adventure, Comedy  |  24 February 1927 (France)
8.3
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 8.3/10 from 47,784 users  
Reviews: 229 user | 105 critic

When Union spies steal an engineer's beloved locomotive, he pursues it single-handedly and straight through enemy lines.

0Check in
0Share...

Watch Now

Free at Internet Archive

WATCH NOW
ON DISC

10 Bond Trivia Facts

Count down 10 things only real James Bond fans know about James Bond.

Watch now

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 45 titles
created 14 Mar 2011
 
a list of 25 titles
created 19 Aug 2011
 
a list of 21 titles
created 25 May 2014
 
a list of 46 titles
created 19 Aug 2014
 
a list of 23 titles
created 9 months ago
 

Related Items

Search for "The General" on Amazon.com

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: The General (1926)

The General (1926) on IMDb 8.3/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of The General.

User Polls

Top Rated Movies #139 | 2 wins & 1 nomination. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

The Gold Rush (1925)
Adventure | Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.3/10 X  

A prospector goes to the Klondike in search of gold and finds it and more.

Director: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray
Metropolis (1927)
Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.3/10 X  

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

Director: Fritz Lang
Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich
City Lights (1931)
Certificate: Passed Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.6/10 X  

With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.

Director: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.3/10 X  

A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.

Director: Frank Capra
Stars: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains
Modern Times (1936)
Comedy | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.6/10 X  

The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.

Director: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman
Comedy | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story.

Director: Frank Capra
Stars: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.4/10 X  

A man and his son search for a stolen bicycle vital for his job.

Director: Vittorio De Sica
Stars: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell
Ikiru (1952)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.3/10 X  

A bureaucrat tries to find a meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Stars: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori
History | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resulting street demonstration which brought on a police massacre.

Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
Stars: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Aleksandrov
M (1931)
Crime | Drama | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.4/10 X  

When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.

Director: Fritz Lang
Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut
The Navigator (1924)
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

Two spoiled rich people find themselves trapped on an empty passenger ship.

Directors: Donald Crisp, Buster Keaton
Stars: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Frederick Vroom
Comedy | Drama | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.5/10 X  

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

Director: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie
Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
Glen Cavender ...
Jim Farley ...
Frederick Vroom ...
Charles Henry Smith ...
Annabelle's Father (as Charles Smith)
Frank Barnes ...
Joe Keaton ...
Union General
Mike Donlin ...
Union General
Tom Nawn ...
Union General
Edit

Storyline

Johnnie loves his train ("The General") and Annabelle Lee. When the Civil War begins he is turned down for service because he's more valuable as an engineer. Annabelle thinks it's because he's a coward. Union spies capture The General with Annabelle on board. Johnnie must rescue both his loves. Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

The tale of a lad, a lass and a locomotive. (Trade paper ad). See more »


Certificate:

Unrated | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

24 February 1927 (France)  »

Also Known As:

General  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Box Office

Budget:

$750,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (1982) | (1962) | (2003 alternate) |

Sound Mix:

Color:

(Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

A number of celebrities have cameos in this film: Glen Cavender had been a hero in the Spanish-American War. Frederick Vroom had appeared earlier in Buster Keaton's The Navigator (1924) as the girl's father whose ship is hijacked. Keaton's former director of photography, Elgin Lessley, has a cameo as the Union general who gives the command to cross the burning bridge. Producer Louis Lewyn has a bit part as a soldier. See more »

Goofs

The General and Texas are seen numbered 3 and 5, respectively. At the time the film is set, the engines of the Western and Atlantic were only known by their names, as were the General and the Texas. The railroads in the Confederacy did not begin numbering their engines until after the war. At that time, the General and Texas were numbered 39 and 49, respectively. The General did not receive the number 3 until the 1880s, and the Texas was renumbered 12 in 1880, then 212 in 1890, and never received the number 5. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Annabelle's brother: Fort Sumter has been fired upon.
Mr. Lee: Then the war is here.
Annabelle's brother: Yes, dad, and I'm going to be one of the first to enlist.
See more »

Connections

Featured in Lost Forever (2011) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

The only silent to ever make me really laugh out loud.
9 August 2000 | by (Akron, Ohio) – See all my reviews

Buster Keaton is simply awesome, only he could pull off a film like this. Everything about it was superb, while his other films made me laugh, this is the only silent to make me laugh so hard my sides hurt. And it never gets tiresome, no matter how many times you watch it, making it a great cinema experience.


16 of 26 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Can someone explain to me why this is so great? TheLamplightersSerenade
Your Top ten favorite silent films SakowskyBrothers
score/soundtrack mariasarasota
Best version on DVD? haciendacaliente
I like to think I have good taste in movies, but... bulldawg8110
A little anal perhaps godels_sprog
Discuss The General (1926) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?