17 Dec 2014
Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
USA
1926
80 min
Buster Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, a locomotive driver in the south during the civil war, who has the long hair, dreamy gaze and slight build of a romantic poet. When his engine, The General, is stolen by Northern saboteurs, Johnnie single-handedly journeys behind enemy lines to retrieve it and rescue Annabelle (Marion Mack), the woman he loves. She had in fact declared herself disgusted by his failure to enlist and said she wouldn’t speak to him again until he was in uniform. With an orchestral score by Carl Davis, this beautifully restored film sparkles with Keaton’s comic genius.