The General (1926)

Name: The General (1926)
Uploaded: 2026-09-01
Duration: 1 h 19 min
Description: A Southern railroad engineer, turned down by the army and dumped by his girl, gets both back when Union spies steal his locomotive with her aboard. He gives chase in a second engine, alone, across enemy lines and back. Keaton plays it deadpan while staging real trains, real bridges and a genuine locomotive plunging into a river.

Plays here · source: Internet Archive

1926 · 1h 19m · Silent

Directed by Buster Keaton

public domain

US public domain — published 1926; the maximum US term of 95 years from publication expired on 1 January 2022.

A Southern railroad engineer, turned down by the army and dumped by his girl, gets both back when Union spies steal his locomotive with her aboard. He gives chase in a second engine, alone, across enemy lines and back. Keaton plays it deadpan while staging real trains, real bridges and a genuine locomotive plunging into a river.

A flop in 1926, now near the top of most greatest-films lists. The gags are engineering: everything you see actually happened in front of the camera.

Watch on the original source (archive) ↗