Trivia / The General (1926)

• Acting for Two: For the scenes with the opposing armies marching, Buster Keaton had the extras (which included 500 members of Oregon National Guard) wear the gray uniforms of the Confederacy and march in one direction past the camera. After that, he had them change uniforms to the Union blues and had them march past the camera in the other direction.
• Budget-Busting Element: The film's total budget was $750,000 (in 1926), of which approximately $42,000 was spent on a fifteen second-long shot of a train crashing from a burning bridge into a river. It was the single most expensive shot in silent movie history. This was because it was a genuine train being crashed into the river and had six cameras filming at once to insure they caught it, because they could only do the stunt once (the wreckage remained submerged until it was salvaged for scrap in World War II).
• California Doubling: Oregon, actually, standing in for Georgia and Tennessee.
• Copiously Credited Creator: In addition to starring, Keaton co-produced, co-directed, co-edited, and co-wrote the screenplay.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Buster Keaton always said that this was his favorite of his own movies.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Buster Keaton grew his hair long for this film to match the men's hair of the time as seen in many Confederate soldier photographs.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • In the scene where Johnnie and Annabelle refill the water reservoir of the train, Marion Mack said in an interview many years later that she had no idea that she was supposed to get drenched. Buster Keaton had not told her what was supposed to happen, so the shock you see is genuine.
  • When the Texas goes over the burning bridge and plummets into the river, the looks of shock on the faces of the Union officers were real, because the actors who played them were not told what was going to happen to that train.
• Inspiration for the Work: Keaton was inspired by William Pittenger's 1863 memoir The Great Locomotive Chase, about the 1862 Great Locomotive Chase.
• No Stunt Double: As usual, Buster Keaton did all his own stunts in this film, a lot of which were obviously quite dangerous. One in particular is when he has to throw the railroad tie to hit another to knock if off the track. If he had missed, the locomotive could have derailed and killed him.
• On-Set Injury:
  • Several National Guardsmen, who were employed as extras for the Civil War battle scenes, were injured by mishaps caused by misfired muskets or explosions.
  • Buster Keaton was knocked unconscious when he stood too close to a cannon firing. Assistant director Harry Barnes was accidentally hit in the face by a blank charge.
  • Train brakeman Fred Lowry sued the production for US$2,900 after his foot was crushed when it was run over by a locomotive wheel during filming of one of the railway scenes.
• One-Take Wonder: The train-on-a-collapsing-bridge setup was done for the climax.
• Real-Life Relative: Buster Keaton's father Joe appears as a Union General.
• Working Title: The Engine Driver.

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