The General (United Artists) (1926)

Good Editors Demand Good Features passenger coaches and converted them at great expense into Civil War rolling stock. Bridges and trestles, such as the ones which spanned the rivers in Ten¬ nessee and Georgia during the sixties, were built in Oregon. Thousands of dollars were spent for single laughs and thrills. One of the scenes in “The General” is the plunge of a locomotive through a burning trestle. This action could have been filmed in miniature for less than $1,000, but Joseph M. Schenck, producer of Keaton’s pictures, insisted on the real thing, so the wreck was staged at a cost of $40,000. Those who have seen this scene on the screen declare that it remained for a comedy to furnish the greatest thrill in the history of the silversheet. “The General” is Buster’s first pic¬ ture for United Artists and is by far the most ambitious comedy in his career. COMEDIAN FIRE FIGHTER Buster Keaton and “The General’s” Army Fought Northw est For est Fire Stopping work while in the midst of production on his big United Artists comedy spectacle, “The General,” which is the feature at the . Theatre, Buster Keaton and the 600 members of his company and thousands ’of extras recently helped fight a disastrous forest fire in the Pacific Northwest. Keaton was on location in Oregon when the timber blazes broke out. His Civil War towns, constructed for the filming of the costliest laugh feature in the history of motion pictures, were believed to be safe from the flames, but Buster, wishing to aid the forest'rang¬ ers and thousands of volunteers, imme¬ diately ceased activities when he heard of the danger and ordered his forces to the edge of forests, which had become veritable infernoes. The frozen-faced comedian retained his sense of humor even in the face of danger. Clad only in athletic under¬ wear, shoes and a Confederate cam¬ paign hat, Buster led his forces to the attack. The heat thawed out his im¬ mobile face, and he kept the fire fight¬ ers laughing all during the night. The fire became menacing on a Saturday night, and it was then that Buster put the resources of his organization at the command of the Oregon State Officers. The Hollywood contingent stayed on the job until the flames were under control the next day. Students of history would have re¬ ceived a shock if they could have seen Buster, garbed like a Welsh rarebit dream Marathon runner, leading the Union and Confederate armies against the flames. “The General” is a comedy with a historically accurate Civil War background, and a battle was being fought on the afternoon the fire started. Am armistice was decreed until the common enemy was routed. The hordes of extras, wearers of the blue and the gray, were forced to use the coats of their uniforms as substi¬ tutes for blankets to fight the flames. Motion picture generals and privates, spies and patriots, southern gentlemen and northern adventurers, as well as cameramen, “gag” men, assistant direc¬ tors, electricians, property men and production officials fought side by side under the leadership of shirtless, pants- less Buster. For several hours the Kea¬ ton camps and thousands of acres of virgin forests _ were believed doomed, but a change in the wind enabled the fighters to check the flames. The Keaton fire-fighting equipment, which was kept in readiness all the time during the several months the com¬ pany was on location, because of the danger from the three Civil War wood- burning locomotives used in the huge comedy, played an important part in getting the forest fire under control. Several hundred Oregon National Guardsmen, who take part in “The General,” also performed heroic service. The Keaton first-aid stations were filled with fire fighters overcome by the smoke, and the wives of the Hollywood group, including Buster’s wife, Natalie Talmadge Keaton, a sister of Norma and Constance, prepared sandwiches and coffee for the men. The frequent forest fires left such a pall of smoke over the entire region that the Keaton company returned to Hollywood by special train, “shot” in¬ teriors in “The General” until the fall rains cleared the atmosphere, and then went back to Oregon to complete the picture. Actual camera work covered a period of more than six months. Buster leased twelve miles of rail¬ road in Oregon, bought three locomo¬ tives and dozens of freight cars and THEY LET HIM LIVE “The General” is the title of Buster Keaton’s first United Artists picture under the Joseph M. Schenck banner, which comes to the.Theatre . And “The General” is a locomotive, one of several used in the Civil War comedy, and not a mili¬ tary officer. During the filming of the spectacular comedy, which utilizes the services of several thousand people and unfolds some of the lighter but most thrilling chapters of the struggle between the States, a studio wit approached Buster and asked the frozen-faced star if he knew that his engine chewed tobacco. “Yes, sir, ‘The General’ chews to¬ bacco.” “How do you figure that?” asked Keaton. “Well, it choo choos to start ’er, and it choo choos to back ’er.” BK-4—One column Shanahan sketch. Mat only 5c $1,000,000 COMEDIES COMING Buster Keaton, Who Spent $500,000 on His Own, “The General,” Foresees Hi gher Co st of Laugh Production By BU STER K EATON The day of the million dollar motion picture comedy is not far distant. People would rather laugh than weep, and if they have to pay for the privilege of doing either, it is obvious which form of entertainment they 11 choose. That’s why I’ve never had a secret desire to play Hamlet or star in dramatic “epics.” . , , , . As an illustration of the staggering cost and months of effort required to make a feature comedy of the type de-~ manded by the world’s screen fans, I might give a few facts in connection with “The General,” which was pro¬ duced by Joseph M. Schenck as my first picture for United Artists. Nearly a year ago our organization began searching for material for a com¬ edy with a Civil War background—a picture that would combine laughs with thrills but still not burlesque any phase of the struggle between the States. We finally hit upon a certain chapter of the war as a basis for the story. It was the historic Andrews railroad raid and locomotive chase. Students of history and Civil War survivors will recall the feat of a band of daring Northerners who penetrated into Confederate territory, stole a loco¬ motive and part of a train, played gen¬ eral havoc with military plans and who subsequently were chased, and many of them captured, by the boys in gray. It wasn’t very funny to anyone con¬ cerned at the time, but as we look back, the adventure was replete with comedy. We pledged ourselves to make every phase of the picture historically accu¬ rate and not to take liberties with even the smallest episode. It was our original plan to film the picture in Tennessee, the locale of the chief part of the story. Location scouts spent several weeks in the south and east, searching for a region resembling the railroad raid territory of the sixties. Alas for the progress of the south! We didn’t find what we wanted. We had to have several miles of railroad track and have it for our almost exclusive use during the making of “The General.” The south’s railroads of today were too busy and too modern for our purposes. After traveling nearly 14,000 miles, I found in Oregon a location which research workers took oath is more like the Tennessee of the sixties than Ten¬ nessee was itself. A mountainous coun¬ try where we could have a railroad practically to ourselves for several months, and nobody to bother us when we staged Civil War battles, ran loco¬ motives into rivers, burned and blew up bridges and generals enjoyed a Holly¬ wood holiday. Our troubles started when we got ready to leave Hollywood for Oregon. We bought three old locomotives and many freight cars and passenger coaches and had them rebuilt into roll¬ ing stock of the Civil War period. We had planned to run them under their own power up the coast, but as they didn’t boast any airbrakes, the railroad said, “No.” So the engines and trains went on flatcars. When we arrived in Oregon we had to build towns, hire thousands of extras to enact the roles of Federal and Con¬ federate soldiers—and incidentally pro¬ vide the correct uniforms for them— set up commissary camps, hospitals, blacksmith shops, isolated storehouses for the huge quantities of powder used in the battle scenes, employ fire wardens to protect the forests from damage, and even engage teachers ten school the many children on location. Thousands of spectators came from miles around to watch us film “The General.” On the day that we plunged one of our three locomotives from a burning trestle into the river below and spent $40,000 for a single screen thrill, half of the state of Oregon must have been there to see the scene “shot.” One of the big laughs in connection with our location trip was at the ex¬ pense of the barber in a town where we made our headquarters for several weeks. When he heard that a Holly¬ wood motion picture company was com¬ ing, he added several chairs and hired some extra barbers. But we were all Civil War types and had sworn off hair-cuts until the picture was com¬ pleted. And most of the company wore beards which didn’t require any trim¬ ming. _ The barber got one look at the Holly¬ wood visitors, whom he expected to be at least daily customers, and promptly fired his extra help and took out the •-ush-season chairs. “The General,” Buster Keaton’s first independent film for United Artists, took twice as long to make and cost twice as much money as any previous Keaton comedy. So Buster calls it “a comedy spectacle.” Buster Keaton, “frozen-faced” star of “The General” at the... Theatre, recently saw Helen Wills, the American tennis star—“little Miss Poker Face.”—play tennis. When Greek meets Greek! John Barrymore recently bet Buster Keaton, star of “The General,” a box of cigars he could tell a funny story that would make Buster smile. John told it. Buster remained his frozen¬ faced self. Then Barrymore handed over the cigars. Buster lit one, puffed delightedly and beamed a smile of con¬ tentment. And Barrymore took back the cigars!