The General (United Artists) (1926)

General Advance Stories K^AloN w "Tut G£NkftAL BK 5- One Col. Scene (Cut 30c Mat 5c) JOSEPH M. SCHENCK presents BUSTER KEATON “THE GENERAL” Adapted by A1 Boasberg and Charles Smith Photographed by J. D. Jennings and Bert Haines Fred Gabourie, technical editor; Denver Harmon, electrical ef¬ fects ; J. S. Kell, film editor; Harry Barnes, assistant director. Directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman United Artists Picture THE CAST Johnnie Gray.Buster Keaton Captain Anderson..Glenn Cavender General Thatcher.Jim Farley A Southern General, Frederick Vroom Annabelle Lee.....Marian Mack Her Father.Charles Smith Her Brother.Frank Barnes Three Union Officers. Joe Keaton Mike Donlin Tom Nawn The general opinion about “The General” is that Buster Keaton has scored a tremendous hit. Your private opinion of “The General” will be the same! BUSTER KEATON COMING IN “THE GENERAL” “Frozen-Face” In Civil War Comedy Spectacle To Be Shown At. Theatre Buster Keaton,—he of the frozen face,—comes to the . The¬ atre next week in “The General,” his great comedy spectacle of the sixties, the comedian’s most pretentious effort. “The General” cost $500,000 to produce and it is Buster’s first United Artists picture, placing him in the same cate¬ gory with Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, John Barrymore and other dominating film stars who comprise United Artists membership. “The General” is based on actual his¬ torical fact. The Andrews Railroad Raid of 1862 inspired the comedian to make a huge comedy spectacle, with thousands of soldiers and lavish sets in nature’s studio, with three Civil War railroad engines bumping over the ties and jouncing audiences out of their seats with laughter. Marian Mack, a brunette, is the Southern belle for whom the gallant Buster stakes his shirt,— : the grey flannel one. Nearly all of the action is hilarious, swift-moving railroad fun, with Buster as the engineer of The General, an historic engine of the sixties, which chased and was chased by another iron horse all over the countryside. In one scene an engine nose dives into a river,—and $40,000 of Joseph M. Schenck’s money went with it for a one-minute thrill on the screen. Mr. Schenck and Buster were unanimous in their decision to film the scene as realistically as possible. Buster leaped from the cab just in time to save the film business one of its greatest as¬ sets. Unlike many comedies, “The Gen¬ eral” has a real love story running through it, a breath-taking, hair-rais¬ ing tale of soldiers and engines and sweethearts and a face that never smiles. The girl thinks Buster is a slacker because the recruiting officer thinks an engineer more valuable to the South than a foot soldier. But Buster shows her, and how! Manager ..-. of the . ..Theatre announced yesterday that he felt the .. Theatre honored in offering to its . patrons Buster Keaton’s first independent pro¬ duction, a comedy so chock-full of en¬ tertainment values, thrills, suspense and hilarious situations that only a Keaton could keep a straight face in watching it. “Buster wanted to make his first in¬ dependent film a big picture, something surpassing anything he had done be¬ fore,” said Manager . “and I’m sure everyone will agree he did it.” “The General” was nearly a year in production. It cost a few thousand dollars more than an even half million dollars. Most of the vast scenes de¬ picted were taken near Cottage Grove, Ore., which Buster decided after three months’ travelling in the South and West, was the spot most resembling the Big Shanty, Ga., of 1862. In the South where the original incident of WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT In 1862 there were thousands of pa¬ triots, both northerners and southerners, who chafed under the tasks imposed upon them by their respective govern¬ ments. Many of them, yearning for glory in the first line of fighting, were doomed to serve in less heroic capaci¬ ties. One of these unsung heroes—unsung in 1862—was a young southerner (Bus¬ ter Keaton), who repeaKdly tried to enlist in the Confederate army, but who was refused on the ground that he was of more value to the cause as the en¬ gineer of “The General.” (In those days the crack railway locomotives were known by names instead of numbers.) The youth didn’t particularly care be¬ cause his bravery was questioned by his friends in the south; he knew he was doing his duty and serving in the ca¬ pacity that the military chieftains de¬ creed ; what hurt him was that his sweetheart, too, believed he was a ilacker, unwilling to don the gray uni¬ form of the army. So, after being re¬ jected by the sweetest girl in Dixie, Buster turned to his only friend, “The General.” The engine was his pride and joy and he gloried in grooming it as if it were a human giant. Spurned by the girl he loved and sneered at by the southern fire-eaters, who imagined that the only way a man could serve his country was to shoulder a musket and meet the enemy hand to hand, the youth lived with and for his beloved. Only the highest men in the army knew that he would rather enlist than remain with “The General” as pilot; the people of the south—and his sweet¬ heart—insisted that the railroad job was merely a subterfuge to escape military service. In April of 1862 there occurred one of the most thrilling and history mak¬ ing events of the struggle between the states. It was the famous Andrews railroad raid, when a score of Union daredevils captured the locomotive, “The General,” at Big Shanty, Georgia, hoping to make their way to Chatta¬ nooga, burning bridges and tearing up the track behind them, in an attempt to prevent the southern army from suc¬ coring the Tennessee city. The young engineer, braving death and capture, started in pursuit of the raiders, not so much as a duty to the south, but to rescue his iron friend and companion, “The General.” Then fol¬ lowed one of the perilous chapters of the Civil War. Keeping so closely on the heels of the northerners that they were pre¬ vented from carrying out their bridge burning plans, the youth eventually found himself inside the Federal lines and a prisoner. On the same train with the youth, but unbeknown to him, was his sweetheart, who happened to be in the baggage car looking for her trunk when the raid started. She, too, was taken prisoner, and she believed Buster’s appearance on the scene was to rescue her from the Yanks. After a series of exciting and laugh¬ able—to some one else, not him—ad¬ ventures in the northern camp, Buster managed to escape with the girl, re-cap- tured his locomotive, and started back for the southern lines. While a pris¬ oner of the Federal forces, he had learned of plans for a surprise attack on the Confederates. Fleeing toward home with his sweetheart and “The General,” he unconsciously blocked the progress of the northern forces long enough to give warning to the Confed¬ erate leaders. This adventure was looked upon as a tremendous service to the south. Ac¬ claimed as a hero and idolized by the former friends who had shunned him, Buster was then permitted to enlist, being appointed a lieutenant in the Con¬ federate army. And, of course, the girl forgave him and welcomed him to her arms as a real southern hero. “The General” was produced by Joseph M. Schenck on an extremely big scale. Keaton and his staff spent months in research work, traveling thousands of miles in their hunt for historical data. Although primarily for laughing pur¬ poses, the picture is historically accurate and does not in any way burlesque the days of ’62. Instead, a serious attempt has been made to re-enact some of the most thrilling lighter chapters of the great conflict. Thousands of extras were recruited to play the parts of northern and south¬ ern soldiers and citizens of that pari of the south in which the celebratec railroad raid took place. Many miles of specially built railroad were, utilized Several old locomotives were rebuill into engines of the type used during the Civil War and scores of technical 1> perfect passenger coaches and freighl cars constructed. “The General” is Keaton’s firsi United Artists picture and it was di¬ rected by the star himself and Clyde Bruckman. the Andrews Railroad Raid occurred, native industry and subsequent pros¬ perity during the past half century have builded the region so rapidly that, as Buster says, “You’d never know the old place now.” So he went up to Oregon, built replicas of Big Shanty, Kingston and other towns which fig¬ ure in the action of the film, and after six months’ production work in the great outdoors, brought forth “The General” for audiences at the .i. . Theatre to view. HERE ARE YOUR PRESS — 2 “ STORIES A N_D CUTS \