Details

Release year: 1926

Storyline

After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.

Top credits

Directors

Writers

Cast

Buster Keaton — Johnnie Gray
Marion Mack — Annabelle Lee
Glen Cavender — Captain Anderson
Jim Farley — General Thatcher

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Did you know

• For the scene in which The Texas crashes through the bridge, Keaton spared no expense, using six cameras and thousands of local extras. Cost nearly $50,000 at the time (approximately $750,000 in 2021 dollars), it was the most expensive single shot of the entire silent movie era. The Texas itself remained in the river until WWII, when it was salvaged for scrap iron.

• In the train crash, a dummy was used as the engineer. It looked so realistic that the townspeople who had come to watch screamed in horror.

• Buster Keaton wanted to use the real locomotive "General", which was at the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St Louis Union Depot in Chattanooga, TN. The railroad initially permitted him to do so, even providing him with a branch line to film on, but when it became known that the film was to be a comedy, the railroad withdrew permission, and Keaton had to look elsewhere.