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The General

1927Black & White4.0 / 5154.3k views

Complete version (other version on archive.org is missing 1st 4 minutes) Union solders have stolen The General, a Confederate train manned by Johnnie Gray, who was unable to enlist in the Confederate army because he is needed as an engineer. The Union plans to use the train to supply its soldiers in a sneak attack against the Confederates. But now it's up to Gray and his love, Annabelle Lee, to reclaim The General, recross enemy lines, and warn the Confederates. The General based on a real incident during the American Civil War when a posse of northern soldiers hijacked a confederate train and a lone southern engineer found himself fighting the lot of them alone.

Archivist Notes

wallflowerstudio★★★★★

"Fantastic movie. "

8/25/2025
Moongleam★★★★★

"You don't need permission from anybody to show this; it's in the public domain. Here's a better copy: http://archive.org/details/The_General_Buster_K..."

8/18/2012
paul31★★★★★

"I work at a museum, and was wondering if I could get permission from the person the who uploaded this film to show at our museum?"

8/17/2012
JeffZHigs★★★★★

"Buster Keaton is one of my favorite actors, when I say actor, I mean actor. It's like he has a 6th sense with trains, he makes all his props feel ali..."

1/14/2011
Cat Lady

"There's an odd written card commentary at the start by someone who clearly wasn't acquainted with Buster Keaton and his world. The soundtrack is als..."

7/14/2008
The General | Archive Discovery