The General (1926)

Saturday February 22nd, 2025 – 2:00 pm
The Hollywood Theatre
4122 North East Sandy
Portland, OR 97212

Hollywood organist Dean Lemire will be performing his original score on the Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ.

One of the finest and most revered comedies of the silent era….Buster Keaton’s favorite film..the iconic masterpiece of the “Great Stoneface”.

Shot on location in Cottage Grove, Oregon in the summer of 1926, The General contains the most expensive stunt ever filmed in the silent era: The iconic shot of a real locomotive crashing off a collapsing bridge and into the ravine below.

More than just a constant stream of great gags, what makes The General so extraordinary is that it is superlative on every level: in terms of its humor, suspense, historical reconstruction, character study, visual beauty, and technical precision. One might even argue that it comes as close to flawless perfection as any feature ever made, comic or otherwise.

We will also be screening a rare silent short!

Fandom review:  #25 of top 100 films to see before you die!

The late-great Orson Welles review: “The greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made”

Rotten Tomatoes review: Tomatometer 92% (63 reviews)PopcornMeter 92% (10,000+ ratings)IMDB:  8.2 of 10 Rating

Purchase tickets at: https://hollywoodtheatre.org/show/the-general/

Director: Buster Keaton
Run time: 92 mins
Format: Digital