Editing The General (1926 film) (section)

==Production==
[[File:The General, front.jpg|thumb|left|Keaton riding the cowcatcher.]]
[[File:Clyde Bruckman in 1935.png|thumb|right|''The General'' was co-directed by Clyde Bruckman (pictured), who was a friend and collaborator of Keaton.]]
In early 1926, Keaton's collaborator [[Clyde Bruckman]] told him about [[William Pittenger]]'s 1889 memoir ''The Great Locomotive Chase'' about the 1862 [[Great Locomotive Chase]]. Keaton was a huge fan of trains and had read the book.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=161}} Although it was written from the [[Union Army]] perspective, Keaton did not believe that the audience would accept [[Confederate States of America|Confederates]] as villains and changed the story's point of view.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hunt|first=Kristin|date=2020-07-02|title=What Drove Buster Keaton to Try a Civil War Comedy?|url=https://daily.jstor.org/what-drove-buster-keaton-to-try-a-civil-war-comedy/|access-date=2022-06-24|website=JSTOR Daily|language=en-US}}</ref> Keaton looked into shooting the film in the area where the original events took place, and attempted to authorize a lease agreement for the real-life [[The General (locomotive)|''General'']]. At that time, the locomotive was on display at [[Chattanooga Union Station]]. The [[Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway]], who had entitlement on the engine, denied Keaton's request when they realized the film was going to be a comedy.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=162}}

In April 1926, Keaton's location manager, Burt Jackson, found an area in [[Oregon]] with old-fashioned railroads which he ascertained to be more authentic in terms of period setting for the film. He also discovered that the [[Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway]] owned two vintage locomotives operating in lumber service that looked the part and purchased them for the production. He later bought a third locomotive in Oregon to portray the ''Texas'' for the purpose of using it in the iconic bridge collapse stunt. Producer [[Joseph Schenck]] was excited about the film and gave Keaton a budget of $400,000. Keaton spent weeks working on the script and preparing for elaborate [[pyrotechnical]] shots. He also grew his hair long for the film.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=162}} He hired [[Sennett Bathing Beauties]] actress [[Marion Mack]] for the female lead role.{{sfn|Meade|1997|pp=162-163}}

The cast and crew arrived in [[Cottage Grove, Oregon]], on May 27, 1926, with 18 freight cars full of Civil War-era cannons, rebuilt passenger cars, stagecoaches, houses, wagons and laborers. The crew stayed at the Bartell Hotel in nearby [[Eugene, Oregon|Eugene]] and brought three 35&nbsp;mm cameras with them from Los Angeles. On May 31, set construction began with the materials, and regular train service in Cottage Grove ceased until the end of production.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=163}} One third of the film's budget was spent in Cottage Grove, and 1,500 locals were hired.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=164}}

[[File:The General, mortar.jpg|thumb|Keaton brought 18 freight cars of props and set materials to Oregon.]]
Filming began on June 8. At first, Keaton completely ignored Mack on set. She said that "Buster just stuck to the job and to his little clique, and that was all" and that the crew "stopped the train when they saw a place to play baseball." Keaton eventually came to like Mack during production, often playing practical jokes on her. The atmosphere on set was lighthearted, and every Sunday the cast and crew played baseball with local residents, who often said that Keaton could have been a professional player.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=164}}

According to a [[United Artists]] press release at the time, the film had 3,000 people on its payroll and cost $400 an hour to make.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=164}} Entertainment trade papers reported rumors that the film's budget had grown to between $500,000 and $1 million, and that Keaton was out of control, building real bridges and having dams constructed to change the depths of rivers. Producer Schenck was angry at Keaton over the growing costs. There were also numerous on-set accidents that contributed to the growing budget. This included Keaton being knocked unconscious, an assistant director being shot in the face with a blank cartridge, a train wheel running over a brakeman's foot, resulting in a $2,900 lawsuit, and the train's wood-burning engine causing numerous fires. The fires often spread to forests and farmers' haystacks, which cost the production $25 per burnt stack.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=165}}

[[File:KeatonMack.PNG|thumb|upright|Keaton with Mack]]
On July 23, Keaton shot the climactic train wreck scene in the conifer forest near Cottage Grove. The town declared a local holiday so that everyone could watch the spectacle. Between three and four thousand local residents showed up,{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=165}} including 500 extras from the [[Oregon National Guard]]. (Elsewhere in the film, the Oregon National Guard members appear dressed as both Union and Confederate soldiers who cross the landscape in the background of the train tracks). Keaton used six cameras for the train wreck scene, which began four hours late and required several lengthy trial runs. The train wreck of the "Texas" shot cost $42,000, the most expensive single shot in silent-film history.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://silentfilm.org/archive/the-general|title=The General – Silent Film Festival|website=silentfilm.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The General (1927)|url=http://www.filmsite.org/gene.html|author=Tim Dirks|publisher=Filmsite|access-date=July 26, 2017}}</ref> The production company left the wreckage in the riverbed. The locomotive became a minor tourist attraction for nearly twenty years, until it was salvaged in 1944–45 for scrap during World War II.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=166}}

Another fire broke out during the filming of a large fight scene, which not only cost the production $50,000, but also forced Keaton and the crew to return to Los Angeles on August 6 due to excessive smoke.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=166}} Heavy rains finally cleared the smoke in late August and production resumed. Shooting concluded on September 18. Keaton had shot 200,000 feet of film and began a lengthy editing process for a late December release date.{{sfn|Meade|1997|p=169}}

Keaton performed many dangerous physical stunts on and around the moving train, including jumping from the [[locomotive|engine]] to a [[Tender (rail)|tender]] to a [[boxcar]], and running along the roofs of the railcars.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Neibaur|first1=James L.|title=The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia|date=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810876835|page=10|language=en}}</ref> One of the most dangerous stunts involved him pulling a railroad tie out from being lodged into the track, with the train steadily approaching, then sitting on the [[cow-catcher]] of the slow-moving train while carrying the tie, then tossing it at another tie to dislodge it from the tracks, had he either failed to pull out the first tie on time, or mistimed the throw to the second tie, the locomotive could have derailed and Keaton could have been injured or killed.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}{{Dubious|Production, Safety of Stunts|date=June 2022}}

Another dangerous stunt involved him sitting on one of the [[coupling rod]]s connecting the [[Steam locomotive components|drivers]] of the [[locomotive]], had the locomotive suffered a [[wheelspin]], Keaton might have been thrown from the rod and injured or killed. Shot in one take, the scene shows the train starting gently and gradually picking up speed as it enters a shed, while Keaton's character Johnnie Gray, distracted and heartbroken, is oblivious. In the cast credits, Keaton's name/character is listed last.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/YWm587wKKVw Ghostarchive {{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190804081755/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWm587wKKVw&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine {{cbignore}} :{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWm587wKKVw|title=Film on Youtube|website=[[YouTube]]|date=January 25, 2017 }} {{cbignore}}</ref>