The local ‘community’ analogue television channel broadcast last night, the entire silent film, “The General”, starring Buster Keaton. Keaton’s training as an acrobat is evident throughout the film, with his many hijinx. The trains are an important part of the film, although non-train sections of the film are very amatuerishly portrayed. The final battle between the opposing forces is an epic to rate with any modern day big budget film. Keaton was obviously in control of the locomotives and his antics show that early Hollywood took little note of occupational health and safety concerns. I did find the constant piano playing very tedious, preferring a silent film to be, silent.
I wasn’t around in the days of silent movies, but my understanding was that most theaters hired a piano player to play along with the movie.
When we watched the movie, it had a score provided by a full orchestra. While it was OK, I would have preferred just the piano.
We did enjoy the movie; one of the benefits of NetFlix - instant watch on the TV (along with Roku, that is. 
)
Tim Brien said:Some of the first western silent films were actually filmed on the east coast. They were filmed just over the delaware river from me. Milford PA. Not sure about the General though.
The local 'community' analogue television channel broadcast last night, the entire silent film, "The General", starring Buster Keaton. Keaton's training as an acrobat is evident throughout the film, with his many hijinx. The trains are an important part of the film, although non-train sections of the film are very amatuerishly portrayed. The final battle between the opposing forces is an epic to rate with any modern day big budget film. Keaton was obviously in control of the locomotives and his antics show that early Hollywood took little note of occupational health and safety concerns. I did find the constant piano playing very tedious, preferring a silent film to be, silent.
Tim , look for the “mute” button on the remote , or just turn the tv sound off !
Thats one of the greatest train movies ever made , no trick photgraphy , no computer generated action , I still can not belive what they did useing real trains !
Silent movies were NEVER silent, they were always accompanied by a piano, organ (often with organ generated sound effects) or even full blown orchestra! That was half the experience
Vic,
the piano accompianement is mandatory to silent films, but in the case of the version seen, the repetoire was consistent, with a never changing beat. It was like a stuck record continually replaying. The piano should add emotion to a film, adding tension and suspense, where required.
Yeah I hate it when whoever puts out a silent film with a generic music accompanyment that is completely independant to the action, thats just plain lazyness on the distributors part and usually a sign that its a very low quality DVD, most distributors worth their salt use a soundtrack custom tailored to the movie, the best examples I have are ones that used the original score used at the premier of the movies, Kino’s “Metropolis” by Fritz Lang and a BBC version of “the Thief of Bagdad” with Douglas Fairbanks Sr both have magnificent orchestral scores, unfortunatly it sounds like you got one of those cheepie versions, if you really like the movie, you need to find the version of The General put out by Kino International as part of their Buster Keaton Omnibus, another very worth looking for is Our Hospitality which has one of the funniest train sequences ever filmed.
Just ran across this film, watching on Amazon streaming video. Great stuff.
Maybe I will set the date of my RR back to 1880-ish from 1915. Fewer automobiles to model, I guess.
Good thing they had piano players at the silent movies! My grandfather, the section foreman for the UP at Pierce, CO went to the movies on hot summers night, and felt bad for the young lady playing the piano, so he sat next to her and fanned her with his hat. One thing led to another, and here I am!
“The General” was filmed near Cottage Grove, Oregon, a small mill and mining town south of Eugene.
It bears repeating here, as funny as The General is, you really need to see Our Hospitality. Which features a full size replica of Stephenson’s Rocket and some very funny observations about early railroads. Also look for The Iron Mule which reuses the Rocket as part of a Fatty Arbuckle production that is equally funny.
Here’s a nine and a half minute clip from “Our Hospitality”, featuring the train:
The way they deal with a stubborn burro on the track is pretty funny. Also, near the end you can see them using a stub switch.
You can even watch the whole movie on YouTube. It’s an hour and thirteen minutes long:
Well if they had music playing then the movies weren’t silent, just non talking.
for those, who did not see it:
i got the whole film embedded on my website (with the original (?) orchestra musik)
click here: http://kormsen.info/ and scroll down.
Ironstone Vineyard (Murphys, CA) showed “The General” one evening a couple of months ago, with a theater organ accompaniment. The organ was taken from the Alhambra Theater in Sacramento, and Fox (I think) movie palace that existed until it was torn down to make way for a Safeway grocery store in the early 1970’s.
“The General” was shown with another silent western with a RR theme, but I forgot its name. Great fun evening for Buster Keaton, silent movie, theatre organ and railroad fans. Plus they threw in a buffet dinner.
They’re doing Lon Chaney’s “Phantom of the Opera” in October.
My grandfather on my dad’s side used to play the piano for silent movies.
Just ran across another one done in the late 1800s by Thomas Edison, filming the Mt Tamalpias Scenic Railway, that may be contributing its 5-7% grade and famous “double bow knot” loops to my layout.
(http://memory.loc.gov/mbrs/lcmp003/m3a33585t.gif)
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/papr:@field(NUMBER+@band(lcmp003+m3a33585))
Another favourite mountain RR of mine, and of many people worldwide, is the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, from which you can see, not Mt Tamalpais, but Mt Everest! Are you familiar with it? http://www.dhrs.org/
That’s a marvellous find Michael; thanks for posting it here. Those really WERE the days… 
William Whitlow said:Lovin' your story, William!
Good thing they had piano players at the silent movies! My grandfather, the section foreman for the UP at Pierce, CO went to the movies on hot summers night, and felt bad for the young lady playing the piano, so he sat next to her and fanned her with his hat. One thing led to another, and here I am!
Hiya, Dick! 
The more you tell me about Sacramento the more I feel I’ve got to go there one day. I hear there’s a little bitty :lol: old railroad museum there as well as your Garden RR Club… 