Because of its huge budget ($750,000 supplied by Metro chief Joseph Schenck) and failure to turn a significant profit, Keaton lost his independence as a film maker and was forced into a restrictive deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

After arriving in Marietta, Georgia, Western & Atlantic Railroad train engineer Johnnie Gray visits Annabelle Lee, one of the two loves of his life, the other being his locomotive, The General.

News arrives that the American Civil War has broken out, and Annabelle's brother and father rush to enlist in the Confederate Army.

The Union agents try various methods to shake their pursuer, including disconnecting their trailing car and dropping railroad ties on the tracks.

At nightfall, Johnnie climbs through the window of a house to steal food, but hides underneath a table when Union officers enter.

As day breaks, Johnnie and Annabelle find themselves near a railway station where Union soldiers and equipment are being organized for the attack.

Fending off his pursuers, Johnnie starts a fire behind The General in the center of the Rock River Bridge to cut off the Union's supply line.

Reaching friendly lines, Johnnie warns the Confederate commander of the impending attack and their forces rush to meet the enemy.

[3] Although it was written from the Union Army perspective, Keaton did not believe that the audience would accept Confederates as villains and changed the story's point of view.

[4] 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 General.

[5] 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.

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.

[8] 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.

(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).

[12] 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.

Keaton had shot 200,000 feet of film and began a lengthy editing process for a late December release date.

[13] Keaton performed many dangerous physical stunts on and around the moving train, including jumping from the engine to a tender to a boxcar, and running along the roofs of the railcars.

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.

"[19] The New York Times reviewer, Mordaunt Hall, stated: "The production itself is singularly well mounted, but the fun is not exactly plentiful," and "This is by no means so good as Mr. Keaton's previous efforts.

"[20] The Los Angeles Times reported that the picture was "neither straight comedy nor is it altogether thrilling drama"..."drags terribly with a long and tiresome chase of one engine by another.

Writer Robert E. Sherwood wrote, "Someone should have told Buster Keaton that it is difficult to derive laughter from the sight of men being killed in battle."

David Robinson wrote, "Every shot has the authenticity and the unassumingly correct composition of a Mathew Brady Civil War photograph."

[2] In 1989, The General was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

[31] In 2002, critic Roger Ebert ranked it sixth in the 2002 Sight & Sound Greatest Films poll[32] and included it on his The Great Movies list.