Contemporary Reviews

Here are some more reviews, as mentioned in
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.movies.silent/browse_thread/thread/5642356117223599/

Variety (extract only): http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117791212.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

"Its principal comedy scene is built on that elementary bit, the chase, and you can't continue a fight for almost an hour and expect results."


http://www.silentsaregolden.com/generalreview.html
Photoplay: "There is an undercurrent of heroic satire in the way Buster is always saving the moron heroine in crinolines."

Motion Picture Classic: "It is a pleasant piece of celluloid without any rollicking moments."


Here is a Web page giving brief excerpts of the 'bad' reviews from various sources:
http://www.trivia-library.com/c/great-art-bad-reviews-buster-keaton-the-general.htm

Further brief excerpts, from http://rjbuffalo.com/the-general.html

The Oregonian (November 1926):"The picture has laughs galore and will set a mark for Chaplin and the rest of the top-notch comedians to shoot at. Following the preview showing the audience stood and applauded long and loud as a tribute to Keaton's efforts."

Bioscope: "Excellent comedy for 1st class houses. It cannot fail to please a discriminating audience. Buster Keaton gives a performance of polished comedy."

Picturegoer: "Buster Keaton as the engine driver hero of an American Civil War story, goes unsmilingly as usual through a series of amusing adventures. Marion Mack is his leading lady, and there is an excellent supporting cast. Capital entertainment."

Motion Picture: "It's a pleasure to laugh continuously but comfortably, with no painful side-splitting, while Buster inadvertently becomes the hero of the Confederate Army."

Picture Play: "What is easily Buster Keaton's most ambitious comedy is his least funny one. Mr. Keatons task was to invest it with comic byplay, which he does, but there is an underlying solemnity in the proceedings which puts rather a crimp in the farcical treatment given them. The General is a one man show, a mistake in a picture lasting over an hour."

Chicago Daily News (Carl Sandburg): "If they'll put Buster Keaton at the head of the armies next time there's a war his maneuvers will bring that war to a pleasant, painless and prompt conclusion, because the belligerents will simply die laughing. At least that is the impression one gets viewing him in "The General", a Joseph M. Schenck production, directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, the star's first feature for United Artists, and now having its first Chicago showing at the Orpheum Theater.... The play is chockfull of hilarity, pathos and thrills, such as when Johnnie chases himself with a loaded cannon; attempts to burn down a bridge and gets on the wrong side of the fire; shoots a cannon into the air and with fool's luck hits the dam that floods the river and puts the enemy to rout. And if any young modern thinks short skirts and knickers an attribute to agility, let her behold the acrobatics of Marion Mack in hoopskirt and lace beruffled pantalets.... If you want a good laugh, don't miss "The General". "


New York Daily Telegraph: "[A] pretty trite and stodgy piece of screenfare, a rehash, pretentiously garnered of any old two-reel chase comedy.... The audience received The General with polite attention, occasionally a laugh, and occasionally a yawn. Disappointing."


~~Igenlode, hoping this lot will be of use the next time the question comes up, even if it's too late this time round

Gather round, lads and lasses, gather round...