Synopsis: After receiving the news of her wounded
father, Annabelle heads of to the north in order to find him. As she
travels, her train, coincidentally Johnnie's train gets hijacked by
Union spies, and she is kidnapped. It is not up Johnnie to rescue
his beloved engine and girl, as well as the Army of Tennessee.
It is generally regarded as
one of the greatest of all silent comedies (and Keaton's personal
favourite), and undoubtedly the best train movie ever made.
However Keaton's greatest picture received poor reviews by critics
and weak box-office results when initially released in the 1920's,
which led to Keaton's loss of independence as a film-maker and a
restrictive deal with MGM. It took a few decades for the film to
be hailed as one of the best ever made movies. It was eventually
preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the
Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or
aesthetically significant". It is further significant for its
stunt works, which were performed by Keaton himself. Keaton
performs lots of dangerous physical stunts on and around the
moving train, which include jumping from the engine to a tender to
a boxcar, sitting on the cow-catcher of the slow moving train
while holding a railroad tie, and running along the roof. The film
concludes with a climatic battle at the river gorge, with the
dramatic crash of the pursuit train into the Rock River in the
film's most spectacular scene - and the most expensive shot of the
entire silent era. Historical Significance: The film was based on
a true Civil War story of the daring raid/seizure by a group of
about two-dozen Union spies of a Confederate train near Atlanta in
April 1862. A second film was also made to depict the raid - Walt
Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase (1956).
