The partnership between Bruckman and Keaton created a cinematic masterpiece. Made towards the very end of the silent era, the film cost 400,000 a sum unheard of at the time – the famous bridge and train stunt alone cost 42,000. Yet while expectations were high, the film was a flop at the box office. Only much later did it come to be recognised as a brilliant work. Happily Buster Keaton lived to receive the accolades. In recent years it was voted one of the ten greatest films of all time by the authoritative Sight and Sound poll.

So what makes it so good? Maybe its the seamless merging of dramatic comedy with wonderful performances and action. On the one hand it beautifully captures the moving tale of a railroad engineer losing and winning back the two loves of his life: his girl and his steam engine. Keaton gives another subtle performance, no mugging at the camera for him. On the other hand its a chase movie – by train Set in the Civil War – the film is full of action and stunts. There are plenty of gags, yet the audience never laughs at Keaton’s honest working man, we laugh at the breath-taking physical comedy (which of course really was Keaton doing it himself) and what’s going on around him. Enjoy.

And because films were brief in those days, tonight there’s a bonus of a classic silent short with a couple of comedy characters you might recognise.

Only superlatives will do to describe Keaton’s hilarious Civil War dramatic comedy. It sees the graceful stone-faced genius at his inventive best. But what makes the film so special is the way the timing, audacity and elegant choreography of its sight gags, acrobatics, pratfalls and dramatic incidents is matched by Buster’s directorial artistry, his acute observational skills working alongside the physical language and sweet subtlety of his own performance. WH, Time Out.

The superb cinematography catches all the right shots as Keaton cleverly builds up the scale of the stunts staged with wit and satisfying cinematic flair The General is a true Hollywood classic, Almar Haflidson, BBC Films