Name this movie. Know this scene? I can sell you the location.

The engineer was a dummy.  The famous director tied to recruit a local to ride it into the drink.  He offered $500.  No takers.

After the filming, many women in the crowd screamed and fainted...when the dummy's head floated by as they sat on the riverbank downstream, behind camera.

It wasn't a chick flick, I guess.  But there was a chick.  A famous chick.

Could have been me driving:  The train is moving from left to right.

It could.

I thought you could.  I thought you could.  I thought you could.

BUSTER KEATON starred in, directed and was film editor for THE GENERAL -- one of the greatest films of the Silent Era -- one of the best 20 or best 100 movies ever -- pick your critic. 

His chick was Marion Mack.  The plot was based on a true strory from the Civil War.  The comedy was perhaps Keaton's best ever.

The scene was the most expensive ever shot in the Silent Era, costing $42,000.

Keaton had no special effects -- the locomotive was real.  The specially built trestle really did collapse (on the second take) sending a thrill through the 4000 to 5000 spectators who sat on the rocks and banks of the Row River, fifteen miles southeast of present day Cottage Grove, OR.

You can see a hundred pictures of the River location and a small home on .21 acre that I have listed at ACTIONAGENTS.NET -- One of the six cameras that filmed the climatic scene stood on the same river rock from which I took my photos.

Look for my full post on this event on Thursday -- the 83rd anniversary of the engine's demise.

Only if you think we are all living through a comedy.

Thanks, Fernando, we need all the smiles we can find.

Michael:  You were not far off.  The Hollywood theory is that The General's train crash scene was the inspiration for that later climatic scene in "The Bridge Over the River Kwai".

Margaret:  Thanks for your encouragement, neighbor.

Todd:  I know people don't watch Silent Movies every day, but 'The General" is one worth watching.  Buster Keaton was a great talent and this was a masterpiece. 

The humor is at a very high level.  There is a certain impishness to Keaton's work that is truly endearing.

Caron:  I also think Fernando's title for the train wreck is apropos.

Now, if we could just figure out who exactly was at the controls when the locomotive went into the river -- or who assigned it to the track it was on...or who decided that, though the bridge was burning, it was safe to cross.

Then, if we knew who all the bad actors were....we could give them...an Academy Award.

Or something.

The Dummy driving this train lost his head.

Debra:  You're welcome so much.

No horn.  No whistle.  Just a bell.  A golden bell.

Here's to the gold.

Thanks, Jenny!