The General
1927 · 105 min · Comedy · Romance · War
The General (1927): Buster Keaton, a stolen locomotive, and the most expensive shot of the silent era. Watch the full movie free online, no account needed.
Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, a railroad engineer who loses his engine and his girl to Union raiders in the same afternoon and goes after both. He co-directed with Clyde Bruckman from William Pittenger's memoir of the 1862 locomotive chase, and did all the running, jumping and cowcatcher work himself.
The bridge collapse was shot on 23 July 1926 over the Row River near Cottage Grove, Oregon, with a real locomotive dropped into real water. It cost about $42,000, the most ever spent on a single shot in silent film, and the town declared a holiday so everyone could come and watch.
It flopped, it cost Keaton his independence, and it is now on nearly every list of the best films ever made.
Free to watch via internet-archive, wikimedia, tubi.
More like this: Free comedy films, Free drama films, Free silent films.