Buster Keaton's "The General"

[Osi Osgood]

What rate of fps (frames per second), was Buster Keaton's classic, "The General" shot at or projected at? Just curious. Can't seem to find it on the internet. I ask as, there were assorted rates per second during the silent era.

[Steve Klare]

On IMDB in the technical specs for "The General", I'm seeing a mixture of 20 and 24 FPS.

I'm guessing it was shot at 20.

When I project a silent reel I almost always go to 18FPS: without a soundtrack the transport noise is kind of intrusive at 24FPS, and it quiets down a lot at 18.

[Rob Koeling]

I think The General plays perfectly at 24fps, and I wouldn't want to run it any slower. Given the fact that it is a late silent, that is probably as expected.

I just looked up an article by Kevin Brownlow on the subject. At the bottom of the article there is a table that specifies the camera speed and suggested playback speed for a few handfuls of films. The General is mentioned there and it specifies 24fps for both camera and playback:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110708...lf/18_kb_2.htm

[Osi Osgood]

I asked, as, on my DVD copy, (a double feature with "Steamboat Bill Jr."), It states 26 fps in the specs, but that doesn't make sense, as sound films are 24 fps, but sometimes, a DVD is at 25 fps.

[Brian Fretwell]

I believe that later silent films could be up to 27 fps. Sound was what standardised film speed. Well until we got TodAO at 30fps. :-)