General Crack
| General Crack | |
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| Directed by | Alan Crosland |
| Produced by | Ned Marin |
| Written by |
J. Grubb Alexander (scenario & dialogue) Walter Anthony (adaptation) |
| Based on | 1928 novel by George R. Preedy |
| Starring | John Barrymore |
| Music by | Rex Dunn |
| Cinematography | Tony Gaudio (Technicolor) |
| Edited by | Harold McLernon |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
General Crack is a 1930 American Pre-Code part-talkie historical costume melodrama with Technicolor sequences which was directed by Alan Crosland and produced and distributed by Warner Bros. It was filmed and premiered in 1929, and released early in 1930. It stars John Barrymore in his first full-length all-talking feature. The film would prove to be Crosland and Barrymore's last historical epic together.
The film takes place in the 18th century Austria and revolves around Prince Christian, commonly known as General Crack (John Barrymore). His father had been a respectable member of the nobility but his mother was a gypsy. General Crack, as a soldier of fortune, spent his adult life selling his services to the highest bidder. He espouses the doubtful cause of Leopold II of Austria (Lowell Sherman) after demanding the sister of the emperor in marriage as well as half of the gold of the Empire. Before he has finished his work, however, he meets a gypsy dancer (Armida) and weds her. Complications arise when he takes his gypsy wife to the Austrian court and falls desperately in love with the emperor's sister (Marian Nixon). The court sequence was originally in Technicolor and proved to be Barrymore's last appearance in color.
The sound version of the film is lost. The silent version of this film, with Czech intertitles, survives, but does not have any of the original color sequences. Copies are located in the Czech archive and the Modern Museum of Art. Although the complete soundtrack for the sound version survives on Vitaphone disks, the silent version was either a "B" negative or an alternate take with intertitles. So while this is a legitimate version of the film, it does not match up with the Vitaphone soundtrack.
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