Silent movies - Masterpieces
by fra_angelico | created - 13 Mar 2013 | updated - 16 Dec 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Asphalt (1929)
Not Rated | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Joe May's sensual drama of life in the Berlin underworld is in many ways the perfect summation of German filmmaking in the silent era: a dazzling visual style, a psychological approach to ... See full summary »
Director: Joe May | Stars: Albert Steinrück, Else Heller, Gustav Fröhlich, Betty Amann
Votes: 1,687
2. Sunrise (1927)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing
Votes: 53,831 | Gross: $0.54M
3. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Passed | 114 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz
Votes: 60,626 | Gross: $0.02M
4. Destiny (1921)
Not Rated | 114 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
When a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Bernhard Goetzke, Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen, Hans Sternberg
Votes: 6,687 | Gross: $0.01M
5. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Not Rated | 66 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov
Votes: 61,432 | Gross: $0.05M
6. Metropolis (1927)
Not Rated | 153 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Votes: 185,434 | Gross: $1.24M
7. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Not Rated | 67 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
Director: Robert Wiene | Stars: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover
Votes: 70,023
8. The Last Laugh (1924)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama
An aging doorman is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbors and society after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Emilie Kurz
Votes: 15,197 | Gross: $0.09M
9. Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Passed | 45 min | Action, Comedy, Romance
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
Director: Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Erwin Connelly
Votes: 56,926 | Gross: $0.98M
10. Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Not Rated | 68 min | Documentary
A man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
Director: Dziga Vertov | Stars: Mikhail Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova
Votes: 27,966
11. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
TV-G | 13 min | Short, Action, Adventure
A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.
Director: Georges Méliès | Stars: Georges Méliès, Victor André, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet
Votes: 55,728
12. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912)
Not Rated | 12 min | Short, Drama, Horror
Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.
Director: Lucius Henderson | Stars: James Cruze, Florence La Badie, Marie Eline, Jane Gail
Votes: 767
13. One Week (1920)
TV-G | 25 min | Short, Comedy
A newly wedded couple attempts to build a house with a prefabricated kit, unaware that a rival sabotaged the kit's component numbering.
Directors: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Sybil Seely, Joe Roberts
Votes: 9,230
14. The Sinking of the 'Lusitania' (1918)
TV-PG | 12 min | Animation, Short, War
An animated dramatization of the notorious World War I German torpedoing of the ocean liner, Lusitania.
Director: Winsor McCay | Star: Winsor McCay
Votes: 1,269
15. Nosferatu (1922)
Not Rated | 94 min | Fantasy, Horror
Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Votes: 105,373
16. The Waterer Watered (1895)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Comedy
An impudent child plays a prank on a gardener innocently watering his plants.
Director: Louis Lumière | Stars: François Clerc, Benoît Duval
Votes: 5,841
17. Un chien andalou (1929)
Not Rated | 16 min | Short, Fantasy, Horror
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Luis Buñuel, Pancho Cossío
Votes: 53,780
18. Danse serpentine (1897)
1 min | Short
Angelic and demonic serpentine dances from dawn of cinema by the Lumière Brothers film, called the Serpentine Dance. The dancer is Loie Fuller; the pioneer modern dancer. Recorded in 1896 in Paris, and hand-colored frame by frame.
Director: Louis Lumière | Star: Loie Fuller
Votes: 970
19. The Enchanted Drawing (1900)
2 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
A cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.
Director: J. Stuart Blackton | Star: J. Stuart Blackton
Votes: 1,413
20. Bataille de neige (1897)
1 min | Documentary, Short, Comedy
People start a snowball fight on a street in Lyons, France.
Director: Louis Lumière
Votes: 1,991
21. Leaving the Factory (1895)
Not Rated | 1 min | Documentary, Short
Workers leaving the Lumière factory for lunch in Lyon, France in 1895; a place of great photographic innovation and one of the birth places of cinema.
Director: Louis Lumière
Votes: 7,547
22. The Devilish Tenant (1909)
6 min | Short, Comedy
A man rents an apartment and furnishes it in remarkable fashion.
Director: Georges Méliès | Stars: Charles Claudel, Octavie Huvier, François Lallement, André Méliès
Votes: 1,976
23. October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1927)
95 min | Drama, History
A large-scale view on the events of 1917 in Russia, when the monarchy was overthrown.
Directors: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Boris Livanov, Nikolay Popov, Vasili Nikandrov, Layaschenko
Votes: 8,443
24. The New Babylon (1929)
120 min | Drama, History
In the beginning of the industrial revolution, the Paris Commune was established in 1871 against the rich and the powerful, and violently repressed by the army that remained faithful to a ... See full summary »
Directors: Grigoriy Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg | Stars: David Gutman, Yelena Kuzmina, Andrei Kostrichkin, Sofiya Magarill
Votes: 933
25. The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Not Rated | 155 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks, Julanne Johnston, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher
Votes: 6,968 | Gross: $4.36M
26. The Daughter of Dawn (1920)
TV-G | 80 min | Romance, Western
This restored silent film features a love triangle involving a Kiowa chief's daughter and ensuing conflict between Kiowa and Comanche villages.
Director: Norbert A. Myles | Stars: White Parker, Esther LeBarre, Hunting Horse, Jack Sankeydoty
Votes: 489
27. The General (1926)
Passed | 78 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley
Votes: 98,096 | Gross: $1.03M
28. The Artist (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When George, a silent movie superstar, meets Peppy Miller, a dancer, sparks fly between the two. However, after the introduction of talking pictures, their fortunes change, affecting their dynamic.
Director: Michel Hazanavicius | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Votes: 248,567 | Gross: $44.67M
29. Snow White (2012)
PG-13 | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy
A twist on the Snow White fairy tale that is set in 1920s Seville and centered on a female bullfighter.
Director: Pablo Berger | Stars: Maribel Verdú, Emilio Gavira, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Ángela Molina
Votes: 11,633 | Gross: $0.28M
30. Faust (1926)
Not Rated | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
The demon Mephisto wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard
Votes: 16,614
31. The Kid (1921)
Passed | 68 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put their relationship in jeopardy.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Jackie Coogan, Carl Miller
Votes: 134,765 | Gross: $5.45M
32. The Circus (1928)
Passed | 72 min | Comedy, Family, Romance
The Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Al Ernest Garcia, Harry Crocker
Votes: 36,027
33. The Arrival of a Train (1896)
Not Rated | 1 min | Documentary, Short
A train arrives at La Ciotat station.
Directors: Auguste Lumière, Louis Lumière | Stars: Madeleine Koehler, Marcel Koehler, Mrs. Auguste Lumiere, Jeanne-Joséphine Lumière
Votes: 12,863
34. Baby's Meal (1895)
1 min | Documentary, Short
As part of a maiden public film screening at the Salon Indien, on December 28, in Paris, Auguste Lumière pivots the centre of attention around his baby daughter, as he tries to feed her from a spoon.
Director: Louis Lumière | Stars: Auguste Lumière, Mrs. Auguste Lumiere, Andrée Lumière
Votes: 3,513
35. The Sealed Room (1909)
Not Rated | 11 min | Short, Drama, History
A king exacts vengeance upon his faithless mistress and her lover.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, Henry B. Walthall, Linda Arvidson
Votes: 960
36. Partie de cartes (1897)
1 min | Short
A card game over drinks with three men, including Antoine Lumiere and Felicien Trewey.
Director: Leopoldo Fregoli | Star: Leopoldo Fregoli
Votes: 515
37. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
TV-G | 11 min | Short, Action, Adventure
A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.
Director: Edwin S. Porter | Stars: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, A.C. Abadie, George Barnes, Justus D. Barnes
Votes: 20,985
38. Variety (1925)
Passed | 72 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Prologue: The murderer "Boss" Huller - after having spent ten years in prison - breaks his silence to tell the warden his story. "Boss", a former trapeze artist, and his wife own a cheap ... See full summary »
Director: Ewald André Dupont | Stars: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Lya De Putti, Warwick Ward
Votes: 1,407 | Gross: $0.71M
39. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A landlady suspects that her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: June Tripp, Ivor Novello, Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney
Votes: 13,376
40. Intolerance (1916)
Passed | 163 min | Drama, History
The story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, F.A. Turner
Votes: 16,717 | Gross: $2.18M
41. Camille (1921)
Passed | 72 min | Drama, Romance
A courtesan and an idealistic young man fall in love, only for her to give up the relationship at his status-conscious father's request.
Director: Ray C. Smallwood | Stars: Alla Nazimova, Rudolph Valentino, Rex Cherryman, Arthur Hoyt
Votes: 1,066
42. The Parson's Widow (1920)
TV-14 | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
A newly elected village parson is required to marry the previous parson's widow. However he's already married, and the woman is old enough to be his grandmother.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Hildur Carlberg, Einar Röd, Greta Almroth, Olav Aukrust
Votes: 1,519
43. The Pilgrim (1923)
TV-G | 47 min | Comedy, Western
Disguised as a priest, an escaped convict makes his way to Texas. He ends up in a small rural town where the townsfolk mistake him for their new church minister.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Syd Chaplin, Mai Wells
Votes: 5,677 | Gross: $0.28M
44. Alice in Wonderland (1903)
9 min | Short, Family, Fantasy
This is the first movie version of the famous story. Alice dozes in a garden, awakened by a dithering white rabbit in waistcoat with pocket watch. She follows him down a hole and finds herself in a hall of many doors.
Directors: Cecil M. Hepworth, Percy Stow | Stars: May Clark, Cecil M. Hepworth, Blair, Geoffrey Faithfull
Votes: 2,881
45. The Black Imp (1905)
Not Rated | 4 min | Short, Comedy, Fantasy
A traveler at an inn is harassed by a mischievous devil in his room.
Director: Georges Méliès | Star: Georges Méliès
Votes: 2,279
46. The Devil's Castle (1897)
3 min | Short, Horror
A man dressed in red is ushered into an antechamber in a Castle and offered a seat. When he tried to sit down the chair moves to the other side of the room causing the man to fall on the ... See full summary »
Director: Georges Méliès | Star: Georges Méliès
Votes: 1,422
47. Blood and Sand (1922)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Sport
A toreador's (Rudolph Valentino) familial and social life is threatened when he has an affair.
Directors: Fred Niblo, Dorothy Arzner | Stars: Rudolph Valentino, Rosa Rosanova, Leo White, Rosita Marstini
Votes: 1,534 | Gross: $2.73M
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