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Silent Era's The Top 300 Silent Era Films

304 films Ranked Updated 3 days ago
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Easy Street
1917 26m

A derelict, huddled under the steps of a missionary church, feels enlightened by the sermon of a passionate preacher and infatuated by the beauty of the congregation's pianist, in such a way that he tries to improve his life of poverty by becoming a policeman. His first assignment will be to patrol along Easy Street, the turf of a vicious bully ...

Why Worry?
152.

Why Worry?

Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor 1923 1h 3m 7.0

Harold Van Pelham (Lloyd) is a hypochondriac, rich businessman who sails to the tropics for his 'health.' Instead of the peace and seclusion he is seeking, he finds himself in the middle of a revolution. He is imprisoned where he befriends the friendly giant, Colosso (Aasen), and they engineer an escape. Together, they quell the revolution.

Scaramouche
Rex Ingram 1923 2h 4m

A law student becomes an outlaw French revolutionary when he decides to avenge the unjust killing of his friend. To get close to the aristocrat who has killed his friend, the student adopts the identity of Scaramouche the clown.

Das Wachsfigurenkabinett
Paul Leni, Leo Birinski 1924 1h 23m 7.0

A poet is hired by the owner of a wax museum in a circus to write tales about Harun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper. While writing, the poet and the daughter of the owner, Eva, fantasize the fantastic stories and fall in love for each other.

Don Juan
155.

Don Juan

Alan Crosland 1926 1h 52m

If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things - life, disillusionment and death. In his father's case it was his wife, Donna Isobel, and Donna Elvira who supplied the latter. Don Juan settled in Rome after attending the University of Pisa. Rome was run by the tyrannical B...

City Girl
156.

City Girl

F. W. Murnau 1930 1h 28m 8.5

Lem goes to Chicago to sell the wheat his family has grown on their farm in Minnesota. There he meets the waitress Kate.

Hindle Wakes
Maurice Elvey 1927 2h

A young working-class girl causes a stir when she sneaks off for a romantic getaway with the wealthy heir of the mill where she works.

Tumbleweeds
1925 1h 18m

William S. Hart stars in this 1925 silent film as a cowboy intent on claiming land during the 1889 land rush in the Oklahoma Territory. Though hardened from years of taming the new frontier, he falls in love with a beautiful woman. Before he settles down, however, he must contend with men who wish to bring him harm. In the prologue of the 1939 A...

Lilyhammer
159.

Lilyhammer

2012 44m

After Frank The Fixer Tagliano testifies against his Mafia boss in New York, he enters the Witness Protection Program and makes an unusual demand: he wants to be set up with a new life in the Norwegian small town of Lillehammer or as he calls it, Lilyhammer.

Two Tars
160.

Two Tars

1928 21m

Two sailors on shore leave rent a car and go on a drive with their dates, but soon get involved in a huge traffic jam with dozens of ill-tempered motorists. A minor collision sets off an escalating series of retaliations.

Jûjiro
161.

Jûjiro

1928 1h 14m

After falling in love with a courtesan, Rikiya is blinded by ash during a fight in a brothel. Believing the blindness permanent and his opponent dead, Rikiya goes back home to his sister. Okiku, desperate to protect her brother who thinks himself a murderer, wants to sacrifice herself for him and become a prostitute to pay for Rikiya's treatment.

The Cure
162.

The Cure

1917 26m

An alcoholic checks into a health spa and his antics promptly throw the establishment into chaos.

Lonesome
163.

Lonesome

Pál Fejős 1928 1h 10m 8.5

Two lonely people in the big city meet and enjoy the thrills of an amusement park, only to lose each other in the crowd after spending a great day together. Will they ever see each other again?

La chute de la maison Usher
Jean Epstein 1928 1h 3m 9.2

Convinced that his family is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher is hellbent on stopping his sister Madeline’s wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from expanding. When her fiancé Allan arrives at the crumbling estate to claim his bride, Roderick goes to ruthless—even deadly—lengths to keep them apart.

Daddy-Long-Legs
1919 1h 25m

Wealthy Jarvis Pendleton acts as benefactor for orphan Judy Abbott, anonymously sponsoring her in her boarding school. But as she grows up, he finds himself falling in love with her, and she with him, though she does not know that the man she has fallen for is her benefactor.

What Price Glory
1926 2h 1m

U.S. Marine sergeants Quirt and Flagg are inveterate romantic rivals on peacetime assignments in China and the Philippines. In 1917, W.W. I brings them to France, where Flagg, now a captain, takes up with flirtatious Charmaine, inn-keeper's daughter. Of course, Quirt has to arrive and spoil his fun. But the harsh realities of war and the threat ...

The Sea Hawk
Frank Lloyd 1924 2h 3m

The adventures of Oliver Tressilian, who goes from English gentry to galley slave to captain of a Moorish fighting ship.

Der brennende Acker
1922 1h 38m

When farmer Rog dies, his eldest Peter takes over the farm while his youngest Johannes is determined for a better life: he becomes secretary to Count Rudenberg and starts courting his daughter Gerda. When he learns that the Count, who is terminally ill, has bequeathed a piece of land under which lies a petroleum field to his second wife, he cour...

Entr'acte
169.

Entr'acte

1924 22m

Stop-motion photography blends with extreme slow-motion in Clair's first and most 'dada' film, composed of a series of zany, interconnected scenes. We witness a rooftop chess match between Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, a hearse pulled by a camel (and chased by its pallbearers) and a dizzying roller coaster finale. A film of contradictions and agre...

Three Ages
170.

Three Ages

Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline 1923 1h 4m 7.6

The misadventures of Buster in three separate historical periods.

Asphalt
171.

Asphalt

Joe May 1929 1h 33m 7.0

Starring Betty Amann in her most famous leading role, Joe May's Asphalt is a luxuriously produced German Expressionist classic where tragic liaisons and fatal encounters are shaped alongside the constant roar of Berlin traffic.

Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed
Lotte Reiniger 1926 1h 6m 8.2

Taken from The Arabian Nights, a wicked sorcerer and the beautiful prince Achmed battle one against the other during a series of wondrous adventures.

The Eagle
173.

The Eagle

Clarence Brown 1925 1h 13m

Vladimir Dubrouvsky, a lieutenant in the Russian army, catches the eye of Czarina Catherine II. He spurns her advances and flees, and she puts out a warrant for his arrest, dead or alive. Vladimir learns that his father's lands have been taken by the evil Kyrilla Troekouroff, and his father dies. He dons a black mask, and becomes the outlaw The ...

J'accuse!
174.

J'accuse!

Abel Gance 1919 2h 45m 9.0

The story of two men, one married, the other the lover of the other's wife, who meet in the trenches of the First World War, and how their tale becomes a microcosm for the horrors of war.

Ménilmontant
Dimitri Kirsanoff 1926 38m

A pair of sisters leave the country for the city after their parents are slaughtered in a mysterious axe murder.

Peter Pan
176.

Peter Pan

Herbert Brenon 1924 1h 41m 9.3

Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Marshall Neilan 1917 1h 18m

Behind in the mortgage on Sunnybrook Farm and barely managing to feed seven hungry mouths, mother sends young Rebecca off to Riverboro to be raised by her wealthy Aunt Miranda. The little girl is treated like a prisoner by her strict Aunt, yet she gamely does her best to get an education. When spoiled girls at school mock the spirited Rebecca as...

Within Our Gates
Oscar Micheaux 1920 1h 14m 5.0

Abandoned by her fiancé, an educated negro woman with a shocking past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished negro youths.

The Trail of '98
Clarence Brown 1928 1h 27m

Fortune hunters from all over the country rushing to the Klondike in 1897 to seek their fortunes in the gold are tested by hardships of the journey.

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp
Harry Edwards 1926 1h 2m

A poor cobbler's son enters a $25,000 cross-country hiking contest sponsored by the footwear company that has nearly bankrupted his father. He also has fallen in love with the girl on the company's billboards, the competition's daughter, and her sweet inspiration keeps him tramping along.

Brown of Harvard
Jack Conway 1926 1h 25m

Tom Brown shows up at Harvard, confident and a bit arrogant. He becomes a rival of Bob McAndrew, not only in football and rowing crew, but also for the affections of Mary Abbott, a professor's daughter.

Hot Water
182.

Hot Water

Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor 1924 59m

Lloyd's look at married life and the issues of the in-law. Adventures include a ride on a crowded trolley with a live turkey; A wild spin in a new auto with the in-laws in tow. Finally, a sequence in which Hubby accidentally chloroforms his mother-in-law and becomes convinced that he's killed her!

Herr Tartüff
F. W. Murnau 1925 1h 2m 8.0

Young man shows his millionaire grandfather a film based on Molière's Tartuffe, in order to expose the old man's hypocritical governess who covets his own inheritance.

The Finishing Touch
Clyde Bruckman 1928 21m

Stan and Ollie are hired to build a house in just one day. When they are done, a bird lands on the house and it collapses. Naturally, the owner wants his money back.

Po zakonu
185.

Po zakonu

Lev Kuleshov 1926 1h 20m 8.5

After a man kills two members of his Yukon gold prospecting team, the other two surviving members struggle to keep him subdued for the next several months until they can turn him over to the law.

White Shadows in the South Seas
1928 1h 28m

An alcoholic doctor on a Polynesian island, disgusted by white exploitation of the natives, finds himself marooned on a pristinely beautiful island.

Lady Windermere's Fan
Ernst Lubitsch 1925 1h 29m 9.0

A society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.

The Whispering Chorus
1918 1h 26m

John Trimble has embezzled and obtains another identity by having a mutilated body buried in his place. He is later arrested for murdering himself. During the trial his mother, before dying from shock, asks him to keep his identity secret since his wife is now married to the Governor and expecting a child.

Die Austernprinzessin
Ernst Lubitsch 1919 58m 7.5

A pampered American oyster tycoon decides to buy a husband for his daughter, but things don’t go quite as planned. Along the way there are mishaps, misunderstandings and a foxtrot sequence that must be seen to be believed.

Casanova
190.

Casanova

Alexandre Volkoff 1927 2h 8m

Republic of Venice, 1760. Pursued by a vengeful husband, the intrepid womanizer Casanova, who symbolizes the decline of the city and its fall into debauchery, manages to escape and, by a circuitous route, arrives in Saint Petersburg, where he will be involved in the many plots that threaten the throne of Czar Peter III…

L'argent
191.

L'argent

Marcel L'Herbier 1928 2h 45m 8.3

Adapted from the novel L'Argent by Émile Zola, the film portrays the world of banking and the stock market in Paris in the 1920s.

The Rink
192.

The Rink

1916 30m

After amusements working in a restaurant, a waiter uses his lunch break to go roller skating.

Behind the Screen
Charlie Chaplin 1916 24m

During the troubled shooting of several movies, David, the prop man's assistant, meets an aspiring actress who tries to find work in the studio. Things get messy when the stagehands decide to go on strike.

La Bohème
194.

La Bohème

King Vidor 1926 1h 33m

A group of starving artists try to survive in 1830s Paris, including a seamstress and the would-be playwright she loves.

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness
Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper 1927 1h 9m 7.5

Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.

Cobra
196.

Cobra

Joseph Henabery 1925 1h 16m

Rodrigo, an impoverished Italian nobleman takes a job with a New York antique dealer he met overseas. Swearing off women, Rodrigo focuses on his job. But complications arise when he falls in love with his friend's secretary-- and his friend's wife looks to make a date with him.

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend
Edwin S. Porter 1906 7m

A live-action film adaptation of the comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. This silent short film follows the established theme: the “Rarebit Fiend” gorges himself on rarebit and thus suffers spectacular hallucinatory dreams.

The Electric House
1922 23m

Botany major Buster mistakenly graduates in electrical engineering and is hired to wire a new home.

Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life
Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper 1925 1h 11m 8.0

A silent documentary which follows a branch of the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia as they and their herds make their seasonal journey to better pastures.

Laugh, Clown, Laugh
Herbert Brenon 1928 1h 14m 9.0

A professional clown and a self-indulgent count learn to help each other with their problems, but then become romantic rivals.