50 Silent Movies I Need to See
A list of silent films I need to see as soon as possible.
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50 titles
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsMusidoraÉdouard MathéMarcel LévesqueAn intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsRockliffe FellowesAnna Q. NilssonWilliam SheerA boy surrounded by violence grows up to become an infamous gangster.
- DirectorJ. Searle DawleyStarsDorothy CummingCreighton HaleLionel BrahamSnow White, a beautiful girl, is despised by a wicked queen who tries to destroy her. With the aid of dwarves in the woods, Snow White overcomes the queen.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishDorothy GishRobert HarronYoung lovers in a French village are torn apart with the coming of the Great War.
- DirectorF. Richard JonesJames YoungStarsMabel NormandGeorge NicholsLaura La VarnieMickey, an orphan who has been brought up in a mining settlement, is sent to New York to live with her aunt.
- DirectorMarshall NeilanStarsMary PickfordIda WatermanHerbert StandingTwo young women - a paraplegic girl sheltered by her wealthy guardians and a more experienced orphan - fall in love with a man separated from his violent wife.
- DirectorDavid HartfordStarsNell ShipmanCharles ArlingWheeler OakmanA woman finds herself all alone in a remote harbor with the man responsible for the murder of her father. With seemingly nobody around to protect her, she has to be resourceful.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsThomas MeighanTheodore RobertsRaymond HattonLady Mary Lasenby is a spoiled maiden who always gets her way until shipwrecked with her butler, then learns which qualities are really admirable in a person.
- DirectorMauritz StillerStarsErik StocklassaBror BergerRichard LundIn 16th century Sweden, the lives of three Scottish mercenaries and a vicar's family intersect after a crime forever alters a small coastal town. As the three try to escape, they find themselves trapped when all ships are frozen in ice.
- DirectorWallace WorsleyStarsCharles ClaryDoris PawnJim MasonA deformed criminal mastermind plans to loot the city of San Francisco as well as revenge himself on the doctor who mistakenly amputated his legs.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsWallace ReidGloria SwansonElliott DexterSocialite Anatol Spencer seeks a better relation than he has with his wife. He sets up the friend of his youth Emilie in an apartment and she two-times him; he comforts near-suicidal Annie and she robs him.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBernhard GoetzkeLil DagoverWalter JanssenWhen a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsRudolph ChristiansMiss DuPontMaude GeorgeA con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsLeatrice JoyThomas MeighanLois WilsonThrill-seeking society girl Lydia causes a motorcycle policeman's death and is prosecuted by her fiancé Daniel, who describes in lurid detail the downfall of Rome. While she's in prison, she reforms and Daniel becomes a wasted alcoholic.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsAlfred AbelFrida RichardAud Egede-NissenA shiftless young man becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman and yearns to find her again.
- DirectorJames CruzeStarsJ. Warren KerriganLois WilsonAlan HaleTwo wagon caravans converge at what is now Kansas City, and combine for the westward push to Oregon. On their quest the pilgrims will experience desert heat, mountain snow, hunger, and Indian attacks. To complicate matters further, a love triangle develops, as pretty Molly must chose between Sam, a brute, and Will, the dashing captain of the other caravan. Can Will overcome the skeleton in his closet and win Molly's heart?
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsGabriel de GravonePierre MagnierGeorges TérofA railway engineer adopts a young girl orphaned by a train crash. Years later when she starts getting suitors, he grapples with whether or not to tell her the truth about her parentage.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsEdna PurvianceClarence GeldertCarl MillerA kept woman runs into her former fiancé and finds herself torn between love and comfort.
- DirectorFred C. NewmeyerSam TaylorStarsHarold LloydJobyna RalstonRichard DanielsA shy young man who can't talk to women ventures out to publish a book full of fictional conquests, but finds true love along the way.
- DirectorMauritz StillerStarsLars HansonSven ScholanderEllen Hartman-CederströmA drunkard priest who has been cast out by his community struggles to atone and regain his honour and dignity.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsCarol DempsterNeil HamiltonErville AldersonA family of Polish refugees tries to survive in post-World War I Germany. For a while it seems that they are making it, but soon the economic and political deterioration in the country begins to take their toll.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftMax HillerAn 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.
- DirectorDonald CrispBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonKathryn McGuireFrederick VroomTwo spoiled rich people find themselves trapped on an empty passenger ship.
- DirectorFred NibloStarsEnid BennettRamon NovarroWallace BeeryTwo young lovers escape their past lives to Paris until fate separates them.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsDouglas FairbanksJulanne JohnstonSnitz EdwardsA recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.
- DirectorHarry O. HoytStarsWallace BeeryBessie LoveLloyd HughesThe first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.
- DirectorKing BaggotWilliam S. HartStarsWilliam S. HartBarbara BedfordLucien LittlefieldThe government will grant a fringe of terrain for the settlers who want to live and work there. The starting sign will be a gunshot which will iniciate the run for the best fields and claims.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsJohn GilbertEleanor BoardmanRoy D'ArcyIn the reign of King Louis XIII, dashing rogue and libertine Marquis de Bardelys is entranced by Roxalanne de Lavedan. Against a background of knavery and intrigue he sets out to woo and win her.
- DirectorJames CruzeStarsCharles FarrellEsther RalstonWallace BeeryAn American fighting ship battles Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean in the 18th century.
- DirectorMalcolm St. ClairStarsFord SterlingLois WilsonLouise BrooksA blowhard who poses as a railroad executive but is really just a $30-a-week clerk catches a young bride, then drives her family's finances to the brink of ruin.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsHarry LangdonPriscilla BonnerGertrude AstorA meek Belgian soldier, fighting in World War I, receives a letter and a photo from "Mary Brown", an American girl he has never met. After the war, he travels to America searching for her.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsRonald ColmanVilma BánkyGary CooperWhile building an irrigation system for a Southwestern desert community, an engineer vies with a local cowboy for the affections of a rancher's daughter.
- DirectorFrank UrsonStarsPhyllis HaverVictor VarconiVirginia BradfordA wild jazz-loving and boozing wife Roxie Hart, kills her boyfriend in cold blood after he leaves her.
- DirectorMaurice ElveyStarsEstelle BrodyJohn StuartNorman McKinnelA celebration of working-class leisure activities at Hindle, Lancashire during "Wakes Week", an annual week still observed in parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire when all factories and schools take a holiday.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsÉdith JéhanneUno HenningFritz RaspIn the Crimea, the Reds and the Whites aren't done fighting, and Jeanne discovers that the man she loves is a Bolshevik (when he kills her father). Penniless, she returns to Paris where she works for her uncle. Soon after, her lover Andreas is in France to organize the sailors in Toulon. So also is a thief, traitor, and libertine, Khalibiev, who wants to seduce Jeanne. His schemes, Jeanne and Andreas's naivete, and a lost diamond bring the lovers to the brink of tragedy.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJune TrippIvor NovelloMarie AultA landlady suspects that her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.
- DirectorSam TaylorStarsMary PickfordCharles 'Buddy' RogersSunshine HartA department store's stock girl falls in love with a co-worker, the son of the store's manager; the feeling is mutual though he is engaged to a debutante and focusing on becoming successful without the influence of his father.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJames HallMargaret MannCharles MortonA family saga in which three sons of a Bavarian widow go to war for Germany and the fourth goes to America, Germany's eventual opponent.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsCorinne GriffithLouise DresserLowell ShermanToni Le Brun, a beautiful Viennese singer, becomes the ward of the wardrobe mistress of a Monte Carlo nightclub. Her benefactor, however, is actually a baroness incognito. Toni falls in love with the handsome Richard, but as they prepare to marry, she comes to believe he is only after the wealth accompanying her new noble status. But truth, like true love, will not be kept secret long.
- DirectorMichael CurtizDarryl F. ZanuckStarsDolores CostelloGeorge O'BrienNoah BeeryThe Biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood, with a parallel story of soldiers in the First World War.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 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.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsErich von StroheimFay WrayZasu PittsA young impoverished aristocrat falls in love with an inn-keepers daughter, but has to marry money.
- DirectorJoe MayStarsAlbert SteinrückElse HellerGustav FröhlichJoe 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 its characters, and the ability to take a simple and essentially melodramatic story and turn it into something more complex and inherently cinematic.
- DirectorFrank LloydStarsCorinne GriffithVictor VarconiH.B. WarnerThe story of the romance between Emma, Lady Hamilton, and British war hero Admiral Horatio Nelson.
- DirectorGeorge W. HillStarsRamon NovarroRalph GravesAnita PageThe story follows six midshipmen after they graduate from Annapolis. Their goal is to become U.S. Navy pilots and three of them are eliminated at the San Diego Naval Base. The remaining three undergo grueling weeks of training at Pensacola, Florida, and one crashes. The remaining two get their wings and are sent back to San Diego as full-fledged "Sea Hawks", and prepare there for the first Honolulu flight.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeStarsRamon NovarroRenée AdoréeDonald CrispA carefree South Seas native falls for the half-caste ward of a religious white man who desires her for himself.
- DirectorFranz OstenStarsSeeta DeviHimanshu RaiCharu RoyTwo neighboring Indian kingdoms are ruled by cousins - King Ranjit and King Sohat. Unbeknownst to Ranjit, Sohat is plotting to seize control of his kingdom.
- DirectorVictor SchertzingerStarsRichard DixJulie CarterTully MarshallWing Foot (Richard Dix), a Navajo, is educated in an otherwise all-white school. In the course of the story, he experiences prejudice from both the whites because of his race and the Navajos, who disown him because of his upbringing. Thus, Wing Foot is looked upon as neither Indian nor white, but simply a "redskin."
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsTatsuo SaitôTomio AokiMitsuko YoshikawaTwo young brothers throw a tantrum when they discover that their father isn't the most important man in his workplace.