Defining Era
THE 1920S
THE BIRTH OF SOUND
Silent giants gave way to the first talkies. The studio system took shape and a century of cinema began in earnest.
1920 — 1929
401
Films Catalogued
68.8
Avg Master Score
6.8
Avg IMDb
F.W. MURNAU
Top Director
14
Oscar-Winning
The Defining Three
ESSENTIAL VIEWING
Top-ranked by master score. If you only saw three films from this decade, these are the three.
Filter the List
401/401 films
Master Score
Awards
Showing 60 of 401
01
The Kid
1921 · Charles Chaplin
94.3
02The Passion of Joan of Arc
1928 · Carl Theodor Dreyer
91.8
03Safety Last!
1923 · Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
91.6
04Sherlock Jr.
1924 · Buster Keaton
91.6
05The Big Parade
1925 · King Vidor, George W. Hill
91.3
06The Cameraman
1928 · Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton
90.3
07Man with a Movie Camera
1929 · Dziga Vertov
90.0
08Battleship Potemkin
1925 · Sergei Eisenstein
89.4
09The Last Laugh
1924 · F.W. Murnau
89.2
10Faust
1926 · F.W. Murnau
89.1
11Steamboat Bill, Jr.
1928 · Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton
88.9
12The Gold Rush
1925 · Charles Chaplin · 2 noms
88.6
13Our Hospitality
1923 · John G. Blystone, Buster Keaton
88.2
14The Crowd
1928 · King Vidor · 2 noms
88.2
15Seven Chances
1925 · Buster Keaton
87.9
16The Adventures of Prince Achmed
1926 · Lotte Reiniger, Carl Koch
87.9
17The Wind
1928 · Victor Sjöström
87.7
18The Navigator
1924 · Donald Crisp, Buster Keaton
87.4
19The Man Who Laughs
1928 · Paul Leni
86.9
20Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
1922 · F.W. Murnau
86.9
21Pandora's Box
1929 · Georg Wilhelm Pabst
86.6
22Speedy
1928 · Ted Wilde · 1 nom
86.3
23Diary of a Lost Girl
1929 · Georg Wilhelm Pabst
86.3
24Sunrise
1927 · F.W. Murnau · 3 Oscars
86.2
25Strike
1925 · Sergei Eisenstein
85.8
26The Phantom Carriage
1921 · Victor Sjöström
85.7
27Nanook of the North
1922 · Robert J. Flaherty
85.5
28The Phantom of the Opera
1925 · Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle
85.5
29Napoleon
1927 · Abel Gance
85.3
30Häxan
1922 · Benjamin Christensen
84.3
31Die Nibelungen: Siegfried
1924 · Fritz Lang
84.1
32Show People
1928 · King Vidor
84.1
33Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler
1922 · Fritz Lang
83.7
34The Kid Brother
1927 · Ted Wilde, Harold Lloyd, Lewis Milestone
83.6
35He Who Gets Slapped
1924 · Victor Sjöström
83.0
36The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
1927 · Alfred Hitchcock
83.0
37Go West
1925 · Buster Keaton
82.9
38The Freshman
1925 · Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
82.6
39Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life
1925 · Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
82.2
40Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge
1924 · Fritz Lang
82.2
41Three Ages
1923 · Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton
82.0
42Destiny
1921 · Fritz Lang
81.9
43The Circus
1928 · Charles Chaplin
81.4
44The Unholy Three
1925 · Tod Browning
81.2
45Berlin: Symphony of Metropolis
1927 · Walter Ruttmann
81.1
46The Unknown
1927 · Tod Browning
81.0
47The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1923 · Wallace Worsley
80.9
48It
1927 · Clarence G. Badger, Josef von Sternberg
80.8
49Queen Kelly
1929 · Erich von Stroheim, Richard Boleslawski
80.6
50Sadie Thompson
1928 · Raoul Walsh · 2 noms
80.6
51Way Down East
1920 · D.W. Griffith
80.5
52October (Ten Days that Shook the World)
1928 · Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Sergei Eisenstein
80.4
53The Golem
1920 · Paul Wegener, Carl Boese
80.3
54Girl Shy
1924 · Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
80.3
55A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate
1923 · Charles Chaplin
80.2
56The Lost World
1925 · Harry O. Hoyt
80.1
57A Page of Madness
1926 · Teinosuke Kinugasa
79.8
58The Love Parade
1929 · Ernst Lubitsch · 6 noms
79.7
59Spies
1928 · Fritz Lang
79.7
60The Cat and the Canary
1927 · Paul Leni
79.7
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THE 1930S
THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE
The Hays Code arrived, screwball comedies ran riot, and the studios learned how to make magic by the foot.