Silent but not Forgotten: The best silent films
From a poll of 63 critics and film experts conducted in the 1970s by film critic and director Paul Rotha, each asked for a list of their 30 top silent films. This makes for a list of the Top 338 Silent Films. Ties are sorted by imdb original title.
Several movies are considered lost:
Thérèse Raquin
Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines
The Last Moment
4 Devils
Several movies are considered lost:
Thérèse Raquin
Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines
The Last Moment
4 Devils
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338 titles
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsAleksandr AntonovVladimir BarskiyGrigoriy AleksandrovIn 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.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsGibson GowlandZasu PittsJean HersholtThe sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGeorge O'BrienJanet GaynorMargaret LivingstonA 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.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinMack SwainTom MurrayA prospector goes to the Klondike during the 1890s gold rush in hopes of making his fortune, and is smitten with a girl he sees in a dance hall.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsLouise BrooksFritz KortnerFrancis LedererThe rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
- 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.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- 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.
- DirectorClyde BruckmanBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonMarion MackGlen CavenderAfter 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.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsEdna PurvianceClarence GeldertCarl MillerA kept woman runs into her former fiancé and finds herself torn between love and comfort.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.
- DirectorClarence BrownStarsJohn GilbertGreta GarboLars HansonChildhood friends are torn apart when one of them marries the woman the other fiercely loves.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsAsta NielsenGreta GarboÁgnes EszterházyIn post-WWI Vienna, Greta (Greta Garbo), her kid sister, and retired dad try to make it through tough times.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronMae MarshThe story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn 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.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsMargarete SchönGertrud ArnoldTheodor LoosPrincess Kriemhild vows to avenge her husband's murder but must overcome her brothers who swore allegiance to Hagen. She marries Etzel, King of the Huns, and persuades his army to attack Hagen, but she loses more than she bargained for.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPaul RichterMargarete SchönTheodor LoosSiegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinVirginia CherrillFlorence LeeWith the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp who has fallen in love with a sightless flower girl accumulates money to be able to help her medically.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBernhard GoetzkeLil DagoverWalter JanssenWhen a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsVictor SjöströmHilda BorgströmTore SvennbergOn New Year's Eve, the driver of a ghostly carriage forces a drunken man to reflect on his selfish, wasted life.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsEleanor BoardmanJames MurrayBert RoachThe life of a man and woman together in a large, impersonal metropolis through their hopes, struggles, and downfalls.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsMarion DaviesWilliam HainesDell HendersonA young lady from Georgia goes to Hollywood in the hopes of becoming an actress.
- DirectorKing VidorGeorge W. HillStarsJohn GilbertRenée AdoréeHobart BosworthA young American soldier witnesses the horrors of the Great War.
- DirectorGrigoriy AleksandrovSergei EisensteinStarsBoris LivanovNikolay PopovVasili NikandrovA large-scale view on the events of 1917 in Russia, when the monarchy was overthrown.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinMerna KennedyAl Ernest GarciaThe Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsErich von StroheimFay WrayZasu PittsA young impoverished aristocrat falls in love with an inn-keepers daughter, but has to marry money.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeGerda MaurusWilly FritschThe mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsCharles FarrellMary DuncanDavid TorrenceA Chicago waitress falls in love with a Minnesota farmer, and decides to face a life in the country.
- DirectorLotte ReinigerCarl KochA handsome prince rides a flying horse to faraway lands and embarks on magical adventures, which include befriending a witch, meeting Aladdin, battling demons and falling in love with a princess.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsRudolf Klein-RoggeAud Egede-NissenGertrude WelckerArch-criminal Dr. Mabuse sets out to make a fortune and run Berlin. Detective Wenk sets out to stop him.
- DirectorLev KuleshovStarsAleksandra KhokhlovaSergey KomarovVladimir FogelA five-person team of gold prospectors in the Yukon has just begun to enjoy great success when one of the members snaps, and suddenly kills two of the others. The two survivors, a husband and wife, subdue the killer but are then faced with an agonizing dilemma. With no chance of turning him over to the authorities for many weeks, they must decide whether to exact justice themselves or to risk trying to keep him restrained until they can return to civilization.
- DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsLouise BrooksJosef RovenskýFritz RaspAfter falling pregnant by a pharmacist and refusing to marry, a young woman is ejected from her home and sent to a strict girls' reform school.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsLillian GishLars HansonMontagu LoveA frail young woman from the East moves in with her cousin in the West, where she causes tension within the family and is slowly driven mad.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRichard BarthelmessDonald CrispA frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsGiboisJean-Marie LaotMalgornOn an island off the coast of Brittany four isolated men collect seaweed. Two young best friends have a quarrel and when one's thumb becomes infected his friend must risk his life on the ocean to bring him to the doctor.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsJean DebucourtMarguerite GanceCharles LamyAllan visits the sinister Usher family mansion, where his friend Roderick is painting a portrait of his sickly wife Madeline. The portrait seems to be draining the life out of Madeline, slowly leading to her death.
- 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.
- DirectorVsevolod PudovkinStarsI. InkizhinovI. DedintsevValéry InkijinoffAfter a run-in with the law, a Mongolian man becomes a fugitive and joins the Russian Civil War.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsRichard BarthelmessGladys HuletteWalter P. LewisWhen three thuggish men are responsible for the death of his father and the crippling of his brother, young David must choose between supporting his family or risking his life and exacting vengeance.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsStepan ShkuratSemyon SvashenkoYuliya SolntsevaIn the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.
- DirectorVsevolod PudovkinStarsVera BaranovskayaNikolay BatalovAleksandr ChistyakovA story about a family torn apart by a worker's strike. At first, the mother wants to protect her family from the troublemakers, but eventually she realizes that her son is right and the workers should strike.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsGeorge BancroftBetty CompsonOlga BaclanovaA blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
- DirectorEwald André DupontStarsEmil JanningsMaly DelschaftLya De PuttiPrologue: 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 side-show that displays ''erotic sensations''. But he longs for his former glamorous life in the circus. When he meets the orphan Berta-Marie, he falls under her spell and leaves his wife and young son behind. He makes Berta-Marie his partner in a new trapeze number. One day, the famous trapeze artist Artinelli takes note of them and engages them for his trapeze show in Berlin. Their salto mortale becomes an immediate sensation. Calculatedly and cold, Artinelli seduces Berta-Marie and destroys "Boss'" happiness.
- 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.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGösta EkmanEmil JanningsCamilla HornThe demon Mephisto wagers with God that he can corrupt a mortal man's soul.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsHermann PichaRosa ValettiAndré MattoniA 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.
- DirectorW.S. Van DykeRobert J. FlahertyStarsMonte BlueRaquel TorresRobert AndersonAn alcoholic doctor on a Polynesian island, disgusted by white exploitation of the natives, finds himself marooned on a pristinely beautiful island.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsDouglas FairbanksWallace BeerySam De GrasseA nobleman becomes the vigilante Robin Hood who protects the oppressed English people from the tyrannical Prince John.
- DirectorRex IngramStarsRudolph ValentinoAlice TerryPomeroy CannonAn extended family split up in France and Germany find themselves on opposing sides of the battlefield during World War I.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsMarion DaviesOrville CaldwellMarie DresslerAn awkward teenager hopelessly in love with her older sister's boyfriend tries to make him notice her.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinEdna PurvianceSyd ChaplinDisguised 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.
- DirectorWalter RuttmannStarsPaul von HindenburgThis movie shows us one day in Berlin, the rhythm of that time, starting at the earliest morning and ends in the deepest night.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsRudolph ChristiansMiss DuPontMaude GeorgeA con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
- 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.
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsNadia SibirskaïaYolande BeaulieuGuy BelmontA couple is brutally murdered in the working-class district of Paris. Later on, the narrative follows the lives of their two daughters, both in love with a Parisian thug and leading them to separate ways.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJune TrippIvor NovelloMarie AultA landlady suspects that her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.
- DirectorLeo BirinskyPaul LeniStarsEmil JanningsConrad VeidtWerner KraussA wax museum hires a writer to give the sculptures stories. The writer imagines himself and the museum owner's daughter in the stories.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackMarguerite HarrisonThe struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.
- DirectorVsevolod PudovkinMikhail DollerStarsAleksandr ChistyakovVera BaranovskayaIvan ChuvelyovA peasant comes to St. Petersburg to find work. He unwittingly helps in the arrest of an old friend who is now a labor leader. The unemployed man is arrested and sent to fight in World War I. After three years, he returns to rebel.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsPola NegriEmil JanningsHarry LiedtkeThe story of Madame DuBarry, the mistress of Louis XV of France, and her loves in the time of the French revolution.
- DirectorBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonRuth DwyerT. Roy BarnesA man learns that he will inherit a fortune if he marries by 7PM that evening.
- DirectorAlbert ParkerStarsDouglas FairbanksBillie DoveTempe PigottSeeking revenge, an athletic young man joins the pirate band responsible for his father's death.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsLillian GishLars HansonHenry B. WalthallAfter having a child out of wedlock, a young Puritan woman is pressured to reveal the name of her lover.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsAlice TissotAlexej BondireffMarise MaiaOn his way through the woods to his marriage, Fadinard's horse eats the hat of a married lady spending here a few moments with her lover. Fadinard has to find the very same rare hat to avoid her dishonor. This will greatly disturb his own marriage.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRichard BarthelmessMrs. David LandauA naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsJanet GaynorCharles FarrellBen BardA street cleaner saves a young woman's life, and the pair slowly fall in love until war intervenes.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsSemyon SvashenkoGeorgi KhorkovAmvrosi BuchmaA soldier returns to Kyiv after surviving a train crash and encounters clashes between nationalists and collectivists.
- DirectorPaul WegenerCarl BoeseStarsPaul WegenerAlbert SteinrückErnst DeutschIn 16th-century Prague, a rabbi creates the Golem - a giant creature made of clay. Using sorcery, he brings the creature to life in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.
- DirectorHanns SchwarzStarsBrigitte HelmFrancis LedererWarwick WardNina Petrovna, the mistress of a wealthy Cossack, falls in love with a young cadet. Their happiness is short-lived.
- DirectorPál FejösStarsBarbara KentGlenn TryonFay HoldernessTwo 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?
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsAlbert DieudonnéVladimir RoudenkoEdmond Van DaëleA film about the French general's youth and early military career.
- DirectorJohn G. BlystoneBuster KeatonStarsBuster KeatonNatalie TalmadgeJoe KeatonA man returns to his Appalachian homestead. On the trip, he falls for a young woman. The only problem is her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsGrigoriy AleksandrovMaksim ShtraukhMikhail GomorovA group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
- DirectorGrigoriy AleksandrovSergei EisensteinStarsMarfa LapkinaM. IvaninKonstantin Vasilyev100.000.000 peasants - illiterate, poor, hungry. There comes a day when one woman decides that she can live old life no longer. Using ways of new Soviet state and industrial progress she changes life and labor of her village.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsGeorge O'BrienMadge BellamyCharles Edward BullAfter witnessing the murder of his father by a renegade as a boy, the grown-up Brandon helps to realize his father's dream of a transcontinental railway.
- DirectorRupert JulianLon ChaneyErnst LaemmleStarsLon ChaneyMary PhilbinNorman KerryA mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer.
- DirectorAbram RoomStarsVladimir FogelNikolay BatalovLyudmila SemyonovaA married couple have a small apartment in Moscow. When an old friend of the husband's arrives in the city, he is unable to find lodgings. Kolia, the husband, invites his friend to move in with them.
- DirectorVictor A. TurinResisting the character-driven narrative adhered to by the rest of the world's filmmakers, Victor Turin formulated a grand, elemental drama centered around the struggle for survival in Asia, from the arid plains of Turkestan to the icy Siberian mountains. This unique film tells the story of the creation of a monumental Soviet construction project - a railway that connected Central Asia and Siberia.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergArthur RossonStarsGeorge BancroftClive BrookEvelyn BrentBoisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.
- DirectorYakov ProtazanovStarsYuliya SolntsevaIgor IlyinskyNikolai TsereteliEngineer Mstislav Sergeyevich Los travels to Mars where he leads a popular uprising against the ruling group of Elders with the support of Queen Aelita who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope.
- DirectorJean EpsteinStarsLéon MathotGina ManèsEdmond Van DaëleMarie wants to escape from her job and also from her lover, Paul, an unemployed drunk. She dreams of going off with Jean, a dockworker. The two men quarrel and fight over Marie on two occasions, but Paul retains a hold over her. Marie has a baby who falls ill and as time goes on Jean and a crippled neighbor try to help the child. Paul nearly causes the death of the child whilst in a drunken stupor and in a final struggle that occurs, the crippled woman seizes Paul's gun and shoots him dead.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsOssi OswaldaHermann ThimigVictor JansonForced into marriage by his uncle, a man decides to fool him by marrying a life-like mechanical doll instead.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsLon ChaneyNorma ShearerJohn GilbertA bitter clown endeavors to rescue the young woman he loves from the lecherous count who once betrayed him.
- DirectorMarcel L'HerbierStarsBrigitte HelmMarie GloryPierre AlcoverThe business tycoon Nicolas Saccard is nearly ruined by his rival Gunderman, when he tries to raise capital for his company. To push up the price of his stock, Saccard plans a publicity stunt involving the aviator Jacques Hamelin flying across the Atlantic to Guyana and drilling for oil there, much to the dismay of Hamelin's wife Line. While Hamelin is away, Saccard tries to seduce Line. Line finally realizes that she and her husband were pawns in Saccard's scheme, and she accuses him of stock fraud.
- DirectorGrigoriy KozintsevLeonid TraubergStarsDavid GutmanYelena KuzminaAndrei KostrichkinIn 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 tamer form of Republicanism. How could the love story between a young sales girl and a soldier unable to decide if he was pro or against the radical fashion? Two short months were needed for the answer to be found - in blood and tears, and under rain that washes all past memories. Any day, a New Babylon shop will open with frilly things for the bourgeois girls. The washerwomen will be there to wash them.
- DirectorArthur RobisonStarsFritz KortnerRuth WeyherGustav von WangenheimA wealthy man invites the local wealthy bachelors over for a puppet show about men who covet another man's wife. The puppeteer is actually a witch and gives the men nightmares about what could happen if they date the lady of the house.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsEmil JanningsEvelyn BrentWilliam PowellA former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronWilbur HigbySusie, a plain young country girl, secretly loves a neighbor boy, William. She believes in him and sacrifices much of her own happiness to promote his own ambitions, all without his knowledge. Eventually he rises to a position of success and sophistication, and Susie realizes that she has through her own efforts raised him to a level where he is inaccessible to her.
- DirectorJacques FeyderStarsJean ForestVictor VinaPierrette HouyezA man whose wife has died remarries, and his new wife has a daughter of her own from a previous marriage. The man's young son, however, who loved his mother deeply and misses her terribly, resents his father's new wife, not wanting her to take the place of his beloved mother, and makes life miserable for his new stepsister..
- DirectorJohn FordStarsGeorge O'BrienOlive BordenLou TellegenThree outlaws come to the aid of a young girl after her father is killed.
- DirectorKarl GruneStarsAlbert SteinrückWilliam DieterleImre RádayA mill situated on the border between two unnamed countries and the residents therein become pawns in a future war.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsWallace BeeryRichard ArlenLouise BrooksAfter killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsVictor SjöströmEdith ErastoffJohn EkmanA stranger comes to work at widow Halla's farm.
- DirectorErich von StroheimStarsSam De GrasseFrancelia BillingtonErich von StroheimAn Austrian officer sets out to seduce a neglected young wife.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsVictor JansonOssi OswaldaHarry LiedtkeAn American heiress seeks the hand of an impoverished German prince.
- DirectorKarl GruneStarsAnton EdthoferAud Egede-NissenLeonhard HaskelPresents two distinct plot lines until the two eventually merge: the first is that of the bored middle-aged man seeking a departure from monotony in his life; the second is that of the blind man and the little boy, his grandson, who are interdependent. None of the characters have been given names and are therefore referred to only by description. The city is an expressionistic nightmare, a dangerous and chaotic place.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsJean BörlinInge FrïssFrancis PicabiaAn absolute dada movie. Somebody gets killed, his coffin gets out of control and after a chase it stops. The person gets out of it and let everybody who followed the coffin dissapear.