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Top Films of the 1920s

Rank Title Year Director(s) Overall
Rank
1 Metropolis 1927 Fritz Lang 43
2 The General 1926 Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton 86
3 Nosferatu 1922 F.W. Murnau 107
4 Sunrise 1927 F.W. Murnau 117
5 The Battleship Potemkin 1925 Sergei Eisenstein 131
6 The Passion of Joan of Arc 1928 Carl Theodor Dreyer 152
7 The Gold Rush 1925 Charles Chaplin 171
8 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920 Robert Wiene 174
9 The Man with the Movie Camera 1929 Dziga Vertov 240
10 Sherlock, Jr. 1924 Buster Keaton 281
11 Un chien andalou 1929 Luis Buñuel 382
12 The Kid 1921 Charles Chaplin 406
13 Greed 1924 Erich von Stroheim 473
14 Nanook of the North 1922 Robert J. Flaherty 587
15 Napoléon 1927 Abel Gance 621
16 Safety Last! 1923 Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor 687
17 The Crowd 1928 King Vidor 775
18 Pandora's Box 1929 Georg Wilhelm Pabst 788
19 The Last Laugh 1924 F.W. Murnau 835
20 The Wind 1928 Victor Sjöström 861
21 Steamboat Bill, Jr. 1928 Charles Reisner 974
22 Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages 1922 Benjamin Christensen 996
23 The Phantom of the Opera 1925 Rupert Julian 1003
24 The Circus 1928 Charles Chaplin 1121
25 The Jazz Singer 1927 Alan Crosland 1132
26 The Thief of Bagdad 1924 Raoul Walsh 1199
27 Faust 1926 F.W. Murnau 1221
28 Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler 1922 Fritz Lang 1307
29 The Big Parade 1925 King Vidor 1382
30 The Cameraman 1928 Edward Sedgwick 1409
31 Wings 1927 William A. Wellman 1419
32 Fall of the House of Usher 1928 Jean Epstein 1424
33 The Phantom Chariot 1921 Victor Sjöström 1476
34 Siegfried 1924 Fritz Lang 1622
35 Our Hospitality 1923 John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton 1649
36 The Adventures of Prince Achmed 1926 Lotte Reiniger 1696
37 Strike 1925 Sergei Eisenstein 1795
38 Ben-Hur 1925 Fred Niblo 1798
39 The Lodger 1927 Alfred Hitchcock 1876
40 Within Our Gates 1920 Oscar Micheaux 1879
41 October 1928 Grigoriy Aleksandrov and Sergei Eisenstein 1939
42 Hallelujah! 1929 King Vidor 1969
43 Berlin: Symphony of a Great City 1927 Walter Ruttmann 2111
44 The Golem 1920 Paul Wegener 2134
45 Kriemhild's Revenge 1924 Fritz Lang 2201
46 The Iron Horse 1924 John Ford 2246
47 The Freshman 1925 Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor 2281
48 A Page of Madness 1926 Teinosuke Kinugasa 2355
49 Diary of a Lost Girl 1929 Georg Wilhelm Pabst 2400
50 The Last Command 1928 Josef von Sternberg 2405
51 The Unknown 1927 Tod Browning 2461
52 The Navigator 1924 Donald Crisp and Buster Keaton 2475
53 Show People 1928 King Vidor 2532
54 Seventh Heaven 1927 Frank Borzage 2654
55 Way Down East 1920 D.W. Griffith 2655
56 Foolish Wives 1922 Erich von Stroheim 2668
57 The Broadway Melody 1929 Harry Beaumont 2682
58 Seven Chances 1925 Buster Keaton 2712
59 Blackmail 1929 Alfred Hitchcock 2796
60 The Man Who Laughs 1928 Paul Leni 2816
61 The Docks of New York 1928 Josef von Sternberg 2837
62 The Smiling Madame Beudet 1923 Germaine Dulac 2866
63 The Ten Commandments 1923 Cecil B. DeMille 2900
64 One Week 1920 Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton 2925
65 Ménilmontant 1926 Dimitri Kirsanoff 3037
This page was last modified on April 9, 2025