56 articles
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916 film)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) is a Stuart Paton silent film from Universal adapting Jules Verne, the first feature filmed underwater via the Williamson brothers' photosphere, a 2016 National Film Registry selection.
A Woman of Paris
A Woman of Paris (1923) is Charlie Chaplin's first serious silent drama, made for United Artists, starring Edna Purviance, Adolphe Menjou, and Carl Miller, with Chaplin only in a porter cameo; withdrawn after release, reedited in 1976, restored in 4K in 2019.
Beau Geste (1926 film)
Beau Geste (1926) is Herbert Brenon's Paramount silent adaptation of P. C. Wren's Foreign Legion novel, starring Ronald Colman; Photoplay's Best Picture of 1926, remade in 1939 with Gary Cooper and restored in 2025.
Ben-Hur (1925 film)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), Fred Niblo's MGM silent epic starring Ramon Novarro and Francis X. Bushman, adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel; cost about $4 million, famous for its troubled Italian shoot and 42-camera chariot race.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925 film)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is MGM's 1925 silent epic directed by Fred Niblo, starring Ramon Novarro, based on Lew Wallace's 1880 novel. Costing $3.9 million, the most expensive silent film, famous for its chariot race and Technicolor sequences.
Blood and Sand
Blood and Sand: 1922 Fred Niblo silent drama starring Rudolph Valentino as matador Juan Gallardo, adapted from Blasco Ibáñez's Sangre y arena; remade in Technicolor by Mamoulian in 1941 with Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth.
Broken Blossoms
Broken Blossoms (1919), also The Yellow Man and the Girl, is D.W. Griffith's silent drama adapted from Thomas Burke's Limehouse Nights, starring Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, and Donald Crisp; his first United Artists release and a 1989 National Film Registry selection.
Daddy-Long-Legs (1919 film)
Daddy-Long-Legs (1919) is a silent comedy-drama directed by Marshall Neilan, starring and produced by Mary Pickford as orphan Judy Abbott, the first film of her Mary Pickford Co., based on Jean Webster's 1912 novel, grossing $1.3 million.
Destiny (1921 film)
Destiny (Der müde Tod, The Weary Death) is Fritz Lang's 1921 German Expressionist silent fantasy, produced by Erich Pommer for Decla-Bioscop, in which Lil Dagover bargains with Death across three episodes; restored with tinting in 2016.
Die Nibelungen
Die Nibelungen is Fritz Lang's 1924 two-part German silent epic (Siegfried; Kriemhilds Rache), produced by Decla-Bioscop for Ufa from Thea von Harbou's screenplay, premiered at Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo and restored in 2010.
Don Juan (1926 film)
Don Juan (1926), Alan Crosland silent romance starring John Barrymore and Mary Astor; first feature with Vitaphone synchronized music and sound effects, premiered August 1926 at Warners' Theatre, New York.
Flesh and the Devil
Flesh and the Devil is a 1926 MGM silent romantic drama directed by Clarence Brown, starring John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, and Lars Hanson, adapted from Hermann Sudermann's novel The Undying Past; the first Garbo-Gilbert pairing.
Foolish Wives
Foolish Wives is a 1922 American silent drama written, directed by, and starring Erich von Stroheim as fake Russian count Sergius Karamzin, Universal's advertised first million-dollar movie, set in Monte Carlo and restored to 147 minutes in 2022.
Girl Shy
Girl Shy (1924) is a Harold Lloyd silent romantic comedy, his first as independent producer via the Harold Lloyd Corporation, directed by Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, famous for its Los Angeles chase climax that inspired The Graduate.
Grandma's Boy (1922 film)
Grandma's Boy (1922), also released as The White Feather or He Who Hesitates, is a Harold Lloyd silent feature comedy directed by Fred Newmeyer for Hal Roach, his first five-reel feature, about a coward transformed by a lucky charm.
Greed (1924 film)
Greed (1924) is Erich von Stroheim's silent adaptation of Frank Norris's McTeague, cut by MGM from a lost nine-and-a-half-hour original to about 140 minutes; a 1999 reconstruction restored roughly four hours using stills.
He Who Gets Slapped
He Who Gets Slapped is MGM's 1924 silent debut film, directed by Victor Sjöström with Lon Chaney as a betrayed scientist turned circus clown, adapted from Leonid Andreyev's 1915 Russian play.
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is D. W. Griffith's 1916 American silent epic, also titled Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, interweaving four stories of injustice across Babylon, Judea, France, and modern America; a box-office failure conceived as a rebuttal to criticism of The Birth of a Nation, later ranked among the most influential films.
Male and Female
Male and Female (1919) is Cecil B. DeMille's silent drama adapted from Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, starring Thomas Meighan and Gloria Swanson, famous for its Babylon sequence and class-reversal shipwreck plot.
Manhandled
Manhandled (1924) is a silent comedy-drama directed by Allan Dwan, starring Gloria Swanson as shopgirl Tessie McGuire, based on Arthur Stringer's short story; it survives only as an abridged 16mm Kodascope print.
Mickey (1918 film)
Mickey (1918 film), silent comedy-drama starring Mabel Normand, the only film of her Mabel Normand Feature Film Co., directed by F. Richard Jones and James Young, produced by Mack Sennett; released 11 August 1918, it was 1918's highest-grossing feature and survives on 16mm.
Orphans of the Storm
Orphans of the Storm (1921) is D.W. Griffith's silent epic starring Lillian and Dorothy Gish as sisters in the French Revolution, adapted from Les Deux Orphelines, his last film with Lillian Gish.
Our Hospitality
Our Hospitality (1923) is Buster Keaton and Jack Blystone's silent comedy, his second feature and first single-narrative film, a Hatfield-McCoy-inspired feud story with a famous waterfall rescue, three generations of Keatons, and a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Regeneration (1915 film)
Regeneration (1915), also promoted as The Regeneration, is Raoul Walsh's first feature and the first American feature-length gangster film, a Fox silent adapted from Owen Kildare's My Mamie Rose, shot on the Lower East Side and added to the National Film Registry in 2000.
Robin Hood (1922 film)
Robin Hood (1922), on-screen title Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, is a silent United Artists adventure directed by Allan Dwan, starring Fairbanks, Wallace Beery, and Sam De Grasse, the era's largest production with a 90-foot castle set.
Safety Last!
Safety Last! (1923) is a Harold Lloyd silent comedy directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor for Hal Roach, famous for the clock-hanging climb on a Los Angeles skyscraper, earning $1.5 million on a $120,000 budget and entering the National Film Registry in 1994.
Shoulder Arms
Shoulder Arms (1918) is Charlie Chaplin's silent First National war comedy, also titled Camouflage, in which a bumbling doughboy dreams of capturing the Kaiser; his biggest commercial hit to date, released 27 October 1918.
Sparrows
Sparrows (1926) is a Mary Pickford silent melodrama directed by William Beaudine, originally titled Scraps, about orphans escaping a swamp baby farm; premiered May 1926, restored by the Library of Congress, added to the National Film Registry in 2025.
Stella Maris
Stella Maris (1918) is a silent drama directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Mary Pickford in dual roles as the paralyzed Stella Maris and the orphan Unity Blake, adapted by Frances Marion from William J. Locke's 1913 novel and remade in 1925.
The Big Parade (1925 film)
The Big Parade (1925) is King Vidor's MGM silent World War I drama starring John Gilbert and Renée Adorée; it earned over $6 million, second only to Ben-Hur, and joined the National Film Registry in 1992.