The Top 100 Silent Era Films

"Johnnie loves his train ("The General") and Annabelle Lee. When the Civil War begins he is turned down for service because he's more valuable as an engineer. Annabelle thinks it's because he's a coward. Union spies capture The General with Annabelle on board. Johnny must rescue both his loves."

"It is the future, and humans are divided into two groups: the thinkers, who make plans (but don't know how anything works), and the workers, who achieve goals (but don't have the vision). Completely separate, neither group is complete, but together they make a whole. One man from the "thinkers" dares visit the underground where the workers toil, and is astonished by what he sees..."

"A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife."

"A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind girl. Her family is in financial trouble. The tramp's on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor."

"Count Orlok moves to Wisburg and brings the plague. This reveals his connection to the Realtor Thomas Hutter, and the Count's obsession with Hutter's wife, Ellen - the only one with the power to end the evil."

"A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm."

"A chronicle of the trial of Jeanne d'Arc on charges of heresy, and the efforts of her ecclesiastical jurists to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions."

"Francis and his friend, Alan, visit a traveling fair where one of the acts is a certain Dr. Caligari's presentation of a hypnotized sleepwalker named Cesare who can tell the future. Cesare predicts Alan will be dead by the next morning, and he is in fact murdered in the night. Francis becomes suspicious of Caligari and Cesare."

"A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resulting street demonstration which brought on a police massacre."

"Miner-turned-dentist McTeague wins young Trina Sieppe away from her cousin Marcus, McTeague's friend. When Trina wins five thousand dollars in a lottery, Marcus accuses McTeague of marrying her for her money. Trina becomes more and more obsessed with money, refusing to spend any of her winnings even though she and her husband are forced into dire straits. When Marcus informs the authorities that McTeague is not licensed as a dentist, thus depriving him of his meagre living, the friendship and the marriage are destroyed."

"The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her."

"The life of a man and woman together in a large, impersonal metropolis through their hopes, struggles and downfalls."

"Letty moves to West Texas from the East and it seems that the wind always blows and the sand gets everywhere. While living with relatives, she finds that she is not welcomed by the wife. With no where to go, she marries a man who disgusts her."

"A massive biopic of Napoleon, tracing his career from his schooldays, his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797."

"Two brothers, Phil and Ted Stoneman, visit their friends in Piedmont, South Carolina: the family Cameron. This friendship is affected by the Civil War, as the Stonemans and the Camerons must join up opposite armies. The consequences of the War in their lives are shown in connection to major historical events, like the development of the Civil War itself, Lincoln's assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan."

"Intolerance and its terrible effects are examined in four historical eras. In ancient Babylon, a mountain girl is caught up in the religious rivalry that leads to the city's downfall. In Judea, the hypocritical Pharisees condemn Jesus Christ. In 1572 Paris, unaware of the impending St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, two young Huguenots prepare for marriage. Finally, in modern America, social reformers destroy the lives of a young woman and her beloved."

"A projectionist is studying to be a detective and is in love with a young lady. When he proposes her, his rival steals the chain watch of her father and incriminates him. The disappointed young projectionist returns to his job and while projecting the film, he dreams on being the detective of the story."

"The idle son of a rich businessman joins the army when the U.S.A. enters World War One. He is sent to France, where he becomes friends with two working-class soldiers. He also falls in love with a Frenchwoman, but has to leave her to move to the frontline."

"When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself."

"At the Opera of Paris, a mysterious phantom threatens a famous lyric singer, Carlotta and thus forces her to give up her role (Marguerite in Faust) for unknown Christine Daae. Christine meets this phantom (a masked man) in the catacombs, where he lives. What's his goal? What's his secret?"

"A frail waif, abused by her brutish boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences."

"An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious Hotel is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society."

"The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy."

"The effete son of a cantankerous riverboat captain comes to join his father's crew."

"Two young men fall in love with the same same girl. After the US enters WWI, both join the Air Corps and become aces. They remain friends, but the relation to the girl threatens their friendship."

"This playful film is at once a documentary of a day in the life of the Soviet Union, a documentary of the filming of said documentary, and a depiction of an audience watching the film."

"In this silent-film predecessor to the modern documentary, filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuit Eskimos living in the Arctic Circle."