1920

No Academy Award this year — the formula crowns:

Should have wonThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari poster

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Composite 76.6

The full slate

#1
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari poster

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #2

Composite 76.6

Dir. Robert Wiene · Werner Krauss · Conrad Veidt · Friedrich Fehér · Lil Dagover

IMDb 8.0 (76,351 votes) · TMDB 7.934

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.

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#2
The Golem poster

The Golem (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 66.05

Dir. Carl Boese · Paul Wegener · Albert Steinrück · Lyda Salmonova · Ernst Deutsch

IMDb 7.2 (9,547 votes) · TMDB 7.0

In 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.

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#3
Way Down East poster

Way Down East (1920)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #1

Composite 65.34

Dir. D.W. Griffith · Lillian Gish · Richard Barthelmess · Lowell Sherman · Burr McIntosh

IMDb 7.3 (6,316 votes) · TMDB 6.9

A 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.

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#4
The Mark of Zorro poster

The Mark of Zorro (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 65.26

Dir. Fred Niblo · Douglas Fairbanks · Noah Beery · Charles Hill Mailes · Claire McDowell

IMDb 7.0 (3,096 votes) · TMDB 7.2

Don Diego Vega pretends to be an indolent fop as a cover for his true identity, the masked avenger Zorro. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

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#5
The Penalty poster

The Penalty (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 64.83

Dir. Wallace Worsley · Lon Chaney · Charles Clary · Doris Pawn · James Pier Mason

IMDb 7.3 (2,846 votes) · TMDB 7.0

Blizzard, deranged from a childhood operation in which both his legs were needlessly amputated after an accident, becomes a vicious criminal, and eventually mob leader of the San Francisco underworld.

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#6
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde poster

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 64.22

Dir. John S. Robertson · John Barrymore · Brandon Hurst · Martha Mansfield · Charles Lane

IMDb 6.9 (6,682 votes) · TMDB 6.7

A doctor's research into the roots of evil turns him into a hideous depraved fiend.

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#7
The Parson's Widow poster

The Parson's Widow (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.03

Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer · Hildur Carlberg · Einar Röd · Greta Almroth · Olav Aukrust

IMDb 7.1 (1,653 votes) · TMDB 7.3

A newly elected village parson is required to marry his predecessor's widow. However, he's already married, and the woman is old enough to be his grandmother.

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#8
Why Change Your Wife? poster

Why Change Your Wife? (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 61.76

Dir. Cecil B. DeMille · Gloria Swanson · Thomas Meighan · Bebe Daniels · Theodore Kosloff

IMDb 6.7 (1,560 votes) · TMDB 5.579

Robert and Beth Bordon are married but share little. He runs into Sally at a cabaret and the Gordons are soon divorced. Just as he gets bored with Sally's superficiality, Beth strives to improve her looks. The original couple falls in love again at a summer resort.

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#9
The Last of the Mohicans poster

The Last of the Mohicans (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 61.71

Dir. Maurice Tourneur · Wallace Beery · Barbara Bedford · Alan Roscoe · Lillian Hall

IMDb 6.6 (1,584 votes) · TMDB 6.3

As Alice and Cora Munro attempt to find their father, a British officer in the French and Indian War, they are set upon by French soldiers and their cohorts, Huron tribesmen led by the evil Magua. Fighting to rescue the women are Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the last of the Mohican tribe, and their white ally, the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, known as Hawkeye.

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#10
Within Our Gates poster

Within Our Gates (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 61.37

Dir. Oscar Micheaux · Evelyn Preer · Flo Clements · James D. Ruffin · Jack Chenault

IMDb 6.4 (4,077 votes) · TMDB 6.037

Abandoned by her fiancé, an educated black woman with a traumatizing past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished black children.

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#11
The Saphead poster

The Saphead (1920)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 60.36

Dir. Herbert Blaché · Buster Keaton · William H. Crane · Beulah Booker · Irving Cummings

IMDb 6.1 (1,929 votes) · TMDB 5.794

Nick Van Alstyne owns the Henrietta silver mine and is very rich and his son Bertie is naive and spoiled. His daughter Rose is married to shady investor Mark. Mark wrecks Bertie's wedding plans by making him take the blame for Mark's illegitimate daughter, and also nearly ruins the family business by selling off some stock at too low a price.

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How scoring works: films are ranked by a composite of a weighted (Bayesian) IMDb rating — the same method as the IMDb Top 250, so a high score from few voters can't outrank a strong score from many — blended with TMDB. Box office is a tiebreaker and a badge, never part of the score. Raw IMDb ratings and vote counts are shown on each card.