No Academy Award this year — the formula crowns:
Composite 79.71
Composite 79.71
Dir. Charlie Chaplin · Charlie Chaplin · Jackie Coogan · Carl Miller · Edna Purviance
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
Composite 71.31
Dir. Victor Sjöström · Victor Sjöström · Hilda Borgström · Tore Svennberg · Astrid Holm
An alcoholic, abusive ne'er-do-well is shown the error of his ways through a legend that dooms the last person to die on New Year's Eve before the clock strikes twelve to take the reins of Death's chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year.
Composite 67.52
Dir. Fritz Lang · Lil Dagover · Walter Janssen · Bernhard Goetzke · Hans Sternberg
As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and is sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman finds a mystic entrance and is met by Death, who tells her three separate stories set in exotic locales, all involving circumstances similar to hers.
Composite 65
Dir. D.W. Griffith · Lillian Gish · Dorothy Gish · Joseph Schildkraut · Creighton Hale
France, on the eve of the French Revolution. Henriette and Louise have been raised together as sisters. When the plague that takes their parents' lives causes Louise's blindness, they decide to travel to Paris in search of a cure, but they separate when a lustful aristocrat crosses their path.
Composite 63.69
Dir. Rex Ingram · Rudolph Valentino · Josef Swickard · Alice Terry · Alan Hale
Set in the years before and during World War I, this epic tale tells the story of a rich Argentine family, one of its two descending branches being half of French heritage, the other being half German. Following the death of the family patriarch, the man's two daughters and their families resettle to France and Germany, respectively. In time the Great War breaks out, putting members of the family on opposing sides.
Composite 62.33
Dir. F. W. Murnau · Arnold Korff · Lulu Kyser-Korff · Lothar Mehnert · Paul Bildt
The sinister Count Oetsch scandalizes the aristocratic social gathering at Castle Vogelod as he announces his intention to "crash" the festivities. Baroness Safferstätt is expected shortly, and the guests are well-aware of the rumors that Count Oetsch murdered the baroness' late husband. Oetsch refuses to leave, vowing that he will reveal the identity of the real killer. Before the weekend is through, the Count and Baroness will reveal secrets too shocking to be believed!
Composite 62.15
Dir. Henry King · Richard Barthelmess · Gladys Hulette · Ernest Torrence · Marion Abbott
Young David Kinemon is a good-natured, easy-going lad in a mountain village. Circumstances force him to take his brother's place as mail carrier for the community, and this brings him into deadly contact with the vicious Hatburn brothers.
Composite 61.87
Dir. Ernst Lubitsch · Pola Negri · Victor Janson · Paul Heidemann · Wilhelm Diegelmann
A charismatic lieutenant newly assigned to a remote fort is captured by a group of mountain bandits, thus setting in motion a madcap farce that is Lubitsch at his most unrestrained. A wonderfully anarchic and playfully subversive satire of military life from one of the great comedy filmmakers.
Composite 61.06
Dir. George Melford · Rudolph Valentino · Agnes Ayres · Ruth Miller · George Waggner
Sheik Ahmed desperately desires feisty British socialite Diana, so he abducts her and carries her off to his luxurious tent-palace in the desert. The free-spirited Diana recoils from his passionate embraces and yearns to be released. Later, allowed to go into the desert, she escapes and makes her way across the sands...
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.