1926

No Academy Award this year — the formula crowns:

Should have wonThe General poster

The General

Composite 77.82

The full slate

#1
The General poster

The General (1926)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #1

Composite 77.82

Dir. Clyde Bruckman · Buster Keaton · Marion Mack · Glen Cavender · Jim Farley

IMDb 8.1 (105,180 votes) · TMDB 7.917

During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.

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#2
Faust poster

Faust (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 72.52

Dir. F. W. Murnau · Gösta Ekman · Emil Jannings · Camilla Horn · Frida Richard

IMDb 8.1 (18,379 votes) · TMDB 7.903

God and Satan wager on the soul of a learned and prayerful alchemist as part of their eternal war over Earth.

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#3
The Adventures of Prince Achmed poster

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 68.33

Dir. Lotte Reiniger

IMDb 7.8 (7,750 votes) · TMDB 7.526

Taken from The Arabian Nights, a wicked sorcerer and the beautiful prince Achmed battle one against the other during a series of wondrous adventures.

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#4
A Page of Madness poster

A Page of Madness (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 66.35

Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa · Masao Inoue · Ayako Iijima · Yoshie Nakagawa · Eiko Minami

IMDb 7.3 (5,435 votes) · TMDB 7.3

A man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife.

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#5
Flesh and the Devil poster

Flesh and the Devil (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 66.29

Dir. Clarence Brown · John Gilbert · Greta Garbo · Lars Hanson · Barbara Kent

IMDb 7.6 (4,940 votes) · TMDB 7.2

When lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home after completing their military training, Leo meets the stunning Felicitas at a railway station and is mesmerized by her beauty. A scandal follows, for which Leo is sent away. Returning home three years later, he discovers that much has changed.

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#6
Mother poster

Mother (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 65.34

Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin · Vera Baranovskaya · Nikolai Batalov · Aleksandr Chistyakov · Anna Zemtsova

IMDb 7.4 (3,321 votes) · TMDB 7.1

A Soviet woman is caught between her husband and son, who find themselves on opposing sides of the Russian Revolution.

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#7
Battling Butler poster

Battling Butler (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 64.31

Dir. Buster Keaton · Buster Keaton · Snitz Edwards · Sally O'Neil · Walter James

IMDb 7.0 (4,450 votes) · TMDB 6.8

A meek millionaire masquerades as a boxing star to win a girl's heart.

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#8
The Black Pirate poster

The Black Pirate (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 63.63

Dir. Albert Parker · Douglas Fairbanks · Billie Dove · Anders Randolf · Donald Crisp

IMDb 7.0 (2,386 votes) · TMDB 6.7

A nobleman vows to avenge the death of his father by the hands of pirates. To this end, he infiltrates the pirate band; Acting in character, he single-handedly captures a merchant vessel, but things are complicated when he finds that there is a beautiful young woman of royal blood aboard.

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#9
The Scarlet Letter poster

The Scarlet Letter (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.59

Dir. Victor Sjöström · Lillian Gish · Lars Hanson · Henry B. Walthall · Karl Dane

IMDb 7.6 (2,148 votes) · TMDB 7.136

In Puritan Boston, seamstress Hester Prynne and kindly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fall in love. After Dimmesdale must go away for a time to England, he returns to discover that Hester has given birth to their child and is the focus of local censure.

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#10
For Heaven's Sake poster

For Heaven's Sake (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.51

Dir. Sam Taylor · Harold Lloyd · Jobyna Ralston · Noah Young · James Pier Mason

IMDb 7.5 (2,161 votes) · TMDB 6.909

An irresponsible young millionaire changes his tune when he falls for the daughter of a downtown minister.

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#11
3 Bad Men poster

3 Bad Men (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.3

Dir. John Ford · George O'Brien · Olive Borden · Lou Tellegen · Tom Santschi

IMDb 7.5 (1,710 votes) · TMDB 6.851

Three outlaws come to the aid of a young girl after her father is killed.

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#12
Sparrows poster

Sparrows (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.15

Dir. William Beaudine · Mary Pickford · Roy Stewart · Mary Louise Miller · Gustav von Seyffertitz

IMDb 7.3 (1,654 votes) · TMDB 6.964

Molly, the eldest child of a group of orphans being used as slaves on a farm hidden deep in a swamp, must rescue the others when their cruel master decides that one of them will be disposed of.

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#13
La Bohème poster

La Bohème (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.13

Dir. King Vidor · Lillian Gish · John Gilbert · Renée Adorée · Roy D'Arcy

IMDb 7.2 (1,773 votes) · TMDB 6.4

A group of starving artists try to survive in 1830s Paris, including a seamstress and the would-be playwright she loves.

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#14
Tell It to the Marines poster

Tell It to the Marines (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.04

Dir. George W. Hill · Lon Chaney · William Haines · Eleanor Boardman · Eddie Gribbon

IMDb 7.1 (1,703 votes) · TMDB 6.45

U.S. Marine Sergeant O'Hara has his hands full training raw recruits, one of whom, 'Skeets' Burns, is a particular thorn in his side. If Burns's lackadaisical approach to the military were not bad enough, he also makes advances on nurse Nora Dale, whom Sergeant O'Hara secretly loves. Nora is oblivious to O'Hara's feelings and is attracted to the handsome 'Skeet.' But an indiscretion turns her against him, and it takes an expedition to China and a battle with a warlord's bandit brigade to sort things out among the nurse and her two Marines.

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#15
The Son of the Sheik poster

The Son of the Sheik (1926)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 61.73

Dir. George Fitzmaurice · Rudolph Valentino · Vilma Banky · George Fawcett · Montagu Love

IMDb 6.5 (2,251 votes) · TMDB 6.2

Ahmed, son of Diana and Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, falls in love with Yasmin, a dancing girl who fronts her father's gang of mountebanks. She and Ahmed meet secretly until one night when her father and the gang capture the son of the sheik, torture him, and hold him for ransom.

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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.