1927

Academy winnerWings poster

Wings

Composite 68.36

vs
Should have wonMetropolis poster

Metropolis

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The Academy's ballot

Your #1 was Metropolis (#1).

The full slate

#1
Metropolis poster

Metropolis (1927)

⭐ Top-rated🏛️ All-time great💰 Box office #5

Composite 80.07

Dir. Fritz Lang · Gustav Fröhlich · Brigitte Helm · Alfred Abel · Rudolf Klein-Rogge

IMDb 8.2 (201,587 votes) · TMDB 8.086

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

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#2
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans poster

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #4

Composite 75.94

Dir. F. W. Murnau · George O'Brien · Janet Gaynor · Margaret Livingston · Bodil Rosing

IMDb 8.1 (56,761 votes) · TMDB 7.808

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

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#3
Napoleon poster

Napoleon (1927)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #8

Composite 70.48

Dir. Abel Gance · Albert Dieudonné · Nicolas Roudenko · Edmond van Daële · Alexandre Koubitzky

IMDb 8.2 (9,773 votes) · TMDB 7.81

A biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797.

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#4
The Unknown poster

The Unknown (1927)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #6

Composite 68.68

Dir. Tod Browning · Lon Chaney · Norman Kerry · Joan Crawford · Nick De Ruiz

IMDb 7.7 (10,300 votes) · TMDB 7.5

On the lam, criminal Alonzo hides in the circus as The Armless Wonder—a performer who uses his feet to hurl knives. Alonzo keeps the arms he really has concealed to hide his identity. Meanwhile, ringmaster's daughter Nanon has a phobia of being touched by men, but is romantically pursued by not only Alonzo but the strongman Malabar. Alonzo's desperation to remain with Nanon will only end in tragedy.

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#5
Wings poster

Wings (1927)

🏆 Winner⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #1

Composite 68.36

Dir. William A. Wellman · Clara Bow · Charles 'Buddy' Rogers · Richard Arlen · Jobyna Ralston

IMDb 7.5 (16,359 votes) · TMDB 7.2

Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.

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#6
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog poster

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)

⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #7

Composite 67.46

Dir. Alfred Hitchcock · Ivor Novello · Marie Ault · Arthur Chesney · June Tripp

IMDb 7.3 (15,080 votes) · TMDB 7.135

London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.

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#7
7th Heaven poster

7th Heaven (1927)

🎬 Nominee⭐ Top-rated💰 Box office #3

Composite 66.59

Dir. Frank Borzage · Janet Gaynor · Charles Farrell · Albert Gran · David Butler

IMDb 7.5 (4,687 votes) · TMDB 7.361

In 1910s Paris, a sewer worker disillusioned with Christianity feels his prayers have been answered when he chances upon a street waif and they fall in love.

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#8
The Kid Brother poster

The Kid Brother (1927)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 65.58

Dir. Ted Wilde · Harold Lloyd · Jobyna Ralston · Walter James · Leo Willis

IMDb 7.6 (5,273 votes) · TMDB 6.932

The timid youngest son of the most important family in town must use his wits to win the respect of his strong father and the love of a beautiful new woman in town.

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#9
Underworld poster

Underworld (1927)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 65.29

Dir. Josef von Sternberg · George Bancroft · Evelyn Brent · Clive Brook · Fred Kohler

IMDb 7.5 (3,901 votes) · TMDB 7.0

Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.

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#10
It poster

It (1927)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 64.72

Dir. Clarence G. Badger · Clara Bow · Antonio Moreno · William Austin · Priscilla Bonner

IMDb 7.2 (3,995 votes) · TMDB 6.9

A flapper shopgirl woos her rich boss with animal magnetism -- the captivating personal quality otherwise known as "it."

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#11
The Cat and the Canary poster

The Cat and the Canary (1927)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 64.59

Dir. Paul Leni · Laura La Plante · Creighton Hale · Forrest Stanley · Tully Marshall

IMDb 7.1 (3,813 votes) · TMDB 6.901

Rich old Cyrus West's relatives are waiting for him to die so they can inherit. But he stipulates that his will be read 20 years after his death. On the appointed day his expectant heirs arrive at his brooding mansion. The will is read and it turns out that Annabelle West, the only heir with his name left, inherits, if she is deemed sane. If she isn't, the money and some diamonds go to someone else, whose name is in a sealed envelope. Before he can reveal the identity of her successor to Annabelle, Mr. Crosby, the lawyer, disappears. The first in a series of mysterious events, some of which point to Annabelle in fact being unstable.

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#12
College poster

College (1927)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 64.11

Dir. James W. Horne · Buster Keaton · Anne Cornwall · Flora Bramley · Harold Goodwin

IMDb 6.9 (5,866 votes) · TMDB 6.7

A bookish college student dismissive of athletics is compelled to try out sports to win the affection of the girl he loves.

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#13
The King of Kings poster

The King of Kings (1927)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.95

Dir. Cecil B. DeMille · H.B. Warner · Dorothy Cumming · Ernest Torrence · Joseph Schildkraut

IMDb 7.3 (2,702 votes) · TMDB 6.385

The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. In 1927, working with one of the biggest budgets in Hollywood history, DeMille spun the life and Passion of Christ into a silent-era blockbuster. Featuring text drawn directly from the Bible, a cast of thousands, and the great showman’s singular cinematic bag of tricks, The King of Kings is at once spectacular and deeply reverent—part Gospel, part Technicolor epic.

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#14
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg poster

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.36

Dir. Ernst Lubitsch · Ramon Novarro · Norma Shearer · Jean Hersholt · Gustav von Seyffertitz

IMDb 7.5 (1,828 votes) · TMDB 7.221

A young prince falls in love with a beautiful barmaid while at university in old Heidelberg.

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#15
The End of St. Petersburg poster

The End of St. Petersburg (1927)

⭐ Top-rated

Composite 62.28

Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin · Aleksandr Chistyakov · Vera Baranovskaya · Ivan Chuvelyov · Vladimir Obolenskiy

IMDb 7.3 (1,979 votes) · TMDB 6.7

Shortly before the outbreak of WWI, a peasant from rural Russia arrives in St. Petersburg to find work.

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#16
The Jazz Singer poster

The Jazz Singer (1927)

💰 Box office #2

Composite 61.95

Dir. Alan Crosland · Al Jolson · May McAvoy · Warner Oland · Eugenie Besserer

IMDb 6.4 (11,939 votes) · TMDB 6.121

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.

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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.