The Top 50 Films of the 1920s
Introduction by Joe Boden, reviews by credited contributor.
4th August 2009

Early cinema is the most important section of film history. To true film historians, which I cannot myself claim to be, it is a period of innovation, technical accomplishment, and the birth of an industry. Although, somehow, it has become somewhat neglected in the grand scheme of things. It’s given a raw deal, and although the earliest decades of film have produced some of the most enduring classics, many of its real gems have been hidden way ever since.

And so we come to our top 50 films of the 1920s. This was certainly a difficult list to compile, because only four of our contributors felt comfortable in sending a list in for the survey, and one of those only chose 15 rather than the full 20. It’s difficult, really, to truly discover this section of cinema, because so many of its real treasures are almost unheard of, and very rarely talked about. And so, the function of this list is to celebrate both the celebrated classics of early cinema as well as include some of the lesser known gems. This happened almost by accident, because only 53 films were nominated, so a movie would only need to get on one list to make the cut. But I believe that this makes the list interesting rather than lacking in credibility, because it will probably contain one or two entries that even the most hardened cineastes will need to check out. Unless you are Darren.

And so to the system that we have used to aggregate this list. Each contributor (or each contributor who has seen enough to get together a list) chooses twenty films from a certain decade which – in this case – is actually more than a decade. To give all of the films from the 1890s, the 1900s, and the 1910s a chance to make a list, we’ve put all films from 1929 and before under the banner of early cinema, so although there is a handful of films from earlier decades than the 20s, I will still refer to this list as a 20s top 50. The film ranked at number one on the list will be awarded twenty points, whilst the second film will be given nineteen, and so on and so on until we come to the twentieth placed film, which is awarded a single point. From this, we will aggregate a list of the top 50 films from each decade.

We'll be uploading a new list on the first update from every month, which will be lead us to finish around march next year. That's perfect timing, because it will give us mere Brits a chance to see the Oscar contenders for 2009. Oh, and major props go to Darren Williams and Rob Stevens, who contributed majorly in the way of reviews to flesh this list out.

So, I hope you enjoy this list, and although – at least in the review department – it is incomplete (around ten films are currently blurbless, but I’ll work on that), there are still a whole lot of words for you to read here in the coming pages. We’ve also included pictures, brief cast and credits notes, trivia, and a quote (for those films not completely silent) for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

THE LIST
50-41 l 40-31 l 30-21 l 20-11 l 10-1
,