Top 40 Films Made Before 1920
by Kino_Pravda | created - 08 Jul 2013 | updated - 08 Jul 2013 | PublicTop 40 of the early silent era in no order
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1. An Impossible Voyage (1904)
Not Rated | 24 min | Short, Action, Adventure
Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.
Director: Georges Méliès | Stars: Georges Méliès, Fernande Albany, Jehanne d'Alcy, May de Lavergne
Votes: 3,993
2. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
TV-G | 13 min | Short, Action, Adventure
A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.
Director: Georges Méliès | Stars: Georges Méliès, Victor André, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet
Votes: 55,672
3. The Golden Beetle (1907)
Not Rated | 3 min | Short, Fantasy
A sorcerer tosses an iridescent little beetle into a flaming ceremonial cauldron, and much to his amazement, a six-winged fairy in the body of a beautiful young woman emerges. Is his sorcery potent enough to tame her?
Directors: Segundo de Chomón, Ferdinand Zecca
Votes: 927
4. The Great Train Robbery (1903)
TV-G | 11 min | Short, Action, Adventure
A group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.
Director: Edwin S. Porter | Stars: Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, A.C. Abadie, George Barnes, Justus D. Barnes
Votes: 20,974
5. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902)
9 min | Adventure, Short
An early adaptation of the Ali Baba tale.
Director: Ferdinand Zecca
Votes: 421
6. Batty Bill's Bustle Makes Everyone Hustle (1912)
Not Rated | 5 min | Short, Comedy, Fantasy
The only way Onésime could think of to get his inheritance quicker was to set the clocks forward. Surprise: the whole world starts speeding up wildly.
Director: Jean Durand | Stars: Ernest Bourbon, Raymond Aimos, Berthe Dagmar, Alphonse Foucher
Votes: 297
7. Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895)
Not Rated | 1 min | Documentary, Short
Annabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dance routines. She uses her dance steps and her long, flowing skirts to create a variety of visual patterns.
Directors: William K.L. Dickson, William Heise | Star: Annabelle Moore
Votes: 2,399
8. Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)
Not Rated | 1 min | Documentary, Short
In the garden, a man asks his friends to do something silly for him to record on film.
Director: Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince | Stars: Annie Hartley, Adolphe Le Prince, Joseph Whitley, Sarah Whitley
Votes: 6,785
First film ever.
9. Intolerance (1916)
Passed | 163 min | Drama, History
The story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, F.A. Turner
Votes: 16,710 | Gross: $2.18M
10. Ingeborg Holm (1913)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama
Financial struggles separate a single mother from her children.
Director: Victor Sjöström | Stars: Hilda Borgström, Georg Grönroos, Aron Lindgren, William Larsson
Votes: 1,424
11. The Spiders - Episode 1: The Golden Sea (1919)
Not Rated | 130 min | Adventure, Western
Kay Hoog finds a message that indicates that some Incas are still alive, but the secret organisation "Die Spinnen" wants the Incas' gold....
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Carl de Vogt, Lil Dagover, Ressel Orla, Georg John
Votes: 1,439
12. Gretchen the Greenhorn (1916)
Not Rated | 58 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A kind Dutch immigrant and her bumbling father are blackmailed by a gang of counterfeiters.
Directors: Chester M. Franklin, Sidney Franklin | Stars: Dorothy Gish, Ralph Lewis, Eugene Pallette, Elmo Lincoln
Votes: 536
13. The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)
Not Rated | 70 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
Originally 70 minutes in running time, only 17 minutes of the world's first full-length narrative feature film survived in stills and other fragments and tell the story of Ned Kelly, an infamous 19th-century Australian outlaw.
Director: Charles Tait | Stars: Elizabeth Tait, John Tait, Nicholas Brierley, Norman Campbell
Votes: 885
14. Broken Blossoms or the Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
Director: D.W. Griffith | Stars: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp, Arthur Howard
Votes: 11,054
15. Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888)
1 min | Documentary, Short
A shot of people walking on The Leeds Bridge.
Director: Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince
Votes: 3,296
16. The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon (1907)
Not Rated | 9 min | Short, Comedy, Fantasy
As the clock strikes twelve, a weary astronomer attempts to answer the impertinent enquiries of his young students by scrutinising an impending lunar eclipse, as an effeminate and delicate moon caresses the mighty sun's hungry cosmic rays.
Director: Georges Méliès | Stars: Mlle. Bodson, Manuel, Georges Méliès
Votes: 1,402
17. Aladdin and His Wonder Lamp (1906)
12 min | Short, Fantasy
The legend of Aladdin and his magic lamp: Aladdin finds a magic lamp which brings him wealth, luxury, and marriage to a princess. But his rival, an evil magician, steals the lamp for ... See full summary »
Director: Albert Capellani | Stars: Georges Vinter, Paul Capellani, Liane de Pougy, André Deed
Votes: 445
18. A Photographic Contortion (1901)
1 min | Comedy, Short
A man, objecting to being filmed, comes closer and closer to the camera lens until his mouth is all we see. Then he opens wide and swallows camera and cinematographer. He steps back, chews, and grins.
Director: James Williamson | Star: Sam Dalton
Votes: 2,088
19. San Francisco: Aftermath of Earthquake (1906)
1 min | Documentary, Short, History
Footage shot not long after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco is edited together so that more than one scene and more than one vantage are included. We see fire raging. We see burned-out... See full summary »
Director: Robert K. Bonine
Votes: 594
20. That Fatal Sneeze (1907)
Not Rated | 6 min | Short, Comedy, Fantasy
As an older man and a youth are eating at the table, the older man decides to amuse himself by using pepper to make the boy sneeze. Later, the boy retaliates by sneaking into the older ... See full summary »
Director: Lewin Fitzhamon | Stars: Thurston Harris, Gertie Potter
Votes: 622
21. Les chutes (1897)
Not Rated | 1 min | Documentary, Short
A stationary camera looks west across Niagara Falls from the United States' side (the Niagara River rushes toward the falls from right to left). Virtually overlooking the falls and ... See full summary »
Director: Alexandre Promio
Votes: 489
22. Rough Sea at Dover (1895)
Not Rated | 1 min | Documentary, Short
The sea is quite rough, and at Dover a series of heavy waves pounds against a pier and along the adjacent shoreline. The scene then shifts to a different view of flowing water, and shows a heavy current from a point along a riverbank.
Directors: Birt Acres, Robert W. Paul
Votes: 891
23. Mary Jane's Mishap (1903)
4 min | Short, Comedy
Smith casts his wife as a sluttish housewife who is mutilated by lighting her oven with paraffin.
Director: George Albert Smith | Star: Laura Bayley
Votes: 1,039
24. The Delights of Automobiling (1900)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Comedy
As two couples enjoy their evening promenade in a nice but rickety open motor car, without notice, an explosion blows the vehicle to smithereens.
Director: Cecil M. Hepworth | Stars: Cecil M. Hepworth, Henry Lawley
Votes: 1,008
25. The Scheming Gambler's Paradise (1905)
Not Rated | 3 min | Short
Despite all methods of instantaneously masking a clandestine gambling den's shady activities, the risk of getting caught is high, especially when the police thirsts for success. But, sometimes, indulging in pure fun is just too tempting.
Director: Georges Méliès
Votes: 866
26. An Extraordinary Cab Accident (1903)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Comedy
A man and a woman talk beside a street near a corner where a cop stands. Just as a horse-drawn cart rounds the corner, the man backs off the sidewalk saying good-by to his companion. The ... See full summary »
Directors: Walter R. Booth, Robert W. Paul
Votes: 552
27. The '?' Motorist (1906)
3 min | Fantasy, Short, Comedy
A British trick film in which a motorist ends up driving around the rings of Saturn.
Director: Walter R. Booth
Votes: 1,279
28. Magic Bricks (1908)
Not Rated | 3 min | Short, Fantasy
Experimental color film that shows a magician and his assistant making objects and people appear and disappear. Then they stack up some blocks and a moving picture of a little girl appears on them.
Director: Segundo de Chomón
Votes: 371
29. Revolution in Russia (1906)
Not Rated | 4 min | Drama, Short
A dramatization of the uprising in Odessa, Russia in 1905: A ship's crew, tired of being mistreated, mutinies and takes over their ship. When they reach land, a sailor who died during the ... See full summary »
Director: Lucien Nonguet
Votes: 345
30. Let Me Dream Again (1900)
1 min | Short, Comedy
A man dreams he is flirting with an attractive young lady, then he wakes up in bed next to his wife.
Director: George Albert Smith | Stars: Laura Bayley, Tom Green
Votes: 835
31. How It Feels to Be Run Over (1900)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Comedy
In one glorious point-of-view shot, a vehicle dashes full-speed into an ill-starred passer-by.
Director: Cecil M. Hepworth | Stars: May Clark, Cecil M. Hepworth
Votes: 971
32. The Cock Fight (1894)
Not Rated | 1 min | Documentary, Short
Two gamecocks fight in the Edison Company film studio. This feature was remade later in the same year, with additional detail added.
Director: William K.L. Dickson
Votes: 648
33. Promenade of Ostriches, Paris Botanical Gardens (1896)
1 min | Short, Documentary
Fin de siécle elegance. A parade of sorts passes in front of a stationary camera. An ostrich pulls a cart in which two well-dressed girls sit, two mules pull a large cart full of children, ... See full summary »
Director: Louis Lumière
Votes: 629
34. The Countryman's First Sight of the Animated Pictures (1901)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Comedy
A satire on the way that audiences unaccustomed to the cinema didn't know how to react to the moving images on a screen - in this film, an unsophisticated (and stereotypical) country yokel ... See full summary »
Director: Robert W. Paul
Votes: 777
35. Airy Fairy Lillian Tries on Her New Corsets (1905)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Comedy
A very large woman, wearing a shift, stands beside a bed and tries to put on a corset. After failing to get it around her, she calls her husband in. He stands behind her holding the corset ... See full summary »
Votes: 277
36. Spanish Bullfight (1900)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Sport
With a crowded arena in the background, a stationary camera records a bull charging a picador astride his horse. An attendant on foot throws stones at the rump of the horse to get it to ... See full summary »
Votes: 381
37. The Kiss (1896)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Romance
In a medium close-up shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at hair's breadth, just before the love-smitten gentleman decides to give his chosen one an innocent peck.
Director: William Heise | Stars: May Irwin, John C. Rice
Votes: 3,670
38. The Waterer Watered (1895)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Comedy
An impudent child plays a prank on a gardener innocently watering his plants.
Director: Louis Lumière | Stars: François Clerc, Benoît Duval
Votes: 5,833
39. Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)
Not Rated | 1 min | Short, Music
The earliest extant sound film. William K.L. Dickson stands in the background next to a huge sound pickup horn connected to a Thomas Edison phonograph recorder. As he plays a violin, two ... See full summary »
Director: William K.L. Dickson | Star: William K.L. Dickson
Votes: 2,560
40. Life of an American Fireman (1903)
Not Rated | 6 min | Short, Action
A fireman rushes into a carriage to rescue a woman from a house fire. He breaks the windowpanes and carries the woman to safety; after dangerous and uncertain moments he also saves the woman's son.
Directors: George S. Fleming, Edwin S. Porter | Stars: Edwin S. Porter, Vivian Vaughan, Arthur White, James H. White
Votes: 2,702
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