Best Films of the 1920s List

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Last Updated: 6/25/25
Note: It's simple and straightforward: the best films of the decade in cinema history for 1920s. In order to be considered, the films must have been released any time from 1920 to 1929 according to IMDb. Multiple parts (i.e. duology, trilogy, etc.) can be put together as one if there's a continuation in the narrative. Miniseries and telefilms are fair game, but documentaries are excluded.

These films have made the cut because they have shown brilliance in most, if not all, aspects: acting, characters, screenplay, plot, direction, editing, cinematography, and so on. They must also be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Then, I think about cultural phenomenon, uniqueness, famous movie moments, iconic scenes and/or lines, cinematic power, and timelessness.

This list is based on what I have seen so far and is limited to the top 10 with 5, if any, honorable mentions in that order. Unfortunately, there are only seven films on the list. It's because cinema was starting to come out of the infant stage.



  1. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)

    2. One of the best from the silent film era, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, which is translated as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, is the quintessential example of German Expressionism cinema. It's the jagged shapes in the background that gives the picture a distorted, surreal look.


  2. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

    3. The Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney is unforgettable as the Phantom of the Opera. It's he who makes the film work by doing the makeup himself, and his villain is timeless as ever. The movie is spooky, especially during the famous unmasking scene.


  3. The Canary Murder Case (1929)

    4. CanaryMurd A pensive character has never been played so well like William Powell's Philo Vance. He takes his time to think on screen and measures his words carefully before speaking, becoming credible in the long run. Others would've made it boring. That's why William Powell was a bona fide star, an impressive feat when Hollywood was in the middle of its transition from silent to talkie. There's deep intellect involved with the writing being to the point.


  4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

    5. Setting the standard of future horror films and establishing Universal as a major studio, The Hunchback of Notre Dame proves why Lon Chaney was the greatest actor of the silent film era. His performance as Quasimodo is quite remarkable along with the makeup job.


  5. Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)

    6. Bronenosets Potyomkin, aka Battleship Potemkin, is a groundbreaking film for the use of montage, and the Odessa Steps scene is one of the greatest and most famous ever. It literally changed how the editing process should be handled. Back then, silent pictures used to be static as the camera stood in one place while various actors moved around on the same set in full view.


  6. The Ten Commandments (1923)

    7. The 1956 version of The Ten Commandments is never going to be topped, but the silent film is a good start anyway. The orginal only covers from Moses telling Rameses II what he would do to the firstborn children to leading the Exodus to parting the Red Sea (which was done with a Jell-O that's sliced into two which got superimposed against a reel of the Israelites walking through) to throwing down the tablets from Mount Sinai.


  7. Nosferatu (1922)

    8. Where most Dracula films fail in, Nosferatu succeeds. It's beautifully made and a prime example of German Expressionist cinema. Max Schreck is highly memorable as Count Orlok. The name change as well as everything else is due to not wanting to fall afoul of the copyright infringement in regard to Bram Stoker's book.



Honorable Mentions: None