Best films of the 1910s
not in any particular order. chaplin's films aren't included.
List activity
40 views
• 2 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
72 titles
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronGeorge FawcettJohn Logan leaves his parents and sweetheart in bucolic Happy Valley to make his fortune in the city. Those he left behind become miserable and beleaguered in his absence, but after several years he returns, a wealthy man.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRichard BarthelmessDonald CrispA frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
- DirectorRichard OswaldStarsAnita BerberConrad VeidtReinhold SchünzelA demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPaul BiensfeldtLil DagoverGeorg JohnThe Buddhist priest wants the Daughter of the Daimyo to become a priestess at the Forbidden Garden. The Daimyo thinks if he were in Europe that his daughter should decide on her own, but he is denounced and has to commit harakiri. She meets Olaf, a European officer, falls in love and marries him, but after a few months he has to return to Europe. She gives birth to a child and is waiting for him, while he marries in Europe. When he comes back to Japan 4 years later, he is accompanied by his European wife...
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishDorothy GishRobert HarronYoung lovers in a French village are torn apart with the coming of the Great War.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsHenry B. WalthallJosephine CrowellLillian GishJohn Howard Payne at his most miserable point in life, writes a song which becomes popular and inspires other people at some point in their lives.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsVictor SjöströmHarriet BosseTore SvennbergLill-Ingmar is having a troublesome love life with his bride to be Brita.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronMae MarshThe story of a poor young woman separated by prejudice from her husband and baby is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsHenry B. WalthallSpottiswoode AitkenBlanche SweetPrevented from dating his sweetheart by his uncle, a young man turns his thoughts to murder.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
- DirectorErnst LubitschStarsOssi OswaldaHermann ThimigVictor JansonForced into marriage by his uncle, a man decides to fool him by marrying a life-like mechanical doll instead.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronRalph GravesAn orphan girl is given shelter by a farm family, but soon finds herself in the clutches of a murderous farmer and his wife.
- DirectorReginald BarkerStarsGeorge BebanClara WilliamsJ. Frank BurkeAn Italian immigrant and his sweetheart search for a better life in America, but the harsh realities of life in the slums of New York City lay waste to their hopes and dreams.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsWalter MillerLillian GishKate BruceA young couple struggle to get ahead, the wife always assuaging the troubles of her melancholy husband. As he climbs the ladder of success, he abandons the homely values and takes up with another woman. His wife leaves him, returning to her mother's home where she bears a child. When the husband is abandoned by his concubine, remorse drives him to find his wife...
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsElmer BoothLillian GishClara T. BracyA tender young woman and her musician husband attempt to eke out a living in the slums of New York City, but find themselves caught in the crossfires of gang violence.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishRobert HarronWilbur HigbySusie, a plain young country girl, secretly loves a neighbor boy, William. She believes in him and sacrifices much of her own happiness to promote his own ambitions, all without his knowledge. Eventually he rises to a position of success and sophistication, and Susie realizes that she has through her own efforts raised him to a level where he is inaccessible to her.
- DirectorMarshall NeilanStarsMary PickfordNorman KerryKatherine GriffithLittle Sara Crewe is placed in a boarding school by her father when he goes off to war, but he does not understand that the headmistress is a cruel, spiteful woman who makes life miserable for Sara.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsDouglas FairbanksMarjorie DawKathleen KirkhamA restless young man travels west, encountering adventure, romance, and danger.
- DirectorYevgeny BauerStarsVitold PolonskyOlga RakhmanovaVera KaralliAndrei lives a secluded life with his aunt, studying and thinking about his now-deceased mother. His friend Tsenin is concerned, and tries to get Andrei to accompany him to social events. After watching the actress Zoya Kadmina perform, Andrei is fascinated with her, and is then astounded to receive a note from her. He has only one brief meeting with her, and then three months later he is shocked to learn of her death. He now becomes obsessed with her memory, and he decides that he must find out all that he can about her.
- DirectorFrank PowellStarsMary PickfordKate BruceBlanche SweetThe hero, a young contractor, is mistaken by the heroine for a laborer, while he thinks she is the maid although she is the daughter of the manor. The hero continues to represent himself as a laborer in order to see the maid. The daughter, in order to continue her impersonation, borrows the maid's clothes. At the end the two main characters are brought together in their true light with the blessing of their respective mothers.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishDorothy GishElmer BoothA brother and his two younger sisters inherit a modest amount from their father. When the brother is away, their shady housekeeper decides to take it for herself.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsGeorge NicholsGladys EganMary PickfordA widowed father devotes his life to his daughter, who swears to stay with him forever. Then a handsome young man shows up and sweeps her off her feet.
- DirectorDavid HartfordStarsNell ShipmanCharles ArlingWheeler OakmanA woman finds herself all alone in a remote harbor with the man responsible for the murder of her father. With seemingly nobody around to protect her, she has to be resourceful.
- DirectorJohn H. CollinsStarsViola DanaRobert WalkerSally CrutePerry Bascom comes to the town of Rising Sun, Indiana, to take charge of the sawmills which have for years been managed by his father's best friend, Col. Henry Clay Risener. His father's half-brother, Jack, has brought the name into disrepute in the town, so he (Perry) decides to be known as Jim Nelson. Perry sees June, who has been sent away from the poorhouse. He shares his lunch with her and protects her from the attentions of Ben Boone, the political bully of the town. June finds a home with old Jacob and Cindy Tutwiler, taking the place of their own daughter, whom Jacob had banished from home eighteen years before, and whose picture has been turned to the wall. Perry becomes the conservative candidate for Congress, opposing Ben Boone, who is the candidate of the liberal party. Perry asks June to marry him if he proves successful. Perry receives a call from Sue Eudaly, with whom he has gone through a marriage ceremony, but whom he left on finding she had a husband living. Her husband, Jim White, has disappeared, and she defies Perry to prove her previous marriage. She threatens to go to the rival candidate with her information, and Col. Risener, as Perry's campaign manager, buys her off. June is alarmed at the interest Sue shows in the man she loves, and Perry urges her to marry him at once, secretly. June continues to live with the Tutwilers. She has discovered that their daughter, who had married a hated Bascom, was her own mother, and that she is the granddaughter of Jacob and Cindy. Ben Boone has fallen in love with Sue, and his affection is returned. At the political rally June leads the village band, trying to drown out the voice of Boone when he harangues the crowd. The tide seems to be turning against Boone. Sue, deciding to explode a bomb in the camp of his opponents, takes her stand beside Perry and tells them he is a Bascom. She says she knows the wife he has deserted. June says that it is not true, since she herself is his wife. But the townspeople will not listen. They believe that he has deceived June, and refuse to believe anything good of a Bascom. The Tutwilers take June home with them and Perry is ordered to get out of town. Perry goes to the Tutwilers' to see June before he leaves. Sue is there. He denies that she is his wife, but she horrifies them all by saying that if Perry's father lured June's mother away from home. Perry and June are brother and sister. Cindy dispels that thought by producing a photograph of June's father. It is Jack Bascom, the half-brother of Perry's father, not a true Bascom by birth. Perry goes away to obtain proof of Sue Eudaly's husband, and June leaves the house, refusing to have anything to do with her grandfather until he retracts his insults to Perry. Ostracized by the townspeople, June lives in a humble cottage, where her child is born. Cindy goes to see the little one, but June will not permit Jacob to come until he admits that he is sorry. Perry at last returns with proof of Jim White's marriage to Sue. He seeks Boone at the mill. Boone cannot understand why Sue refuses to marry him. She finally tells him it is because she has a husband living, and that husband is Perry. Boone attacks Perry and overpowers him. Placing him on the log-carriage, he turns the great lever. He has locked June, who has followed her husband, inside the office. Then he and Sue make their escape. Through the glass door June watches her husband's body approaching the teeth of the saw. Breaking the glass of the door, she plunges out, and, reversing the lever just in time, saves Perry from the saw. Misfortune overtakes Sue and Boone, and with their baneful influence removed, June, Perry and the little one begin a happier life in the little town, with the love and respect of all.
- DirectorGiovanni PastroneStarsItalia Almirante-ManziniLidia QuarantaBartolomeo PaganoCabiria is a Roman child when her home is destroyed by a volcano. Sold in Carthage to be sacrificed in a temple, she is saved by Fulvio, a Roman spy. But danger lurks, and hatred between Rome and Carthage can only lead to war.
- DirectorJohn H. CollinsStarsViola DanaRobert ConnessTom BlakeYoung Henry Clay Madison, a clerk, falls in love with Flossy Wilson, a prostitute from New York's East Side. Although she reforms under his influence, Flossy believes that she is unworthy of Madison and rejects his marriage proposal. Seventeen years later, Madison's nephew Bert, a social worker, falls in love with wanton Fifty-Fifty Mamie, reforms her and elicits her help in his work. Bert falls ill, and when Mamie tries to visit him, Madison, who now is concerned only with money, convinces her to give up the idea of marrying Bert. Mamie goes to work in Madison's canning factory to investigate conditions. In addition to employing children, Madison's factory has no fire escape and only one staircase, which catches fire, many children die and Mamie is seriously injured. Madison visits Mamie, who cries Bert's name in delirium. When Madison brings Bert, now recovered, Madison notices a photograph of Flossy, Mamie's mother and realizes that Mamie is his daughter. She dies in Bert's arms, and Madison resolves to toil for the welfare of workers and the end of child slavery.
- DirectorMarshall NeilanStarsMary PickfordMilla DavenportPercy HaswellAn orphan discovers that she has an anonymous benefactor who is willing to pay her college tuition, unaware he's the same man who has been romantically pursuing her.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsGeorge NicholsKate BruceRobert HarronAn old soldier on the frontier, the father of a dozen children, a staunch patriot himself, brings these children up with rigid military training. He conducts his household as a garrison with strict discipline, drills, etc. On the evening of the day the picture opens, the oldest boy wishes to go out to make a call on his sweetheart, but the old soldier commands the boy to stay at home. This command the boy is loath to obey, but his father, himself brought up under rigid military rule, rails at his insubordination of the boy, and threatens that if the boy goes out he goes for good. The boy does go, however, and returning finds sure enough the door barred against him. Sad and homeless he wanders, but it is fortunate he goes for the next morning he views from a distance a tribe of Indians starting out on the warpath. With this lead, he with valiant effort, secures the aid of a troop of patrolling soldiers, who rescue the boy's family and sweetheart just in time. The military training imbued by the old soldier stood in good, as it was the means of holding the Indians at bay until help arrived.
- DirectorJ. Searle DawleyStarsMary FullerCharles OgleAugustus PhillipsThe first filmed version of Frankenstein. The young doctor discovers the secret of life, which he uses to create a perfect human. Things do not go according to plan.
- DirectorWinsor McCayStarsWinsor McCayGeorge McManusRoy L. McCardellThe cartoonist, Winsor McCay, brings the Dinosaurs back to life in the figure of his latest creation, Gertie the Dinosaur.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHarry CareyDuke R. LeeNeva GerberA cowboy must save his girlfriend from captivity and then cross the desert on foot with a single waterhole on the way.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsHilda BorgströmGeorg GrönroosAron LindgrenFinancial struggles separate a single mother from her children.
- DirectorFrancesco BertoliniAdolfo PadovanGiuseppe de LiguoroStarsSalvatore PapaArturo PirovanoGiuseppe de LiguoroLoosely adapted from Dante's Divine Comedy and inspired by the illustrations of Gustav Doré the original silent film has been restored and has a new score by Tangerine Dream.
- DirectorMax LinderStarsMax LinderMartha MansfieldHelen FergusonMax gets into trouble at the altar. He has just kissed his bride when he espies over her shoulder a pretty girl sitting in a front pew. Max cannot help giving her a wink. His bride sees him. They continue the battle in their honeymoon apartment. After all the furniture is broken up they decide to break up housekeeping, even before they have started. Mrs. Max agrees that her flirtatious spouse shall compromise himself with the girl in the pew so she can get a divorce. Max leases an apartment, invites the girl to meet him there, then tips off Mrs. Max to raid them with detectives. But Max and the girl mistake the apartment and get into a private sanitarium for lunatics. The professor chucks them into padded cell No. 89 with a dozen crazy people. Mrs. Max and her detectives make the same mistake. All of them come face to face in No. 89. The girl berates Max for getting her into such a mess. Max and his bride look at each other, then at the crazy people. They decide life might be worse and fall into each other's arms. Max doesn't want a divorce, after all.
- DirectorF. Richard JonesJames YoungStarsMabel NormandGeorge NicholsLaura La VarnieMickey, an orphan who has been brought up in a mining settlement, is sent to New York to live with her aunt.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsCharles WestDorothy BernardEdwin AugustGriffith intercuts between the lives of two couples married on the same day. One couple is rich, the other is poor. Time passes, and in desperation over joblessness, the poor husband attempts to burgle a home, only to be captured a gunpoint by the mistress of the house. It is the home of the rich couple. While holding the poor intruder at gunpoint, the rich wife accidently discovers evidence implicating her own husband in a bribery scheme . . .
- DirectorMaurice TourneurStarsMary PickfordMadlaine TraverseCharles WellesleyThe wealthy but selfish parents of a lonely young girl begin to rethink what is important to them after a servant's irresponsibility results in a crisis.
- DirectorMauritz StillerStarsErik StocklassaBror BergerRichard LundIn 16th century Sweden, the lives of three Scottish mercenaries and a vicar's family intersect after a crime forever alters a small coastal town. As the three try to escape, they find themselves trapped when all ships are frozen in ice.
- DirectorChristy CabanneStarsLillian GishFrank BennettWalter LongA poor Russian girl's beauty leads her unscrupulous uncle to bring her to the United States. There he is going to sell her into a marriage with a rich old man she has never met. But her lover, an returning immigrant visiting Russia from the U.S., sails on the same ship. When they arrive he learns, to his surprise, that the American police, unlike those of his native country, are not oppressors of the poor, but friends that will aid in securing the release of his beloved Maria.
- DirectorMarshall NeilanStarsMary PickfordIda WatermanHerbert StandingTwo young women - a paraplegic girl sheltered by her wealthy guardians and a more experienced orphan - fall in love with a man separated from his violent wife.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsWilfred LucasClaire McDowellDorothy WestA poor girl is secretly in love with a wealthy young planter. During the Civil War she helps him escape capture by Union soldiers. After the war, with his fortune gone, she confesses that she loves him.
- DirectorClarence G. BadgerStarsBobby VernonGloria SwansonWallace BeeryGloria Dawn lives down the hall from her sweetheart, Bobbie Knight. The dishonest Henry Black is Gloria's guardian, and he is also in charge of Bobbie's inheritance. The scheming guardian and his sister have been spending Bobbie's money, and they hope to have the sister marry Bobbie so that they can keep control over his money.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsMae MarshLeslie LoveridgeAlfred PagetThe fact that an Indian tribe is eating puppies starts an action-packed battle in a Western town.
- DirectorWladyslaw Starewicz2 bugs fight over a beautiful female bug.
- DirectorMaurice TourneurStarsTula BelleRobin MacdougallEdwin E. ReedWith the aid and guidance of a magical fairy, two peasant children set out in search of the elusive "Blue Bird of Happiness".
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsVictor SjöströmGösta EkmanGunnar BohmanA gardener runs a nursery. His son has fallen in love with the daughter of one of the workers at the nursery. The gardener, who has a good eye for daughter, runs furiously his son out of the house.
- DirectorFrank LloydStarsDustin FarnumWinifred KingstonHerbert StandingA family feud erupts in the mountains of Kentucky.
- DirectorWladyslaw StarewiczMr Beetle seeks companionship from a statuesque dragonfly dancer, unaware that her ex-boyfriend, a slender grasshopper and an industrious cameraman, watches their every move. Will Mrs Beetle forgive him? Will he get away with adultery?
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsEdwin AugustBlanche SweetMabel NormandJohn and Mary divorce their spouses to marry each other. Mary dies after giving birth and the baby is taken in by John's first wife, Martha. She refuses all contact with John until many years later when he becomes ill and she finally forgives him for deserting her.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsCharles WestClaire McDowellMary PickfordFour survivors from an abandoned mining town - a married couple, the wife's sister, and a younger woman - are making a desperate trip to safety across the desert. The wife suspects the younger woman of having an affair with her husband, and soon afterwards the husband dies suddenly. The three women must then continue their journey amidst the growing tensions caused by the wife's desire for revenge.
- DirectorIrvin WillatStarsHarry HoudiniThomas JeffersonAnn ForrestJailed unjustly for a murder he did not commit, a young man uses his amazing powers of escape to free himself and pursue the actual killers, who hold his fiancée captive.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsBlanche SweetCharles WestJoseph GraybillA wagon train heading west across the great desert runs out of water, and is attacked by Indians. One man -- their last hope -- is sent out to find water.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsWilfred LucasBlanche SweetCharles WestThe story of the massacre of an Indian village, and the ensuing retaliation.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsAdolph LestinaYnez SeaburyWilfred LucasThieves decide to steal the money an old miser has hidden away. He refuses to open the safe for them, so they threaten to kill a girl who lives in his building.
- DirectorJohn EmersonStarsDouglas FairbanksBessie LoveAllan SearsA bumbling detective comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress when a drug smuggler wants to force her to marry him.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsMary PickfordCharles Hill MailesKate BruceA dying mother bequeaths money in trust for her teenage daughter to the pastor. When he buys the girl an expensive new hat, scandal breaks out, as local gossips assume something fishy is going on between the pastor and the pretty girl.
- DirectorVictor SjöströmStarsVictor SjöströmEdith ErastoffJohn EkmanA stranger comes to work at widow Halla's farm.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsBlanche SweetMadge KirbyCharles Hill MailesA lonely young woman lives with her strict father who forbids her to wear make-up. One day at an ice cream social, she meets a young man you seems interested in her. However, unknown to her, he is a burglar who is only interested in breaking into her father's house. One night she is awakened by a noise. Grabbing a pistol, she enters her father's downstairs office where she confronts a masked intruder . . .
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsCarl Walther MeyerElith PioHalvard HoffA judge sees his illegitimate daughter facing a trial for the murder of her newborn child, also out of wedlock. He is certain that she will be sentenced to death.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsRockliffe FellowesAnna Q. NilssonWilliam SheerA boy surrounded by violence grows up to become an infamous gangster.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsYnez SeaburyKate BruceClaire McDowellIn a tenement boarding-house, a lonely confirmed bachelor occupies a room across the hall from a dour spinster. Children run amok in the hallways playing pranks. Believing that the bachelor perpetrated one particular prank, the spinster woman enters his room to confront him, followed by a neighbor child. Meanwhile, the other children have stolen a scarlet-fever-quarantine sign and posted it on the bachelor's door. The police, unaware that the sign is a prank, enforce the confinement. But aided by the sweet disposition of the toddler quarantined with them, the icy relations between spinster and bachelor begin to thaw, . . .
- DirectorWilliam WorthingtonStarsSessue HayakawaHelen Jerome EddyMarc B. RobbinsAn opium smuggler is marked for murder in this story of the Chinese Mafia.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsBlanche SweetGrace HendersonCharles WestHard-working Dave loves Grace, but she rejects him for a flashier suitor. Grace is blinded in an accident, and her suitor abandons her. Meanwhile, Dave also goes blind from eye strain caused by overwork. Dave learns of Grace's misfortune and gives a doctor the money he was saving for his own operation, so her sight can be restored.
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené PoyenJeanne Saint-BonnetRenée CarlBout de Zan is a very precocious young man! When the circus comes to town, he does what any kid might do in this situation--he steals the circus' elephant!!! Later, he sits on the curb with the elephant and begs coins off people--with a sign saying 'blind since birth'...
- DirectorGeorge Loane TuckerStarsJane GailEthel GrandinWilliam H. TurnerWith aid from her police-officer sweetheart, a woman endeavors to uncover the prostitution ring that has kidnapped her sister and the philanthropist who secretly runs it.
- DirectorWilliam Robert DalyStarsSam LucasWalter HitchcockHattie DelaroA black and white silent film based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel documenting the life and times of Uncle Tom.
- DirectorAugust BlomStarsOlaf FønssCarl LauritzenEbba ThomsenA comet, passing by Earth, causes rioting, social unrest, and major disasters that destroy the world.
- DirectorLambert HillyerStarsWilliam S. HartJane NovakRobert McKimBuckskin Hamilton guides a wagon train across the wasteland, caring well for the pioneers he escorts, but hoping to solve the murder of his brother by one of the travellers.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsW. Chrystie MillerClaire McDowellAdolph LestinaAn elderly carpenter is told by a doctor that his wife is seriously ill. Soon afterwards, an insensitive shop foreman lays him off from his job because of his age. Unable to find work, and with his wife's condition getting worse, he soon becomes desperate.
- DirectorVictor FlemingStarsDouglas FairbanksAlbert MacQuarrieKathleen CliffordPsychiatrist Dr. Ulrich Metz attempts to drive Daniel Brown to suicide.
- DirectorPhillips SmalleyLois WeberStarsTyrone Power Sr.Mrs. Tyrone PowerMarie WalcampA District Attorney's outspoken stand on abortion lands him in trouble with the local community.
- DirectorClarence G. BadgerStarsMabel NormandTom MooreHelen DahlA cub reporter (Normand) is sent undercover to get a story, but falls for the man she is investigating.