A Century of Film


Film History Through 1929

I’m certainly not going to discuss all of film history through 1929.  That has been done in numerous books in far more detail than I could ever discuss here.  There are some important dates that should not be ignored like 1912 (the release of Richard III, the oldest surviving feature-length film), 1915 (the release of The Birth of a Nation), the formation of the major studios (remember that what you think of as major may not meet that definition – it’s the five studios that both distributed films and owned theaters to which they could distribute the films and those were Fox, MGM, Warners, Paramount and RKO Radio, the last of which began releasing films in 1929, thus cementing the status of the five majors) and the double whammy of the introduction of sound with The Jazz Singer and the inception of the Academy Awards.

No, the bigger point of this post and the ones that will follow (one for the end of each decade) will be to cover where all the film lists were at by then.  For instance, what was the biggest Oscar film by 1929?  What was the biggest money-maker?  What was the best film ever made?  What was the best Comedy ever made?  Who had given the best performances?  What film had the best ending?  In other words, all of the things that I normally put in these posts, but instead of specific to a studio or a genre, it covers all of film up through a certain date.

This post, of course, only covers things through 1929.  For the remaining posts, I will likely double up on most things, to cover the films of that decade, as well as the all-time lists through that point.  This will also help serve as a progressive list moving towards the eventual Best Picture list where I give an all-time Top 1000 films.  In terms of these lists, I will go by the actual original release date of a film, not when it first played L.A. and became Oscar eligible.  The exceptions to that are my Nighthawk Awards, Statistics and the Academy Awards, all of which hinge upon Oscar eligibility dates.

Sub-Genres

Things were different in the Silent Era and there were a lot of sub-genres that didn’t really exist yet (there were still some genres that basically didn’t exist yet).  These are all sub-genres that had at least a considerable amount of films by 1929.

Lit Adaptation

  • Best Film:  Greed

This sub-genre predates feature-length films, of course, with adaptations of, among other things, Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein and Dickens all arriving among short films.  Of the authors that have enough adaptations that I track them with a name, no one has more than two films in this era though several do have two (Dickens, Maugham, Poe, Tolstoy, Verne, Zola).  Greed is the top film by quite a ways followed by Hunchback and L’Argent as the other **** films.

Romance

  • Best Film:  Lonesome

Lonesome and The Love of Jeanne Ney are the only **** films and it’s a significant drop to any other films (over ten points).  But Romance films are another sub-genre that predate the feature-length film because they had been so prevalent in novels and plays.

Romantic

  • Best Film:  The Circus

Of course this is just a comedic Romance (it’s how I distinguish between the two).  The Circus is the only film better than ***.

Swashbuckler

  • Best Film:  The Mark of Zorro

A highlight of the Silent Era, of course, with Fairbanks the first star of the genre (he’s the star of seven of the 12 films I list here).  None of them are great but they are almost all fun to watch.  This includes three in the Dumas sub-sub-genre (Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, The Iron Mask).

World War I

  • Best Film:  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Films about the war began while the war was still going on and there were lots of shorts made about it.  The first great film about the war was Horsemen though there were also some very good ones (J’Accuse, Arsenal, Carry on Sergeant).


The Directors

 

This is not a list of the most prolific directors but simply the most important.  It also focuses on the best directors of this period and their statistics are based off this time period.  There are a lot of directors who had started making films and even made a significant number of films by 1929 but aren’t included because they hadn’t yet achieved greatness (e.g. Capra, Ford, Hitchcock).

D.W. Griffith

  • Films:  24
  • Years:  1914-
  • Average Film:  72.8
  • Best Film:  The Birth of a Nation
  • Worst Film:  The Idol Dancer

The first great director of the feature film era whose legacy is badly tainted by the unabashed racism of his greatest film.

Erich von Stroheim

  • Films:  6
  • Years:  1919-1929
  • Average Film:  86.2
  • Best Film:  Greed
  • Worst Film:  The Wedding March

He actually made a seventh film (The Devil’s Passkey) but it’s lost.  Of his six surviving films, not only are none of them bad, none of them are even “good”; they are all very good or great.  He had boundless talent but couldn’t reign in his excesses and so the studios wouldn’t put up with him as a director anymore.  He’s the only director on this list who was done as a director by 1929.

Fritz Lang

  • Films:  11
  • Years:  1918-
  • Average Film:  75.3
  • Best Film:  Metropolis
  • Worst Film:  Harakiri

The greatest of the German directors, Lang was actually still working in Germany at the end of the twenties.  He worked in more genres than any other director on this list

F.W. Murnau

  • Films:  9
  • Years:  1921-
  • Average Film:  83.8
  • Best Film:  Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  • Worst Film:  The Haunted Castle

He might have surpassed Lang had he not died.  He left Germany in 1926 and came to Hollywood and immediately became one of the best there as well.  The only director to direct four **** films in this era (Sunrise, Nosferatu, Faust, Last Laugh).  His second best film of the era is better than almost all other directors’ best film of the era.

Sergei Eisenstein

  • Films:  3
  • Years:  1924-
  • Average Film:  86.0
  • Best Film:  The Battleship Potemkin
  • Worst Film:  Strike

Eisenstein started later than most of these directors and was hampered by being in the Soviet system that didn’t allow him to work quickly.  But he directed one of the very best films to this point and would continue to do strong work after the twenties.

Charlie Chaplin

  • Films:  4
  • Years:  1921-
  • Average Film:  83.2
  • Best Film:  The Gold Rush
  • Worst Film:  A Woman of Paris

Chaplin was still ramping up his feature directing career at this point.  After his first two films, he burst into greatness with The Gold Rush and wouldn’t stop for 20 years, though sadly he would be the opposite of prolific.

Buster Keaton

  • Films:  10
  • Years:  1923-
  • Average Film:  80.6
  • Best Film:  The General
  • Worst Film:  Battling Butler

I find it ridiculous when people try to say he is greater than Chaplin.  But he directed himself in three great Comedies (The General, Our Hospitality, Steamboat Bill Jr) and no bad ones and if his movies had just been more successful at the box office who knows what he could have done.  Like Griffith, Keaton was basically done by the end of this era.

Victor Sjöström

  • Films:  7
  • Years:  1913-
  • Average Film:  79.7
  • Best Film:  The Wind
  • Worst Film:  He Who Gets Slapped

Mostly remembered today for his brilliant performance in Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, Sjöström was the first great Swedish director (indeed, one of the first great directors anywhere) and quite probably the best in the country’s history outside of Bergman.  Another director who left his home country and made his greatest film in Hollywood.

Best Director  (weighted points system)

  1. D.W. Griffith  (389)
  2. F.W. Murnau  (368)
  3. Erich von Stroheim  (290)
  4. Fritz Lang  (244)
  5. Sergei Eisenstein  (168)
  6. Buster Keaton  (168)
  7. Victor Sjöström  (166)
  8. Charlie Chaplin  (134)
  9. Abel Gance  (134)
  10. Robert Wiene  (112)

Analysis:  This adds up points on a weighted scale (100-1) based on a weighted version of my 9 point director scale.  This is different than the usual list here for the genres or studios because it’s based on the pure directing points rather than the scaled list for how they finish at the Nighthawk Awards.  It is cumulative for all films made by that director through 1929.

The Stars

 

Lillian Gish

D.W. Griffith’s favorite actress, even if she gave her best performance in a film he didn’t direct.  She was very odd looking which made it strange that multiple films hinged on the notion that men wanted her.  But she was the premiere actress of the Silent Era.
Essential Viewing:  The Wind, Broken Blossoms, The Birth of a Nation, The Scarlet Letter

Janet Gaynor

The winner of the first Oscar for the first three performances listed below, she absolutely deserved it.  By far the best actress of the end of the Silent Era and the start of the Sound Era and her great work would continue through most of the thirties.
Essential Viewing:  Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 7th Heaven, Street Angel, Lucky Star

Gloria Swanson

Though one of her best performances wouldn’t be seen for decades (Queen Kelly), she was one of the greatest actresses of the era, using her face to compensate for no sound as Norma Desmond would point out later.
Essential Viewing:  Sadie Thompson, Queen Kelly, The Trespasser

Brigitte Helm

The great German actress was the best when it came to supporting performances in the era as can be seen below.  She stayed in Germany and would continue into the early thirties before retiring in disgust at the Nazi takeover (and being banned as well for marrying a Jewish man).
Essential Viewing:  Metropolis, The Love of Jeanne Ney, L’Argent, The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna

Lon Chaney

The best actor of the Silent Era by a considerable margin, yet he never got his proper due as an actor because he worked in less reputable genres (Horror, Crime) and because he died early on in the Academy’s history and never got awards recognition.  He would only make one film after this, dying in August of 1930.
Essential Viewing:  The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, Laugh Clown Laugh, The Penalty

Emil Jannings

If you only know him as the Nazi stooge who died (but not really) in Inglourious Basterds you owe it to your film history to watch his great Silent Era performances that made him the first Oscar winner for Best Actor.
Essential Viewing:  The Last Command, The Last Laugh, Faust, Tartuffe

Charlie Chaplin

The single greatest talent of the Silent Era and indeed of almost any era in film history.
Essential Viewing:  The Gold Rush, The Circus, The Kid, Tillie’s Punctured Romance

Best Actress  (weighted points system)

  1. Lillian Gish  (253)
  2. Janet Gaynor  (210)
  3. Gloria Swanson  (208)
  4. Brigitte Helm  (147)
  5. Mary Pickford  (77)
  6. Maria Falconetti  (61)
  7. Olga Baclanova  (59)
  8. Greta Garbo  (52)
  9. Louise Brooks  (50)
  10. Hilda Borgstrom  (44)

Analysis:  This adds up points on a weighted scale (78-1) based on a weighted version of my 9 point acting scale.  It is cumulative for all films made by that actress through 1929.

Best Actor  (weighted points system)

  1. Lon Chaney  (299)
  2. Emil Jannings  (227)
  3. Charlie Chaplin  (157)
  4. Erich von Stroheim  (95)
  5. Conrad Veidt  (89)
  6. Buster Keaton  (60)
  7. Sessue Hayakawa  (56)
  8. Henry H. Walthall  (45)
  9. Max Schreck  (45)
  10. George O’Brien  (44)

Analysis:  This adds up points on a weighted scale (78-1) based on a weighted version of my 9 point acting scale.  It is cumulative for all films made by that actor through 1929.

The Studios

See below for specific statistics about the studios.  There are a lots in the Statistics section but there is also some significant information in the Academy Awards section.  The reason there are only five studios listed below is that those are the only prominent U.S. distributors with at least one ***.5 film (although they are all ****).  Columbia, RKO and Warners all have significant numbers of films but none were higher than *** of the films I have seen in this era.

The Best Films by Studio Through 1929

  • Fox:  Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  • MGM:  Greed
  • Paramount:  Metropolis
  • United Artists:  The Gold Rush
  • Universal:  The Phantom of the Opera

Countries

Over 100 films of the ones I’ve seen in this era are foreign although several of them wouldn’t actually make it to the States until after 1929.

The Five Countries I’ve Seen The Most Films From Through 1929

  1. Germany  –  51
  2. USSR  –  19
  3. France  –  15
  4. Sweden  –  7
  5. Denmark  –  4

The Best Film I’ve Seen By Country Through 1929

  • France  –  L’Argent
  • Germany  –  Metropolis
  • Italy  –  Cabiria
  • Sweden  –  Ingeborg Holm
  • USSR  –  The Battleship Potemkin

Germany dominates here, not just in terms of total films, but in the quality.  Ten of the films I’ve seen through 1929 were ****: two each from France and the USSR and then six from Germany.  Germany takes four of the first five places in Best Foreign Film in the 1912-26 combined year.  Germany also accounts for 10 of the 23 ***.5 films in the era (France has five and the USSR has four).  Germany alone would have a magnificent Nighthawk Awards if I just used their Silent films with a Top 5 of Metropolis, Caligari, Nosferatu, Faust and The Last Laugh.

lists explanation

The lists down below were created from my Top 1000 list leading up to the full revelation of the list.  There is also a bottom 10 list.  But I am not doing a list of in-between films like I did for the Genre and Studio posts.  I am also not doing links because it takes a really long time.  Most of the reviews of these films can be found by searching on the site for 1912, 1927 or 1928 and then clicking on either Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture, Nighthawk Awards or Year in Film.

The Top 10 Lists

The Top 10 Films of the 1910’s

  1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  (Wiene)
  2. The Birth of a Nation  (Griffith)
  3. Broken Blossoms  (Griffith)
  4. Intolerance  (Griffith)
  5. Ingeborg Holm  (Sjöström)
  6. Blind Husbands  (von Stroheim)
  7. J’Accuse  (Gance)
  8. The Avenging Conscience  (Griffith)
  9. Cabiria  (Pastrone)
  10. King Lear  (Warde)

The Top 10 Films of the 1920’s

  1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  (Murnau)
  2. Metropolis  (Lang)
  3. Greed  (von Stroheim)
  4. The Battleship Potemkin  (Eisenstein)
  5. Nosferatu  (Murnau)
  6. The Gold Rush  (Chaplin)
  7. The Phantom of the Opera  (Julian)
  8. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  (Worsley)
  9. Faust  (Murnau)
  10. The Last Laugh  (Murnau)

The Top 50 Films of All-Time Through 1929

  1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  2. Metropolis
  3. Greed
  4. The Battleship Potemkin
  5. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  6. Nosferatu
  7. The Gold Rush
  8. The Phantom of the Opera
  9. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  10. Faust
  11. The Birth of a Nation
  12. The Last Laugh
  13. Foolish Wives
  14. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
  15. The General
  16. The Wind
  17. Broken Blossoms
  18. The Man Who Laughs
  19. Intolerance
  20. The Circus
  21. Our Hospitality
  22. Steamboat Bill, Jr.
  23. The Last Command
  24. 7th Heaven
  25. October
  26. Lonesome
  27. L’Argent
  28. The Love of Jeanne Ney
  29. Crainquebille
  30. Napoleon
  31. Nibelungen: Siegfried
  32. Ingeborg Holm
  33. Queen Kelly
  34. Blind Husbands
  35. Phantom
  36. Seven Chances
  37. J’Accuse
  38. The Cat and the Canary
  39. Lucky Star
  40. The Golem
  41. The Docks of New York
  42. The Avenging Conscience
  43. Safety Last
  44. Asphalt
  45. Cabiria
  46. The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna
  47. Three Ages
  48. Faces of Children
  49. The Phantom Chariot
  50. Nibelugen: Kriemhild’s Revenge

The Bottom 10 Films Through 1929, #566-575
(worst being #10, which is #575 overall)

  1. So Long Letty
  2. Street Girl
  3. The Hollywood Revue of 1929
  4. Behind That Curtain
  5. Big News
  6. The Godless Girl
  7. The Doll
  8. The Broadway Melody
  9. The Taming of the Shrew
  10. Coquette

The 5 Most Underrated Films Through 1929

These are all films that I rate at **** that have never appeared in TSPDT’s Top 1000 (now 2000) or their Top 250 21st Century Films (now 1000).  Also, none of these films were nominated for Best Picture and for the most part were ignored by the Oscars.  They are listed in chronological order.

  1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  2. The Phantom of the Opera
  3. The Man Who Laughs
  4. The Love of Jeanne Ney
  5. Lucky Star

The Most Over-Rated Films Through 1929

  1. The Crowd
    My full review available here makes it clear why I think this film is over-rated.
  2. The Passion of Joan of Arc
    I want to be clear that I think this is a good film and I rate it at high ***.  But this film sits in the Top 20 all-time at TSPDT and many believe it is one of the greatest films ever made, ranked above films like Metropolis and Greed and I just can’t buy into that at all.
  3. The Broadway Melody
    One of the worst films of the decade and an opinion held by many today.  Yet, it still won Best Picture at the Oscars and that’s a standard it will continually have to live down (and can’t).  Full review here.
  4. In Old Arizona
    A relentlessly mediocre film that was nominated for Best Picture (and thus fully reviewed here).
  5. Alibi
    A third nominee in that second Academy Awards, by far the worst collection of nominees in history.  The link is in the previous two comments.

The Best Films by Genre Through 1929

  • Action:  n/a
  • Adventure:  The Mark of Zorro
  • Comedy:  The Gold Rush
  • Crime:  The Penalty
  • Drama:  Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  • Fantasy:  Faust
  • Horror:  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  • Kids:  n/a
  • Musical:  n/a
  • Mystery:  The Cat and the Canary
  • Sci-Fi:  Metropolis
  • Suspense:  A Cottage on Dartmoor
  • War:  The Birth of a Nation
  • Western:  n/a
note:  n/a means that no film in that genre reached the level of ***.5 or higher.

The Statistics

 

Total Films I Have Seen, 1912-1929:  575

Total Films Used For Statistics Below:  488

note:  Because I track statistics by “Oscar Year”, the following statistics only use the 488 films that fall into the first three “years”.

By Genre:

  • Drama:  287
  • Comedy:  72
  • Adventure:  26
  • Western:  17
  • Crime:  16
  • Horror:  14
  • War:  14
  • Mystery:  10
  • Musical:  9
  • Sci-Fi:  8
  • Fantasy:  7
  • Kids:  3
  • Suspense:  3
  • Action:  2

% of All Films That are Drama:

  • 1912-26:  57.34%
  • 1927-28:  61.00%
  • 1928-29:  60.78%
  • TOTAL:  58.81%

% of All Films That are Genre (non-Drama / Comedy / Musical):

  • 1912-26:  28.32%
  • 1927-28:  18.00%
  • 1928-29:  20.59%
  • TOTAL:  24.59%

% of All Films That Are Foreign Language:

  • 1912-26:  24.48%
  • 1927-28:  17.00%
  • 1928-29:  11.76%
  • TOTAL:  22.51%

Average Film by Genre:

  • Horror:  78.64
  • Fantasy:  78.57
  • War:  74.85
  • Suspense:  72.33
  • Sci-Fi:  70.38
  • Drama:  69.97
  • Crime:  69.69
  • Comedy:  69.50
  • Mystery:  67.90
  • Adventure:  67.42
  • Western:  65.29
  • Kids:  64.67
  • Action:  63.50
  • Musical:  58.67

Top 10 Finishes by Genre:

note:  30 total films from three film “years”

  • Drama:  18
  • Horror:  5
  • Comedy:  3
  • Fantasy:  1
  • Mystery:  1
  • Sci-Fi:  1
  • War:  1

Top 20 Finishes by Genre:

note:  60 total films from three film “years”

  • Drama:  36
  • Comedy:  9
  • Horror:  6
  • Fantasy:  2
  • Mystery:  2
  • Sci-Fi:  2
  • War:  2
  • Suspense:  1

By Studio (Top 10):

  • MGM  /  Metro:  89
  • Paramount:  66
  • United Artists:  62
  • Fox:  36
  • Universal:  35
  • Warners:  19
  • First National:  18
  • UFA:  16
  • Pathe:  8
  • PAGU:  8

note:  UFA didn’t distribute all of its own films in the States.  Those are just the films that UFA distributed in the States, not all of the UFA films I have seen from the era.

The “Major” Studios by Average:

note:  “Major” is in quotes because according to the standard definition of “The Majors”, Columbia, Universal and United Artists didn’t count.

  • Universal:  70.26
  • United Artists:  70.05
  • MGM:  69.23
  • Fox:  68.14
  • Paramount:  68.14
  • Columbia:  66.83
  • Warners:  64.84
  • RKO:  63

Top 10 Finishes by “Major” Studio:

note:  30 total films from three film “years”

  • Universal:  6
  • MGM:  5
  • Paramount:  3
  • United Artists:  3
  • Fox:  2

Notes on Top 10 Finishes

  • Total Percentage of Top 20 Films Distributed by “Majors”:  63.33%
  • Universal has 3 Top 10 Films in 1926

Top 20 Finishes by “Major” Studio:

note:  60 total films from three film “years”

  • MGM:  14
  • United Artists:  7
  • Universal:  6
  • Paramount:  5
  • Fox:  3

Notes on Top 20 Finishes

  • Total Percentage of Top 20 Films Distributed by “Majors”:  58.33%
  • MGM has 7 Top 20 Films in 1929
  • No other studio will have 7 again until 1941
  • MGM has at least 3 Top 20 Films in all three years

Breakdown by Star Rating:

  • ****:  5.94%
  • ***.5:  11.48%
  • ***:  73.98%
  • **.5:  7.38%
  • **:  1.23%
  • *.5:  0.00%
  • *:  0.00%
  • .5:  0.00%
  • 0:  0.00%

Nighthawk Awards

This area will have a lot more than I usually do in this section.  This is an in-depth look at all the films and I what I think of them when it comes to awards.  Please note that it does run off my “Film Years” which means that there are films from the 20s which won’t appear because they wouldn’t have an L.A. release until after 1929.  There aren’t any actual great films that are affected by those but there are a number of high ***.5 films (Lucky Star, Asphalt, Queen Kelly, The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna).

There will also be two sections to this – the things I will track by decade and the things I will track only progressively all-time (which, for the purposes of this post, of course, means just through 1929 anyway).  Also, because of the way I keep track of my lists, there are no “ties” for the 10th spot.  The first film to reach that amount gets to keep that spot.  Bear in mind also that all of the pre-Oscar films are lumped together in one “year” which makes the competition for nominations very high.

  • Number of Films That Earn Nominations:  79
  • Number of Films That Win Nighthawks:  21
  • Number of Films With Multiple Nominations:  41
  • Number of Films With Multiple Wins:  12
  • Total Number of Nominations:  231
  • Total Number of Wins:  50
  • Director with Most Nighthawk Nominated Films:  Cecil B. DeMille  (5)
  • Best Film with No Nighthawks:  The Phantom of the Opera  (1925)
  • Best Film with No Nighthawk Nominations:  The General  (1926)
  • Number of Films That Earn Comedy Nominations:  21
  • Number of Films That Win Comedy Awards:  7
  • Total Number of Comedy Nominations:  62
  • Total Number of Comedy Wins:  22
  • Best Comedy Film With No Nominations:  The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks
  • Number of Films That Earn Drama Nominations:  46
  • Number of Films That Win Drama Awards:  24
  • Total Number of Drama Nominations:  114
  • Total Number of Drama Wins:  24
  • Best Drama Film With No Nominations:  Intolerance
  • Best Film Without a Top 10 Finish:  Blind Husbands
  • Best Film Without a Top 20 Finish:  The Conquering Power

Most Nighthawk Nominations:

  1. Nosferatu  –  11
  2. Metropolis  –  10
  3. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  9
  4. The Man Who Laughs  –  9
  5. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  8
  6. Faust  –  8
  7. The Circus  –  8
  8. 7th Heaven  –  8
  9. Greed  –  7
  10. The Gold Rush  –  7

Most Nighthawks:

  1. Nosferatu  –  7
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  6
  3. Greed  –  5
  4. Metropolis  –  4
  5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  –  3
  6. The Man Who Laughs  –  3
  7. L’Argent  –  3
  8. The Gold Rush  –  2
  9. Broken Blossoms  –  2
  10. The Last Command  –  2

note:  It’s worth noting that because Foreign Film is based on the year of the original release and the rest are based on the L.A. release, Nosferatu wins Picture but not Foreign Film.

Most Nighthawk Points:

  1. Nosferatu  –  525
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  515
  3. Greed  –  425
  4. Metropolis  –  415
  5. The Man Who Laughs  –  340
  6. The Gold Rush  –  325
  7. The Circus  –  285
  8. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  275
  9. 7th Heaven  –  260
  10. The Wind  –  260

Most Drama Nominations:

  1. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  6
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  5
  3. Metropolis  –  5
  4. The Last Command  –  5
  5. The Wind  –  5
  6. The Man Who Laughs  –  5
  7. Greed  –  4
  8. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  4
  9. The Phantom of the Opera  –  4
  10. 7th Heaven  –  4

Most Drama Wins:

  1. Greed  –  4
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  4
  3. Nosferatu  –  4
  4. Broken Blossoms  –  2
  5. Metropolis  –  2

Most Drama Points:

  1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  375
  2. Greed  –  330
  3. Nosferatu  –  330
  4. Metropolis  –  265
  5. The Last Command  –  250
  6. The Wind  –  235
  7. The Man Who Laughs  –  235
  8. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  225
  9. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  205
  10. The Phantom of the Opera  –  170

Most Comedy Nominations:

  1. Steamboat Bill Jr  –  6
  2. Show People  –  6
  3. The Gold Rush  –  5
  4. Tillie’s Punctured Romance  –  5
  5. The Affairs of Anatol  –  5
  6. The Cat and the Canary  –  5
  7. The Circus  –  4
  8. Our Hospitality  –  3
  9. Seven Chances  –  3
  10. Cameraman  –  3

Most Comedy Wins:

  1. Steamboat Bill Jr.  –  6
  2. The Gold Rush  –  5
  3. The Circus  –  5
  4. The Cat and the Canary  –  3
  5. Tillie’s Punctured Romance  –  2

Most Comedy Points:

  1. Steamboat Bill Jr  –  460
  2. The Gold Rush  –  400
  3. The Circus  –  340
  4. The Cat and the Canary  –  295
  5. Tillie’s Punctured Romance  –  260
  6. Show People  –  235
  7. The Affairs of Anatol  –  190
  8. The General  –  170
  9. Our Hospitality  –  135
  10. Seven Chances  –  135

Most Film Points:

note:  This is the point value I assign in all the various categories added up on a scale of 0-9.

  1. The Gold Rush  –  60
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  60
  3. Metropolis  –  59
  4. The Phantom of the Opera  –  57
  5. Faust  –  55
  6. The Birth of a Nation  –  54
  7. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  –  54
  8. Nosferatu  –  53
  9. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  51
  10. Greed  –  51

Most Weighted Film Points:

note:  This is the point value I assign in all the various categories added up on a scale of 0-9, but then weighted to account for their Oscar points, with 8 being the equivalent of an Oscar win.  So, for Picture, the point scale is 1=12, 2=25, 3=37, 4=50, 5=62, 6=75, 7=87, 8=100, 9=115.

  1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  527
  2. Metropolis  –  494
  3. The Gold Rush  –  491
  4. Greed  –  437
  5. The Birth of a Nation  –  422
  6. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  417
  7. Faust  –  409
  8. Nosferatu  –  408
  9. The Phantom of the Opera  –  399
  10. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  –  385

Most Weighted Acting Points:

note:  The same as the above category, but only using the acting points.  Because this is weighted (which gives more to lead than supporting), this is not quite the same list I use for doing my Best Ensemble award but it’s close.

  1. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  130
  2. The Last Command  –  128
  3. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  105
  4. The Affairs of Anatol  –  103
  5. The Birth of a Nation  –  96
  6. The Gold Rush  –  91
  7. L’Argent  –  86
  8. The Wind  –  84
  9. Broken Blossoms  –  82
  10. Sadie Thompson  –  82

Most Weighted Tech Points:

note:  The same as the above category, but only using the Tech categories.  Because this is weighted (which gives more to the major categories), this is not quite the same list I use for doing my Best Tech award but it’s close.  While there is no maximum possible for the acting category, the maximum here is 408.

  1. The Gold Rush  –  155
  2. The Phantom of the Opera  –  155
  3. Faust  –  143
  4. Metropolis  –  142
  5. The Birth of a Nation  –  141
  6. Nosferatu  –  138
  7. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  137
  8. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  137
  9. Nibelungen: Siegfried  –  134
  10. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  –  132

note:  The Gold Rush is tied for #1 for the same reason that no film even earns half of the total possible points – the lack of sound.  Except for The Gold Rush, for which I use the 1942 sound and score in its points, these are all brilliantly made, technically fantastic, silent films.  There is a maximum of 147 points just for the three categories requiring sound (Score, Sound, Sound Editing).

Most Top 20 Points:

note:  This takes a film’s finish in any Nighthawk category and gives it points based on a finish in the Top 20.  A win is 20 points, a 2nd place is 19, down to 20th place which is 1 point.  All categories are equal.

  1. Nosferatu  –  213
  2. Metropolis  –  192
  3. Faust  –  185
  4. The Man Who Laughs  –  184
  5. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  179
  6. L’Argent  –  175
  7. The Gold Rush  –  174
  8. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  173
  9. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  161
  10. The Circus  –  157

Most Top 20 Weighted Points:

note:  This takes a film’s finish in any Nighthawk category and gives it points based on a finish in the Top 20.  However, this weights the categories on a scale based on the award points, both for the win and the nominations.  So, the scale for Picture, in descending order is 100, 77, 70, 67, 63 (it then drops because you can’t have more than 50 points, which is what you get for a nomination), 43, 40, 38, 36, 33, 18, 17, 15, 13, 12, 8, 7, 4, 3, 2.  It’s designed to give more weight to Top 5 and Top 10 finishes.  The scale is roughly the same for all of the categories, beginning with its point total for the award.

  1. Nosferatu  –  560
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  521
  3. Metropolis  –  488
  4. Greed  –  450
  5. The Man Who Laughs  –  444
  6. The Gold Rush  –  435
  7. L’Argent  –  406
  8. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  404
  9. The Wind  –  402
  10. The Circus  –  399

All-Time Lists

Most Nighthawks without a Picture Win

  1. Metropolis  –  4
  2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  –  3
  3. The Man Who Laughs  –  3
  4. L’Argent  –  3
  5. The Gold Rush  –  2
  6. Broken Blossoms  –  2
  7. The Last Command  –  2
  8. Ben-Hur  –  2
  9. Steamboat Bill Jr  –  2
  10. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  1

Most Nighthawk Points without a Picture Win

  1. Metropolis  –  415
  2. The Man Who Laughs  –  340
  3. The Gold Rush  –  325
  4. The Circus  –  285
  5. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  275
  6. 7th Heaven  –  260
  7. The Wind  –  260
  8. The Last Command  –  250
  9. L’Argent  –  245
  10. The Battleship Potemkin  –  230

Most Nighthawk Nominations without a Picture Nomination

  1. Faust  –  8
  2. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  7
  3. L’Argent  –  6
  4. Napoleon  –  6
  5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  –  5
  6. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse  –  4
  7. The Wedding March  –  4
  8. Lonesome  –  4
  9. The Birth of a Nation  –  3
  10. Nibelungen: Siegfried  –  3

Most Nighthawk Points without a Picture Nomination

  1. L’Argent  –  245
  2. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  220
  3. Faust  –  200
  4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  –  180
  5. Napoleon  –  160
  6. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse  –  135
  7. Broken Blossoms  –  130
  8. The Wedding March  –  120
  9. Lonesome  –  110
  10. The Birth of a Nation  –  105

Most Nighthawk Nominations without a Win

  1. Faust  –  8
  2. 7th Heaven  –  8
  3. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  7
  4. The Phantom of the Opera  –  6
  5. Napoleon  –  6
  6. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse  –  4
  7. The Wedding March  –  4
  8. Lonesome  –  4
  9. The Birth of a Nation  –  3
  10. Nibelungen: Siegfried  –  3

Most Nighthawk Points without a Win

  1. 7th Heaven  –  260
  2. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  220
  3. Faust  –  200
  4. The Phantom of the Opera  –  200
  5. Napoleon  –  160
  6. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse  –  135
  7. The Wedding March  –  120
  8. Lonesome  –  110
  9. The Birth of a Nation  –  105
  10. The Docks of New York  –  100

Most 2nd Place Finishes:

  1. Metropolis  –  5
  2. The Phantom of the Opera  –  4
  3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  3
  4. The Battleship Potemkin  –  3
  5. The Man Who Laughs  –  3
  6. The Wind  –  3
  7. Napoleon  –  3
  8. The Circus  –  2
  9. Nosferatu  –  2
  10. Lonesome  –  2

Most 6th Place Finishes:

  1. The Last Laugh  –  3
  2. The Birth of a Nation  –  2
  3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  –  2
  4. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  2
  5. Lonesome  –  2
  6. Street Angel  –  2
  7. Steamboat Bill Jr  –  2

Most Top 10 Finishes:

  1. Faust  –  11
  2. Nosferatu  –  11
  3. Metropolis  –  10
  4. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  10
  5. The Man Who Laughs  –  10
  6. L’Argent  –  10
  7. The Gold Rush  –  9
  8. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  9
  9. The Birth of a Nation  –  9
  10. The Phantom of the Opera  –  9

Most Top 20 Finishes:

  1. Faust  –  12
  2. The Gold Rush  –  12
  3. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  12
  4. The Birth of a Nation  –  11
  5. Nosferatu  –  11
  6. L’Argent  –  11
  7. Metropolis  –  10
  8. The Man Who Laughs  –  10
  9. The Docks of New York  –  10
  10. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  9

Most Comedy or Drama Points Without a Picture Win

  1. The Cat and the Canary  –  295
  2. Metropolis  –  265
  3. Tillie’s Punctured Romance  –  260
  4. The Last Command  –  250
  5. Show People  –  235
  6. The Wind  –  235
  7. The Man Who Laughs  –  235
  8. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  225
  9. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  205
  10. The Affairs of Anatol  –  190

Most Comedy or Drama Points Without a Picture Nomination:

  1. Tillie’s Punctured Romance  –  260
  2. The Affairs of Anatol  –  190
  3. L’Argent  –  165
  4. Broken Blossoms  –  130
  5. The Birth of a Nation  –  110
  6. Faust  –  105
  7. Sadie Thompson  –  105
  8. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse  –  100
  9. The Docks of New York  –  100
  10. Two Arabian Knights  –  85

Most Comedy or Drama Points Without a Win:

  1. Show People  –  235
  2. The Love of Jeanne Ney  –  225
  3. The General  –  170
  4. The Phantom of the Opera  –  170
  5. 7th Heaven  –  170
  6. Our Hospitality  –  135
  7. Seven Chances  –  135
  8. The Battleship Potemkin  –  135
  9. Cameraman  –  135
  10. The Birth of a Nation  –  110

Most Top 20 Points Without a Nomination:

note:  This takes a film’s finish in any Nighthawk category and gives it points based on a finish in the Top 20.  A win is 20 points, a 2nd place is 19, down to 20th place which is 1 point.  All categories are equal.

  1. Show People  –  69
  2. The Lodger  –  59
  3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)  –  46
  4. Crainquebille  –  45
  5. Phantom  –  44
  6. The Hands of Orlac  –  44
  7. The General  –  43
  8. Tillie’s Punctured Romance  –  39
  9. J’Accuse  –  35
  10. The Big Parade  –  33

Most Top 20 Points Without a Top 10 Finish:

note:  This takes a film’s finish in any Nighthawk category and gives it points based on a finish in the Top 20.  A win is 20 points, a 2nd place is 19, down to 20th place which is 1 point.  All categories are equal.

  1. Alibi  –  24
  2. Othello  (1922)  –  23
  3. Blind Husbands  –  22
  4. Carry On, Sergeant!  –  20
  5. King Lear (1916)  –  16
  6. Robin Hood  (1922)  –  15
  7. From Morn to Midnight  –  14
  8. Faces of Children  –  14
  9. The Phantom Chariot  –  11
  10. Go West  –  10

All-Time Nighthawk Awards

note:  These are my all-time Top 5 in each category through 1929.  Films in red won the Oscar.  Films in blue were Oscar nominated.  There are a few lists here that aren’t in my usual Nighthawk Awards.  I also don’t discuss as much since there are fewer awards groups and I have discussed the quality of these so many other places.

  • Best Picture
  1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  2. Metropolis
  3. Greed
  4. The Battleship Potemkin
  5. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Analysis:  Aside from Sunrise, the first two Academy ceremonies were crap for what they honored although at least there is an Oscar winner which is far more than most of the categories below have.  My own Nighthawk Awards has only two of the three winners with Nosferatu coming in sixth.  Metropolis, in spite of not winning the Nighthawk will stay in the all-time Top 10 all the way until 1951.  In fact, Metropolis ranks through 2019 as the second best #2 in film history behind only Pulp Fiction and just ahead of The Maltese Falcon.

  • Best Director
  1. F.W. Murnau  (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans)
  2. Fritz Lang  (Metropolis)
  3. Erich von Stroheim  (Greed)
  4. Sergei Eisenstein  (The Battleship Potemkin)
  5. Robert Wiene  (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)

Analysis:  For the record, that’s three Foreign films and two films made in Hollywood by foreign-born directors.

  • Best Adapted Screenplay:
  1. Greed
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  3. Nosferatu
  4. The Phantom of the Opera
  5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Analysis:  That’s two Top 100 novels (here and here), a Top 200 novel, a very good novel (Phantom) and a story that is so obscure it’s almost impossible to find.  Carl Mayer (who wrote for Murnau) had the most points through 1929, though Erich von Stroheim’s points were split between Adapted and Original (tied for total points).

Best Original Screenplay:

  1. The Gold Rush
  2. Metropolis
  3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  4. The Battleship Potemkin
  5. Foolish Wives

Analysis:  With The Circus finishing in sixth that gives von Stroheim the writing championship, with a win in Adapted and a nomination in original.  Chaplin and Keaton had the most point for just Original Screenplay in the decade.

  • Best Actor:
  1. Lon Chaney  (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
  2. Emil Jannings  (The Last Command)
  3. Emil Jannings  (The Last Laugh)
  4. Charlie Chaplin  (The Gold Rush)
  5. Lon Chaney  (The Phantom of the Opera)

Analysis:  It’s east to see why Chaney and Jannings were the two best actors of the Silent Era.  Of course, four of these performances pre-date the Oscars and at least the Oscars got it right in the first ceremony.

  • Best Actress
  1. Janet Gaynor  (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans)
  2. Lillian Gish  (The Wind)
  3. Maria Falconetti  (The Passion of Joan of Arc)
  4. Janet Gaynor  (7th Heaven)
  5. Lillian Gish  (Broken Blossoms)

Analysis:  This list make Gloria Swanson look like less than she is; she finished in both 6th (Sadie Thompson) and 7th (Queen Kelly).  But it does show how great Gaynor and Gish were.  The Oscars bypassing Gish for The Wind were by far the biggest snub of the early years.

  • Best Supporting Actor:
  1. Max Schreck  (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror)
  2. William Powell  (The Last Command)
  3. Donald Crisp  (Broken Blossoms)
  4. Conrad Veidt  (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
  5. Sessue Hayakawa  (The Cheat)

Analysis:  This category wouldn’t even start at the Oscars until 1936 so even those post-1927 performances on here weren’t eligible for an Oscar nom.  There’s a significant drop after the first four performances.

  • Best Supporting Actress:
  1. Brigitte Helm  (Metropolis)
  2. Brigitte Helm  (L’Argent)
  3. Evelyn Brent  (The Last Command)
  4. Olga Baclanova  (The Man Who Laughs)
  5. Brigitte Helm  (The Love of Jeanne Ney)

Analysis:  Is there any question of who the greatest supporting actress of the era was?  Helm did great work in German films starting when she was cast in Metropolis when she was just 18.  Her performance in Metropolis would rank as the best performance in this category until 1939.

  • Best Ensemble
  1. The Love of Jeanne Ney
  2. The Last Command
  3. The Affairs of Anatol
  4. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  5. The Birth of a Nation

Analysis:  This adds up all the acting points across the categories.

  • Best Editing:
  1. The Battleship Potemkin
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  3. Nosferatu
  4. The Birth of a Nation
  5. The Gold Rush

Analysis:  Another Oscar category that wouldn’t start until later (1934 to be precise) which makes no sense since it’s such an important part of cinema.  Battleship is the first perfect 9 in this category.  Charlie Chaplin (who edited his own films) had the most weighted Nighthawk points through 1929 with several editors tied with 50 points at the Nighthawk Awards.

  • Best Cinematography:
  1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  2. Greed
  3. Metropolis
  4. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  5. Nosferatu

Analysis:  One of just three Tech categories at the 1st Oscars and they got the award right, something they wouldn’t do again in this category until 1940.  Sunrise is the first perfect 9 in this category.  George Barnes and Charles Rosher were tied with 100 Oscar points through 1929 while several cinematographers had 50 Nighthawk points.  Gilbert Warrenton (The Man Who Laughs, Lonesome, The Cat and the Canary) had the most weighted Nighthawk points though he wouldn’t earn any more after 1929 (he made a lot more films after 1929 but they were mostly B-pictures).

  • Best Original Score:
  1. Charlie Chaplin / Max Terr  (The Gold Rush)
  2. Charlie Chaplin  (The Circus)
  3. Charlie Chaplin  (The Kid)
  4. Josiah Zoro  (The Trespasser)

Analysis:  I admit it’s kind of cheating to list either The Gold Rush or The Kid which Chaplin later wrote scores for, but I’m including them anyway.  Chaplin, of course, leads in Nighthawk points.

  • Best Sound:
  1. The Gold Rush
  2. L’Argent
  3. Applause
  4. The Jazz Singer
  5. In Old Arizona

Analysis:  Again, kind of cheating to have Gold Rush listed.  Sound wouldn’t be added as an Oscar category until 1930 (which means some 1929 films were eligible).

  • Best Art Direction:
  1. Metropolis
  2. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  3. The Phantom of the Opera
  4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  5. Greed

Analysis:  Metropolis and Cabinet, two of the most visually interesting films ever made, each get perfect 9 scores.  Not nominating Metropolis here is the biggest mistake the Academy made in the first two years.  William Cameron Menzies already had 100 Oscar points by the end of the decade (because of being awarded for multiple films) but Elmer Sheeley (Hunchback, Phantom) easily leads at the Nighthawks.

  • Best Visual Effects
  1. Thief of Bagdad
  2. Ben-Hur
  3. Nibelungen: Siegfried
  4. Metropolis
  5. Faust

Analysis:  An original Oscar category (as Engineering Effects) though dropped after the first year.  The initial winner was Wings (its other nomination which is why it doesn’t join Grand Hotel as the only Picture winner with no other nominations) which was 6th on my list.

  • Best Sound Editing
  1. n/a

Analysis:  Even the few films with sound at the time didn’t really use Sound Editing.

  • Best Costume Design:
  1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  2. The Phantom of the Opera
  3. The Man Who Laughs
  4. Cabiria
  5. Intolerance

Analysis:  Sadly, even though costumes were such a big part early on, the Academy wouldn’t give an award for this all the way until 1948.  Also, a lot of the great costume work in the era has no credited designer.

  • Best Makeup
  1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  2. The Phantom of the Opera
  3. Nosferatu
  4. The Golem
  5. Faust

Analysis:  Not a surprise at all that the top four films are all Horror and the top two are Lon Chaney films.  And, of course, Chaney was known for doing his own makeup.

  • Best Technical Aspects
  1. The Phantom of the Opera
  2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  3. Faust
  4. Nibelungen: Siegfried
  5. Nosferatu  /  The Gold Rush

Analysis:  Simply a tallying of all the points I award in the Tech categories.  This gets skewed a little with the lack of Score, Sound and Sound Editing (except for The Gold Rush) for most films.  The films that rose up had solid points for Costume Design and Makeup (which is why Metropolis is just outside the Top 5).  The weighted list is above under the Nighthawk Awards, which gives a weightier heft to the first three Tech categories.

  • Best Original Song:
  1. “Lon Chaney’s Gonna Get Ya”  (The Hollywood Revue of 1929)
  2. “Waiting at the End of the Road”  (Hallelujah)
  3. “The Broadway Melody”  (The Broadway Melody)

Analysis:  Another Oscar category that wouldn’t begin until 1934 so it gets hard at time to be certain when a song was original.  None of these are very strong.

  • Best Animated Film:
  1. n/a

Analysis:  There were no feature length Animated films made by 1929.

  • Best Foreign Film:
  1. Metropolis
  2. The Battleship Potemkin
  3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  4. Nosferatu
  5. Faust

Analysis:  A fantastic Top 5, of course, with four of them being German, naturally.  There wouldn’t be a better Foreign Film than Metropolis until Grand Illusion.

Best Films With No Top 5 Finishes:

  • The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
  • The General

note:  These are both mid-range **** films.

Worst Film with a Top 5 Finish:

  • The Broadway Melody

note:  Only four films below *** ended up with decade nominations with The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (**), In Old Arizona and Applause (both **.5) also earning noms.  It’s notable that in all four cases it’s for a category that couldn’t exist until sound came along.

All-Time Nighthawk Awards – By Genre

Drama

  • Best Picture
  1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  2. Metropolis
  3. Greed
  4. The Battleship Potemkin
  5. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  • Best Director
  1. F.W. Murnau  (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans)
  2. Fritz Lang  (Metropolis)
  3. Erich von Stroheim  (Greed)
  4. Sergei Eisenstein  (The Battleship Potemkin)
  5. Robert Wiene  (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
  • Best Adapted Screenplay:
  1. Greed
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  3. Nosferatu
  4. The Phantom of the Opera
  5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  • Best Original Screenplay:
  1. Metropolis
  2. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
  3. The Battleship Potemkin
  4. Foolish Wives
  5. The Last Command
  • Best Actor:
  1. Lon Chaney  (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
  2. Emil Jannings  (The Last Command)
  3. Emil Jannings  (The Last Laugh)
  4. Lon Chaney  (The Phantom of the Opera)
  5. Erich von Stroheim  (Foolish Wives)
  • Best Actress
  1. Janet Gaynor  (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans)
  2. Lillian Gish  (The Wind)
  3. Maria Falconetti  (The Passion of Joan of Arc)
  4. Janet Gaynor  (7th Heaven)
  5. Lillian Gish  (Broken Blossoms)
  • Best Supporting Actor:
  1. Max Schreck  (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror)
  2. William Powell  (The Last Command)
  3. Donald Crisp  (Broken Blossoms)
  4. Conrad Veidt  (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
  5. Sessue Hayakawa  (The Cheat)
  • Best Supporting Actress:
  1. Brigitte Helm  (Metropolis)
  2. Brigitte Helm  (L’Argent)
  3. Evelyn Brent  (The Last Command)
  4. Olga Baclanova  (The Man Who Laughs)
  5. Brigitte Helm  (The Love of Jeanne Ney)

Comedy

  • Best Picture
  1. The Gold Rush
  2. The General
  3. The Circus
  4. Our Hospitality
  5. Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Analysis:  It’s not a coincidence that all five of these films are either Chaplin or Keaton films.

  • Best Director
  1. Charlie Chaplin  (The Gold Rush)
  2. Buster Keaton  (The General)
  3. Charlie Chaplin  (The Circus)
  4. Buster Keaton  (Our Hospitality)
  5. Buster Keaton  (Steamboat Bill, Jr.)

Analysis:  Again, the best Comedies of the era was the work done by these two very talented directors.

  • Best Adapted Screenplay:
  1. The Cat and the Canary
  2. Tillie’s Punctured Romance

Analysis:  These are the only two Adapted Comedies before 1930 that earn any points from me.

Best Original Screenplay:

  1. The Gold Rush
  2. The Circus
  3. Our Hospitality
  4. Steamboat Bill Jr
  5. The General

Analysis:  So that’s two Chaplin films followed by three Keaton films.

  • Best Actor:
  1. Charlie Chaplin  (The Gold Rush)
  2. Charlie Chaplin  (The Circus)
  3. Buster Keaton  (The General)
  4. Charlie Chaplin  (The Kid)
  5. Erich von Stroheim  (The Great Gabbo)

Analysis:  Chaplin was a far better actor than Keaton.

  • Best Actress
  1. Marie Dressler  (Tillie’s Punctured Romance)
  2. Gloria Swanson  (Why Change Your Wife)
  3. Gloria Swanson  (The Affairs of Anatol)
  4. Bessie Love  (The Broadway Melody)
  5. Marion Davies  (Show People)

Analysis:  Not the strongest group and actually my complete list for Comedy performances in this category.

  • Best Supporting Actor:
  1. Mack Swain  (The Gold Rush)
  2. Theodore Roberts  (Miss Lulu Brett)
  3. Ernest Torrance  (Steamboat Bill, Jr.)
  4. Theodore Roberts  (The Affairs of Anatol)
  5. Del Henderson  (Show People)

Analysis:  This is a really weak group.  Most of them wouldn’t come close to even earning a nomination in a regular year, let alone for a whole decade.

  • Best Supporting Actress:
  1. Agnes Ayres  (The Affairs of Anatol)
  2. Mabel Norman  (Tillie’s Punctured Romance)
  3. Bebe Daniels  (The Affairs of Anatol)
  4. Bebe Daniels  (Why Change Your Wife)
  5. Clara Bow  (The Plastic Age)

Analysis:  This is another really weak group.  For the most part, supporting performances in Comedies wouldn’t really take off until the development of Screwball Comedy in the mid thirties.

Nighthawk Notables

  • Best Film to Watch Over and Over:  Nosferatu
  • Funniest Film:  The Gold Rush
  • Best Line  (dramatic):  “You ain’t heard nothin yet.”  (The Jazz Singer – Al Jolson)
  • Best Opening:  Metropolis
  • Best Ending:  The Circus
  • Best Scene:  the house falling in Steamboat Bill Jr.
  • Most Gut-Wrenching Scene:  the Odessa Steps sequence in The Battleship Potemkin
  • Most Heart-Breaking Scene:  the disintegration of Lilian Gish’s sanity in The Wind
  • Best Original Song from a Bad Film:  “Lon Chaney’s Gonna Get You”  (The Hollywood Revue of 1929)
  • Best Sequel:   The Spiders Part II: The Diamond Ship
  • Read the Book, SKIP the Film:  Peter Pan
  • See the Film, SKIP the Book:  The Birth of a Nation  (The Klansman)
  • Performance to Fall in Love With:  Janet Gaynor in 7th Heaven
  • Sexiest Performance:  Clara Bow in Wings
  • Highest Attractiveness / Acting Ability Ratio:  Clara Bow in It
  • Coolest Performance:  Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro
  • Best Performance in an Otherwise Terrible Film:  Bessie Love  (The Broadway Melody)

note:  It doesn’t include categories that are covered in some of the lists above like Worst Film, Most Over-rated Film, Best Ensemble, etc.

Soundtracks I Own:  none, but soundtracks barely even exist in concept at this time

At the Theater

By the end of 2011, I had probably seen over 1000 films in the theater at some point or another.  I had certainly been to the movies well over 1000 times.  The films in this decade, of course, were released decades before I was born.  But some of them have been released again over the years.  To the best of my memory, though, the only one I’ve seen in the theater is Metropolis.  I take that back; I also saw Aelita: Queen of Mars in a special showing at a museum in Portland.

Awards


Academy Awards

note:  This includes just the first two Academy Awards ceremonies.  There are notes about this decade in this post, though it’s overwhelmed by the 30s.  It does include links in those posts to my various posts covering these years.

  • Number of Films That Earned Nominations:  47
  • Number of Films That Have Won Oscars:  17
  • Number of Films With Multiple Nominations:  17
  • Number of Films With Multiple Wins:  3
  • Total Number of Nominations:  78
  • Total Number of Wins:  22
  • Number of Films with Nominations I Haven’t Seen:  15
  • Best Film with No Oscar Nominations:  Metropolis
  • Best English Language Film with No Oscar Nominations:  The General

Oscar Oddities:

  • There has been considerable confusion over the first two awards.
    • Some films formerly listed as Best Picture nominees in the 1st Oscars were later changed (see here for more on that).
    • The 2nd Academy Awards supposedly have no official nominees but everyone, including the Academy, acts like it did.  If they didn’t, I could claim that I’ve seen every Best Picture nominee (The Patriot is lost).  If they didn’t count, also, my total number of missing Oscar nominated films all-time would drop from 26 to 21 (I am missing seven films from 1929 but two of them won Oscars).

Most Oscar Nominations

  1. 7th Heaven  –  5
  2. In Old Arizona  –  5
  3. The Patriot  –  5
  4. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  4
  5. The Broadway Melody  –  3
  6. Divine Lady  –  3
  7. Alibi  –  3
  8. ten films  –  2

Most Oscar Wins:

  1. 7th Heaven  –  3
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  3
  3. Wings  –  2
  4. 14 films  –  1

Most Oscar Points:

  1. 7th Heaven  –  310
  2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  240
  3. In Old Arizona  –  230
  4. The Patriot  –  230
  5. The Broadway Melody  –  180
  6. Divine Lady  –  150
  7. Wings  –  140
  8. The Last Command  –  110
  9. Alibi  –  105
  10. The Crowd  –  95

Most Nominated Films by Director:

  1. Frank Borzage  –  3
  2. Frank Lloyd  –  3
  3. Josef von Sternberg  –  3
  4. 8 directors  –  2

Most Nominations by Director:

  1. Frank Borzage  –  8
  2. Irving Cummings  –  5
  3. Ernst Lubitsch  –  5
  4. F.W. Murnau  –  5
  5. Harry Beaumont  /  Frank Lloyd  –  5

Most Oscars by Director:

  1. Frank Borzage  –  4
  2. F.W. Murnau  –  3
  3. William Wellman  –  2
  4. Sam Taylor  –  2
  5. Josef von Sternberg  –  2

Most Submitted Films by Studio:

  1. Paramount  –  130
  2. FBO  –  113
  3. Warner Bros.  –  98
  4. MGM  –  95
  5. Fox  –  77

Most Nominated Films by Studio:

  1. United Artists  –  10
  2. Paramount  –  9
  3. MGM  –  8
  4. Warner Bros.  –  7
  5. Fox  –  6

Highest Percentage of Nominated to Submitted Films by Studio:

  1. United Artists  –  43.47%
  2. MGM  –  8.42%
  3. Fox  –  7.79%
  4. Warner Bros.  –  7.14%
  5. Paramount  –  6.92%

Most Submitted Films Without a Nomination:

  1. FBO  –  113
  2. Universal  –  44
  3. Tiffany  –  29
  4. Columbia  –  28
  5. Rayart  –  28

Most Nominations by Studio:

  1. Fox  –  20
  2. Paramount  –  15
  3. MGM  –  13
  4. United Artists  –  13
  5. Warner Bros.  –  11

Most Wins by Studio:

  1. Fox  –  8
  2. Paramount  –  6
  3. MGM  –  3
  4. United Artists  –  3
  5. Warner Bros.  –  1

Nominated Films by Genre:

  • Drama:  35
  • Crime:  4
  • Musical:  3
  • Comedy:  2
  • War:  2
  • Western:  1

Best Picture Nominees by Genre:

  • Drama:  5  (1 win)
  • Musical:  2  (1 win)
  • Crime:  2
  • War:  1  (1 win)
  • Western:  1

note:  A reminder that there were two Best Picture categories in 1927-28 (Outstanding Production and Unique and Artistic Picture).
note:  Interesting to note that Drama accounts for just 45% of the Best Picture nominees but a whopping 74% of all nominated films.
note:  On the flip side, of the 12 non-Dramas nominated in these two years, half of them earned a Best Picture nomination.

Films I’ve Seen:

  • Winners:  76.47%  (13/17)
  • Nominees:  70.21%  (33/47)
  • Submitted “Major Studio” Films:  24.10%  (120/498)
  • Total Submitted Films:  14.04%  (124/883)
  • a little perspective on this:
    • After this decade the only Oscar winner I haven’t seen is Marie-Louise, the extremely hard to find Foreign Film that won Best Original Screenplay in 1945.
    • I’ve seen over 99% of all the 3000+ Oscar nominated films but only 70% of this decade (lowest after this is 98.44% in the 40s)
    • I’ve seen over 60% of all the 28000+ Oscar submitted films but only 14% of this decade

Lists

I won’t do a lot of lists because that’s the whole point of TSPDT – they put a ridiculous amount of lists in the blender and come out with the “definitive” one.  Their lists includes lists by genre, so you can always go there and look at their source lists.

The TSPDT Top 25 Films Released Through 1929

  1. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (#8)
  2. The Battleship Potemkin (#15)
  3. The Passion of Joan of Arc (#17)
  4. The Man with a Movie Camera (#20)
  5. The General (#40)
  6. Metropolis  (#60)
  7. The Gold Rush (#71)
  8. Greed (#96)
  9. Intolerance  (#106)
  10. Sherlock, Jr. (#113)
  11. Nosferatu (#119)
  12. Un Chien andalou (#138)
  13. Napoléon (#176)
  14. The Last Laugh (#179)
  15. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (#204)
  16. Nanook of the North (#220)
  17. The Crowd (#243)
  18. Broken Blossoms  (#267)
  19. Pandora’s Box (#287)
  20. The Birth of a Nation  (#289)
  21. The Kid (#292)
  22. October (#387)
  23. The Cameraman (#447)
  24. The Wind (#481)
  25. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (#512)

note:  These are the current (2020) rankings from TSPDT.  I will point out that my own lists don’t include Un Chien andalou (short) or The Man with a Movie Camera or Nanook of the North (documentaries).

AFI Top 100 Films Released Through 1929

  1. The General  (#18)
  2. Intolerance  (#49)
  3. The Gold Rush  (#58 / #74)
  4. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  (#82)
  5. The Birth of a Nation  (#44, or.)
  6. The Jazz Singer  (#90, or.)

The IMDb Voters Top 10 Films Through 1929

note:  My initial way of constructing this list was to use the IMDb search to include all films released by 31 December 1929 with a runtime of at least 60 minutes and sort them by User Rating descending.  If you look at that list, however, you’ll see a lot of films with very few votes which skews the results.  So I ran it again, limiting to films with over 100 votes (dropping the total results from over 5000 to less than 1000) and pulled the following list.

  1. Metropolis
  2. The Kid
  3. The Circus
  4. The Gold Rush
  5. The Wind
  6. The Passion of Joan of Arc
  7. The Crowd
  8. The Cameraman
  9. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
  10. Napoleon

note:  I don’t know whether I was more surprised that The Kid ranked higher than The Circus and The Gold Rush or that it had more votes than either film.  Their list also justified my placement of Hunchback at the top of my under-rated list since it didn’t even make their Top 100!

The IMDb Top 10 Most Votes

note:  This is how many votes (as of 15 May 2020) the film has from the IMDb voters.  It’s a (very) relative measure of current (the last 25 years) popularity for these films.

  1. Metropolis  –  153,436
  2. The Kid  –  106,248
  3. The Gold Rush  –  95,255
  4. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror  –  85,268
  5. The General  –  76,945
  6. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  –  54,344
  7. Battleship Potemkin  –  50,919
  8. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans  –  45,448
  9. The Passion of Joan of Arc  –  44,480
  10. The Circus  –  24,778

Top 4 U.S. Domestic Box Office (Rentals)

  1. The Big Parade  –  $5.5 mil
  2. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse  –  $4.5 mil
  3. Ben-Hur  –  $4.0 mil
  4. The Singing Fool  –  $4.0 mil

note:  This information is pulled from the January 18, 1950 issue of Weekly Variety (page 18).  For a long time, Variety reported rentals rather than grosses.  It’s hard to equate that perfectly to today’s gross figures and I don’t know where Box Office Mojo gets their pre-1980 information from since Variety seemed to be the main place that had info and they only reported rentals.  A comparison I did of the 1980 Variety all-time list against the listed gross at BOM ranged from a 3.3 multiplier for the rental figure (Benji) all the way down to 1.22 (A Bridge Too Far).  BOM doesn’t list Big Parade even though it was consistently listed as the highest grossing film of the era (with the caveat for the next note) but they do list Four Horsemen on their all-time adjusted list with a gross of $9.18 million (a 2.04 multiplier, right in line with average 2.08 for the 1980 comparison).  I haven’t the time to plow through all the early Variety issues to see if there are earlier lists but they seem to have cut off their all-time list with rentals of four million, so there might not be anything more on pre-1930 films.

note:  “D.W. Griffith’s 1915 smash, Birth of a Nation (Mutual) belongs on the list, but exactly where is a question confused by nostalgia and lost records.  Oldtimers in one way or another associated with the picture estimate its gross at from $35,000,000 to $50,000,000.”  (Weekly Variety, 1/18/50, p 18).  Please notice that it uses the word “gross”, so its hard to know how to compare that to the then listed rentals for Gone with the Wind of $26 million (not a mistake – GWTW would consistently earn re-releases including a massive one in 1968 that would increase its rentals total to over $70 million by the early 70s).

Top 10 U.S. Domestic Box Office (Gross – supposedly)

  1. Mickey  –  $17.20 mil
  2. Ben-Hur  –  $12.45 mil
  3. The Big Parade  –  $11.00 mil
  4. The Singing Fool  –  $10.90 mil
  5. The Birth of a Nation  –  $10.00 mil
  6. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse  –  $9.20 mil
  7. Something to Think About  –  $9.16 mil
  8. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea  –  $8.00 mil
  9. The Jazz Singer  –  $7.63 mil
  10. The Covered Wagon  –  $7.63 mil

note:  For reasons covered above, I am dubious of these numbers.  But when making a list in the Advanced Search at the IMDb, you can sort it by gross and this what the Top 10 are according to the IMDb (which, of course, owns BOM).

Books

My hope is to go back after COVID, when I can get into work again and fill this section out.

Reviews

 

The Best Film Through 1929 I Haven’t Yet Reviewed

The Last Laugh
(1924, dir. F.W. Murnau)

In cultural history there are dates where things begin and there are dates where people start to pay attention.  To give a couple of examples relevant to my own interests, baseball started in the 19th century but few outside of hardcore baseball historians pay much interest to before 1920 (the live ball era) or especially 1901 (the start of the American League).  Likewise, comic books first went on sale in 1935 but almost no one cares about anything before May 1938 when Action Comics #1 went on sale with the debut of Superman.  When it comes to film history, you could say that it’s the the debut of The Jazz Singer in October of 1927 that changed everything but it gets a bit more complex than that.  It’s not just that films suddenly had synchronized sound but a confluence of events that make the films that came after the late 20’s and those that came before a demarcation point.  There is also the invention of the Academy Awards with hard-core awards obsessives not needing to worry about films before that.  There is the massive absence of preservation of films from the Silent Era that make it so much harder to find films before that point.  There is also the big turnover in essential personnel.  Think of some of the biggest names of the Silent Era: Rudolph Valentino (died in 1926), Lon Chaney (died in 1930), Charlie Chaplin (made far fewer films and kept them silent until much later), Buster Keaton (film career went quickly down in the early 30s), John Gilbert (didn’t adapt well to sound), Fairbanks and Pickford (careers went down), D.W. Griffith (made very few films after sound came in) and, especially notable for this case, Emil Jannings (won the first Oscar for Best Actor but then returned to Germany and started making films for the Nazis) and F.W. Murnau (directed the first Best Picture winner and then died due to a car crash in 1931).  Some of these people just didn’t cope well after the introduction of sound but what might film history have been like if some of them hadn’t died?  We’ll never know of course, but it helps to add to this big divide between the films before The Jazz Singer and those after.

The Last Laugh was the first of three films that teamed Murnau, already the premiere director in Germany after Nosferatu and Jannings, who had already done a fantastic Othello on film.  It’s a film that begins with the importance of dignity and pride, seems headed towards an inexorable tragedy and then reverses itself and closes with a quiet level of pathos that Hollywood films were struggling to find at this time (or, really, any time since).  For a Silent film, it is even more silent than those around it, as it eschews the use of titles, instead relying on the actions before our eyes and the expressions of the actors to tell the story rather than resort to dialogue.

Jannings plays a doorman for a grand hotel (we don’t get his name – partially because without titles you can’t identify people by name and partially because not knowing his name adds to the pathos of the story) who has worked there for years with pride and dignity and suddenly finds himself pushed out of his job because it is perceived that he is too old to do it properly.  He tries to keep his new job as a washroom attendant a secret but when it is discovered, not only is he mocked for the job but it is assumed that he was never the doorman like he previously said and he is treated as a fool and a liar.  It seems like the man will end in misery and despair and there can be nothing to reverse that.  But then comes the climax of the film when he inherits money from a millionaire that he showed kindness towards and he is able to celebrate his life once again.  What’s more, it is a clear celebration and he finds happiness again and remembers the kindness that was once shown to him as well.  In a film that seemed headed towards nothing but darkness, it not only finds light but reminds people that they can produce light.

There is also much more to this film than can be found on the surface level.  The film has been discussed for the impressionistic use of the camera and editing that made Murnau such an artistic genius.  Things have been written about the importance of the uniform on the doorman’s life and the honor that bestows and what that said about the uniform’s place in German culture in those years before the rise of the Nazis.  It has much to say about the general state of poverty and humiliation in the Weimar Republic in those bleak days when the economy had been so beaten down after the end of the war.

After their third film together (the brilliant Faust), both Murnau and Jannings would decamp Germany in favor of Hollywood and would score big at the 1st Academy Awards.  The German film industry would do okay since Fritz Lang would take Murnau’s place as the greatest director in the country (though he would also later leave for Hollywood).  For a few short years, Germany’s loss was Hollywood’s gain, until Jannings headed back (his German accent was too heavy for sound work in Hollywood) and Murnau died.  But we have their work together and it shouldn’t be forgotten like so much is in those days before sound and the Oscars came in and changed everything.

The Worst Film Through 1929 I Haven’t Yet Reviewed

The Godless Girl
(1929, dir. Cecil B. DeMille)

Just because I am not a fan of DeMille’s films and don’t hold him up to the level that he was thought of at the time (“There were three young directors who showed promise in those days: D. W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, and Erich von Stroheim” – if you don’t know who said the quote and how I changed it, hang your head in shame and Google it without the last name listed) doesn’t mean I think he was untalented.  DeMille had a significant talent, but his film don’t hold up for me because his talent lay primarily in the look of his films and not with the actors (or with the writing – a key component for me in judging the quality of a film).  This notion, that DeMille was much more proficient with the technical qualities than the actors, is evident when you look at his Oscar results – no director ever earned more total nominations for their films (37 nominations spread across 13 films) without earning a single nomination for acting.  The only director with as many Oscar points as DeMille with a higher percentage of those points coming from the Tech categories (70.48% of DeMille’s 1135 points) was James Cameron and that’s a combination of Titanic’s big Oscar haul (Cameron’s films won over twice as many Oscars as DeMille) and the addition in later years of far more Tech categories.

So that brings me to The Godless Girl.  It’s not the worst film that DeMille ever made (embarrassingly for the Academy, that dubious distinction goes to his version of Cleopatra which was nominated for Best Picture) but it is his first bad film.  The plot is insipid from the start – Bob and Judy are rivals who are thrown into prison together when a riot they are responsible for kills a girl (in a horribly filmed scene – not every technical thing that DeMille did was done well).  In prison, Bob falls for Judy and they escape and flee to nature.  They are recaptured and there is a prison fire and the cruel guard dies asking for forgiveness while they find love.  That would all be bad enough, but of course there is the title to be reckoned with.  Judy is an atheist (given that I have been one since I was 14, you’d think I’d be able to spell the word on my first try) and Bob is a Christian.  Of course, once they are out in nature, Judy will find god and that is part of what will give them their happy ending.  Spare me the religious sanctimony from a right-wing jackass who was a complete moral hypocrite.

But the religious aspect of the story aside, this is still a badly written film, complete with trite cliche after trite cliche.  But even that could possibly have made for at least a semi-decent film.  The bigger problem is what I pointed to above – it’s not a coincidence that DeMille’s films earned all those Oscar nominations and not one of them was for acting.  Lina Basquette and Tom Keene are appallingly bad as Judy and Bob.  We should be glad the film was silent (some sound was added later to the final reel) because if they are this bad in the silent version I can only imagine what it would have been like if they had been able to speak.

What is worth remembering though is that this film is the worst of the era that I hadn’t yet reviewed (that I’ve managed to see – a small percentage of what was made) but it’s also a mid ** film which means it’s really not that bad.  There are still some moments where DeMille knows what he is doing.  Like always, it’s hard to know if the films back then just weren’t that bad or if the really bad films just didn’t survive.

Bonus Review

The Penalty
(1920, dir. Wallace Worsley)

This poster should tell you something significant about the point where this film was released.  Do you see the name Lon Chaney on that poster at all?  No, but you should.  But Chaney was not yet the huge star that he would be later when he made this film.  It wasn’t his breakthrough role – that came the year before in The Miracle Man, but sadly, most of what we can get from that film comes from James Cagney’s portrayal of Chaney in The Man with a Thousand Faces because the film itself is lost.  So this is the first major Chaney performance after that, before he was a really big star, that is available to us and it gives us a good sense of Chaney as an actor.

This film is a harbinger for what would come in so many Chaney films, including his best known (and best) roles of Quasimodo and Erik: pain in the past that has drastically afflicted his present and while he will make an attempt to escape from that pain and move on to something more, in the end he will find nothing but the sweet embrace of death (indeed, one of the dialogue titles in this film is his last words: “Don’t grieve, dear — death interests me.”).

In this film, Chaney was attended by a doctor when he was a boy and because of the doctor’s mistake, Chaney’s legs were amputated.  This allows for one of the great early film tricks as Chaney pulled his legs back in a harness and spends much of the film walking on buckets (extremely painfully) because he was dedicated to his craft and he was the best of the era.  Now he is grown and he’s out for revenge but also something more, because he’s a criminal mastermind (Chaney would also go on to play a lot of criminal masterminds – he would have made an excellent Lex Luthor) and he’s also planning to loot the city of San Francisco.  So he will work steadily and craftfully towards both goals.  To that end, he will pose for a sculpture that the doctor’s daughter is sculpting and will make her fall in love with him.

This is the first of three really strong collaborations between Chaney and director Wallace Worsley (who would also direct the criminally under-rated Hunchback) and they would remain close friends.  Worsley does a great job of helping to frame Chaney’s performance as a man who starts on the side of crime and eventually finds himself losing his own way and succumbing to the potential of a life of happiness with the doctor’s daughter.  It’s a reminder of what would happen to him in later films like He Who Gets Slapped when the grimace would often mask a look in his eyes of pure emotional devastation.

I can not write enough about Lon Chaney.  For the same reasons mentioned above in The Last Laugh, he is often overlooked when talking about the great actors in film history.  I mention here how great he is and in almost every post that deals with the silent era (or Horror), I stress how great he was and how you have to watch his film and embrace that.  This is a great place to start.