
(Photo by courtesy Everett Collection)
Discover Lost Movies: Read Reviews of Unfinished and Lost Films
In an era of nearly limitless streaming options, it seems inconceivable that thousands of films from the early days of cinema are either incomplete or totally lost because of destruction or neglect. In fact, it’s estimated that between 75 and 90 percent of films made before 1929 have experienced this fate. But while you won’t be able to see any of these movies anytime soon, you can get an idea of what they were like, and how audiences reacted to them at the time, by reading reviews from contemporaneous critics. You also get a picture of film criticism finding its feet, with writers finding ways to engage with a relatively new medium as they had been with books and plays for centuries.
Working with libraries and digital archives, we’ve added reviews for more than 100 lost films from dozens of newspapers and magazines across the world. Some of these movies may have been masterpieces, and some may have been duds, but all of them are part of a forgotten piece of film history that we hope to shed some light upon. And because we’re always unearthing more archival reviews, we’ll update this guide as these old movies get brand-new Tomatometers – which happens when a film gets at least five reviews in our system. Now, step back in time and discover lost films through critics’ reviews, ordered chronologically. Click on the films to go to their movie pages and read full reviews.
#115
Adjusted Score: 100%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#114
Adjusted Score: 100%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Starring:
#113
Adjusted Score: 84.25%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#112
Adjusted Score: 101.558%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This film stars Annette Kellerman as the daughter of King Neptune himself. Her principal antagonist is the Witch of the...
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#111
Adjusted Score: 80.421%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In 1914, during the Mexican Revolution, the Mutual Film Co. contracted Pancho VIlla to produce this silent film documenting his...
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#110
Adjusted Score: 83.705%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Some sources list Tom Mix as one of the cast members in Your Girl and Mine, but this is unlikely,...
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#109
Adjusted Score: 84.968%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Actress Audrey Munson, whose chief claim to fame was her voluptuous figure, was the star of the Thanhouser five-reeler Inspiration....
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#108
Adjusted Score: 100.699%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In a war-torn world, enemies of the United States use pacifists as pawns to insure that the Government doesn't spend...
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#107
Adjusted Score: 78.529%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Spanish soldier falls under the spell of a fiery gypsy girl named Carmen. His obsession with her leads to...
[More]
#106
Adjusted Score: 67.974%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This exotic adventure set in Egypt, Baghdad, and New York follows a bank robbery and the theft of a sacred...
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#105
Adjusted Score: 44.725%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#104
Adjusted Score: 94.839%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This film is a lavish fairy tale, set long long ago in a land far far away. The setting was...
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#103
Adjusted Score: 97.316%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This film is nothing more nor less than Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- though the main character has been rechristened "Victor...
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#102
Adjusted Score: 97.316%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Leaving the character of Elaine behind after three successful serials, Pearl White played Margery Golden in The Iron Claw, the...
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Starring:
#101
Adjusted Score: 58.39%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Legendary silent-screen "vamp" Theda Bara played the title character in Fox's The Vixen. The story concerns two sisters, Elsie and...
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#100
Adjusted Score: 93.531%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: By 1917, Theda Bara had become one of the screen's biggest stars, and her fans had long been suggesting that...
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#99
Adjusted Score: 88.172%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: You'd never know it from the title, but The Darling of Paris was a film version of Victor Hugo's Hunchback...
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#98
Adjusted Score: 84.719%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#97
Adjusted Score: 71.366%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Silent star Douglas Fairbanks made a rare visit to the director's chair (accompanied by his friend and frequent collaborator Albert...
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#96
Adjusted Score: 71.366%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: One of silent screendom's most famed dramatic actresses, Pauline Frederick, somehow got herself involved in this silly allegorical tale: When...
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#95
Adjusted Score: 38.561%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Mary MacLane was a real life vamp who wrote a sensational book, I, Mary MacLane. Some savvy film executive at...
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#94
Adjusted Score: 78.049%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Annette Kellerman, the Australian swimming star of the early 1900s, made a number of films, most of them in the...
[More]
#93
Adjusted Score: 78.049%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Raised on the wild windjammer stories of her sea-captain grandfather Obadiah Wolf (Theodore Roberts), heroine Patricia (Lila Lee) yearns for...
[More]
Starring:
#92
Adjusted Score: 97.561%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Directed By:
#91
Adjusted Score: 100.171%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Madge Kennedy, arguably the most versatile actress in the Goldwyn Studios stable, went into her "romantic" mode for The Kingdom...
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Starring:
#90
Adjusted Score: 39.024%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this film, Pancha O'Brien is the Irish-Mexican daughter of a Wyoming sheep rancher. The two men in Pancha's life...
[More]
Directed By:
#89
Adjusted Score: 63.561%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A rather ridiculous war time romance, The Splendid Sinner was one of two films to star opera diva Mary Garden....
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#88
Adjusted Score: 100.492%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Mary Miles Minter was supposed to be a contender for Mary Pickford's girlish crown, but she never came close. It's...
[More]
#87
Adjusted Score: 80.244%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This drama highlights the fine dramatic talents of Sessue Hayakawa. Yano Masata (Hayakawa) is a Japanese artist whose sister, O...
[More]
Starring:
#86
Adjusted Score: 91.487%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#85
Adjusted Score: 56.571%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this adaptation of Oscar Wilde's tale, the story remains as always: Salome is coerced by her mother Herodias to...
[More]
#84
Adjusted Score: 40.244%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: American girl Charmian Page (Clara Kimball Young) visits England with her father (Edward M. Kimball). While staying with their friends...
[More]
Starring:
Directed By:
#83
Adjusted Score: 100.244%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Sessue Hayakawa was making the transition from Oriental villain to sympathetic hero in this picture. The plot is a combination...
[More]
#82
Adjusted Score: 88.99%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A group of crooks in New York City's Chinatown hear about an old hermit (Joseph J. Dowling) in a small...
[More]
#81
Adjusted Score: 29.741%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Based on the Rupert Hughes novel, this film concerns the German atrocities committed in Belgium at the beginning of the...
[More]
#80
Adjusted Score: 79.239%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Lord Angus Cameron (H.E. Herbert), a Scottish nobleman, becomes tired of his common-law wife Marion (Mabel Ballin) and tries to...
[More]
#79
Adjusted Score: 80.244%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The titular character of this film is Colette, the sweetheart of a criminal gangleader. Colette and her lover break into...
[More]
Directed By:
#78
Adjusted Score: 100.103%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa is cast as an ancient Egyptian donkey boy in An Arabian Knight. The humble Hayakawa rescues...
[More]
#77
Adjusted Score: 100.986%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When "Speed" Carr (Wallace Reid) has to travel from New York to Los Angeles to meet his uncle and claim...
[More]
#76
Adjusted Score: 100.103%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A band of aeroplane robbers, led by Van Arland (Ray Ripley), plan to steal $20,000 in gold, which is meant...
[More]
Starring:
#75
Adjusted Score: 86.545%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Small town American girl Polly Shannon (Ina Claire) goes to Paris to study singing, but winds up as a maid...
[More]
#74
Adjusted Score: 86.545%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Lillian Gish tried her hand at film-directing in this gentle comedy of marital infidelity. Dorothy Gish is Janie, the young...
[More]
#73
Adjusted Score: 100.324%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Japanese girl, Yuki Onda (Tsuru Aoki), is studying at an American college in 1903 when war breaks out between...
[More]
Directed By:
#72
Adjusted Score: 80.103%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Made in between his two classics, Blind Husbands and Foolish Wives, this drama from director Erich von Stroheim centers on...
[More]
#71
Adjusted Score: 100.103%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This film was adapted from a well-known novel by Sir Gilbert Parker. Charley Steele (Bert Lytell) is a hard-drinking lawyer...
[More]
#70
Adjusted Score: 81.207%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Treasure Island was the third of Fox's "Sunshine Kiddies" series, a group of literary adaptations starring child actors in adult...
[More]
#69
Adjusted Score: 100.826%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Story has it that Douglas Fairbanks was approached for the role of the Yankee, Martin Cavendish. It certainly would have...
[More]
#68
Adjusted Score: 101.087%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this film version of the old theatrical chestnut, Roscoe Arbuckle plays a young lawyer who inherits a vast fortune....
[More]
#67
Adjusted Score: 80.304%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This drama is taken from the classic novel by Charlotte Bronte. Rochester (Norman Trevor) takes in the adult orphan Jane...
[More]
#66
Adjusted Score: 100.565%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#65
Adjusted Score: 92.87%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Betty Blythe stars as the Queen of Sheba in this historical drama. King Solomon (Fritz Lieber) and his jealous brother...
[More]
#64
Adjusted Score: 101.087%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Photos reveal that stage and film luminary George Arliss made a perfect Benjamin Disreli -- this silent was the filmed...
[More]
#63
Adjusted Score: 43.826%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Elsie Ferguson, who played the role of Carlotta Peel on stage, also starred in the film. Carlotta's aunt (Helen Dunbar...
[More]
#62
Adjusted Score: 50.251%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: An eccentric scientist experimenting with animal-gland transplants creates a bestial, half-human ape-man. This film is an early collaboration for Lon...
[More]
#61
Adjusted Score: 67.251%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Wallace Reid plays against type in this comedy-drama, based on the play by Booth Tarkington. As a matter of fact,...
[More]
#60
Adjusted Score: 100.876%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This quirky comedy with its mystical overtones was a departure for the down-to-earth Will Rogers. The story opens up with...
[More]
#59
Adjusted Score: 50.251%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The Beautiful and Damned is one of the earliest cinemazations of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Kenneth Harlan and Marie...
[More]
#58
Adjusted Score: 100.876%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This character study was adapted from Henning Berger's play, Synafloden, which was known as The Deluge in its English translation....
[More]
#57
Adjusted Score: 60.042%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Starring:
Directed By:
#56
Adjusted Score: 33.251%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Lucille (Wanda Hawley) is the jealous girlfriend who believes her man John (Wallace Reid) falls too easily to feminine wiles....
[More]
#55
Adjusted Score: 81.085%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Zareda (Barbara LaMarr) is the fortune teller and sorceress who watches as Marquis Ferroni (Lewis Stone) and his son Ivan...
[More]
#54
Adjusted Score: 56.876%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Everybody at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios was expected to do a little bit of everything, which is why bassett-faced comedian...
[More]
#53
Adjusted Score: 93.84%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This picture practically defined the Roaring Twenties and shot Colleen Moore to superstardom. Because she is neglected by her husband...
[More]
#52
Adjusted Score: 100.047%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The premise is clichéd -- it's the usual tale of a pretty girl from the sticks trying to break into...
[More]
#51
Adjusted Score: 67.047%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Dorothy Davenport billed herself by her private name, Mrs. Wallace Reid, for this melodrama about drug addiction. She was making...
[More]
#50
Adjusted Score: 64.946%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: There's something very calculated about this Rudolph Valentino vehicle. As he did in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the star...
[More]
#49
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this film, Chicago truck farmer Selena sacrifices everything for her son Dirk, dreaming that the boy will become a...
[More]
#48
Adjusted Score: 29.238%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This dramatic tragedy is taken from the famous novel by Thomas Hardy. Tess (Blanche Sweet) is the young daughter of...
[More]
#47
Adjusted Score: 86.028%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A struggling composer must abandon his classical music and begins writing more popular jazz compositions to survive. He hates this...
[More]
#46
Adjusted Score: 88.121%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Raymond Griffith's star was on the rise when he made this comedy, based on the play Lord Chumley by David...
[More]
#45
Adjusted Score: 82.616%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: On a train traveling from the West, Grenfall Lorry, an American (Eugene O'Brien), meets the mysterious and beautiful Yetive (Norma...
[More]
#44
Adjusted Score: 50.047%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Based on a 1907 play by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau, much ado was made of Madame Sans-Gêne when it...
[More]
#43
Adjusted Score: 89.322%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The stars and director of Sally of the Sawdust, namely Carol Dempster, W. C. Fields and D. W. Griffith, were...
[More]
#42
Adjusted Score: 33.592%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Thomas Meighan single-handedly saves Alaska in this James Oliver Curwood tale of the Northwest, which was shot on-location in British...
[More]
#41
Adjusted Score: 100.322%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This sentimental drama, based on the stage play by H.B. Trevelyan (actually a pseudonym for Guy Bolton), was the American...
[More]
#40
Adjusted Score: 73.141%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this romantic melodrama, Polly Pearl is a bar manager who doubles as a cabaret performer. Wealthy society swell Leonard...
[More]
#39
Adjusted Score: 68.445%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this romantic adventure, a handsome hero sails to a tropical paradise in hopes of forgetting the woman who spurned...
[More]
#38
Adjusted Score: 40.358%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This was the most popular of the many silent adaptations of Alexandre Dumas' famous story of a courtesan who finds...
[More]
#37
Adjusted Score: 45.445%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Accurately described as "a beautiful job" by novelist John O'Hara, this 1926 silent version of F. Scott's Fitzgerald's The Great...
[More]
#36
Adjusted Score: 59.193%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Baseball great George Herman "Babe" Ruth's second starring film (the first was 1920's Headin' Home) was the amiable romantic comedy...
[More]
#35
Adjusted Score: 49.327%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Starring:
#34
Adjusted Score: 64.085%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Scotland Yard detective's obsession leads to his solving a five year old case. It was closed after authorities ruled...
[More]
#33
Adjusted Score: 69.058%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this campus comedy, two collegiate brothers, Jim and Ralph Treadway, are in love with the same girl, Carol Fleming....
[More]
#32
Adjusted Score: 73.085%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: "Rough House Rosie" Reilly (Clara Bow) just can't seem to stay out of trouble. Hoping to become a Broadway actress,...
[More]
#31
Adjusted Score: 59.489%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This belated but hilarious spoof of the Valentino craze stars Bebe Daniels as Zaida, the daughter of Arab sheik Yussif...
[More]
#30
Adjusted Score: 69.058%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Originally titled 10 Modern Commandments, this sophisticated romantic comedy-drama was the third directorial effort by Dorothy Arzner -- not to...
[More]
#29
Adjusted Score: 59.489%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Adapted from the warhorse stage play by Willard Mack, The Dove proved a so-so vehicle for Norma Talmadge, but the...
[More]
#28
Adjusted Score: 81.466%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Queen Helen of Troy, piqued by her husband's lack of interest in her, elopes with Paris to Sparta. Menelaus, her...
[More]
#27
Adjusted Score: 88.578%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Bank clerk August Schiller (Emil Jannings in his American screen debut) is known as a model husband and father. His...
[More]
#26
Adjusted Score: 67.243%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This silent romantic adventure is set in the Sahara desert, and purports to be a sequel to the successful Beau...
[More]
#25
Adjusted Score: 87.281%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The circus provides the backdrop for this melodrama that chronicles the lives of four children raised within the big top....
[More]
#24
Adjusted Score: 89.243%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The present unavailability of 1928's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is especially frustrating for those who'd like to compare this first version...
[More]
#23
Adjusted Score: 83.657%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The principal lady in Ladies of the Mob is jazz-baby Clara Bow. After her father is executed, Bow goes to...
[More]
#22
Adjusted Score: 56.243%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this film, Babs is a college coed who dreams of becoming a famous actress. Joining up with her campus...
[More]
#21
Adjusted Score: 83.138%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A largely silent musical, My Man is primarily a showcase for the enormously popular Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice who...
[More]
#20
Adjusted Score: 96.672%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: It was romance novelist Elinor Glyn who dubbed Clara Bow the "It" girl, so it was hardly a surprise when...
[More]
#19
Adjusted Score: 63.105%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1920, Harold Bell Wright's "backwoods" novel Shepherd of the Hills was remade in 1928. The story is...
[More]
#18
Adjusted Score: 28.035%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#17
Adjusted Score: 70.381%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: One of the great directors of the silent era, Victor Sjostrom, teamed with fellow Swede Greta Garbo for this drama....
[More]
#16
Adjusted Score: 90.381%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Director William Wellman's follow-up to Wings was based in part on his own WWI experiences with the Lafayette Flying Corps....
[More]
#15
Adjusted Score: 100.243%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Ernst Lubitsch, well-known for his sophisticated romantic comedies, proved that he was equally adept at historical drama in this lavishly-mounted...
[More]
#14
Adjusted Score: 41.431%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The Clara Bow vehicle Three Week Ends was based on a story by Elinor Glyn, the romance novelist who bestowed...
[More]
#13
Adjusted Score: 100.756%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1923, Avery Hopwood's 1920 comedy The Gold Diggers was resurrected in 1929 as the Technicolor musical Gold...
[More]
#12
Adjusted Score: 44.581%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this melodrama, a high-born school girl has a breakdown after learning that her supposedly blue-blooded mother is in reality...
[More]
#11
Adjusted Score: 93.108%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this drama, a domineering, over-protective mother leaves her Massachusetts home for Paris to stop her beloved son from marrying...
[More]
#10
Adjusted Score: 60.756%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A lesser-known effort from director Josef Von Sternberg, The Case of Lena Smith has been unfairly chastised for all the...
[More]
#9
Adjusted Score: 63.405%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The disastrous 1929 Stock Market crash was still several months in the future when Wolf of Wall Street made its...
[More]
#8
Adjusted Score: 75.405%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A compulsively on-time locomotive engineer's fixation on promptness causes grief for himself and his family -- until his obsession saves...
[More]
#7
Adjusted Score: 86.402%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Edward Knoblock's warhorse theatrical piece Kismet, first filmed in 1920, resurfaced as a talkie in 1930. Repeating the role he'd...
[More]
#6
Adjusted Score: 80.848%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This lavish musical is based on a play by Oscar Hammerstein II and tells the story of a young girl...
[More]
#5
Adjusted Score: 75.478%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The Cat Creeps is the first of three talkie versions of John Willard's durable stage melodrama The Cat and the...
[More]
#4
Adjusted Score: 86.293%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Russian bandit king takes revenge then finds himself enamored with the sister of the rogue he's killed. This costume...
[More]
#3
Adjusted Score: 50.177%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Originally released in 1932, Men of Tomorrow represented the film debut of Robert Donat. The story follows a young, idealistic...
[More]
#2
Adjusted Score: 89.4%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Practically every member of the Warner Bros. stock company except Glenda Farrell shows up in the rowdy, raunchy pre-Code comedy...
[More]
#1
Adjusted Score: 40.249%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this melodrama filmed on location in Hawaii, a sugar plantation manager finds himself falling in love with a native...
[More]