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Best Drama Movies of the 1920s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
195 drama films from the 1920s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Metropolis (1927), at 8.2 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.8. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Battleship Potemkin, 7.9 on IMDb against 97 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolis '1927 | Drama / Sci-Fi | 8.2 | 97% | 98 | 8.1 | Fritz Lang |
| 2 | The Kid '1921 | Comedy / Drama | 8.2 | 100% | - | 8.1 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 3 | The Gold Rush '1925 | Comedy / Drama | 8.1 | 98% | 90 | 8.0 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 4 | The Passion of Joan of Arc '1928 | Drama | 8.1 | 98% | 98 | 8.0 | Carl Theodor Dreyer |
| 5 | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans '1927 | Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 98% | 95 | 7.8 | F. W. Murnau |
| 6 | The Circus '1928 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 97% | 90 | 7.9 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 7 | Napoleon '1927 | Drama / War | 8.2 | 87% | - | 7.9 | Abel Gance |
| 8 | Faust '1926 | Fantasy / Drama / Horror | 8.1 | 91% | - | 7.9 | F. W. Murnau |
| 9 | The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari '1920 | Drama / Horror / Thriller / Crime | 8.0 | 96% | - | 7.9 | Robert Wiene |
| 10 | The Crowd '1928 | Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 96% | - | 7.6 | King Vidor |
| 11 | The Last Laugh '1924 | Drama | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.8 | F. W. Murnau |
| 12 | The Cameraman '1928 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.8 | Edward Sedgwick |
| 13 | The Phantom Carriage '1921 | Drama / Fantasy / Horror | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.7 | Victor Sjöström |
| 14 | Die Nibelungen: Siegfried '1924 | Drama / Fantasy | 8.1 | 93% | - | 7.8 | Fritz Lang |
| 15 | Battleship Potemkin '1925 | Drama / War | 7.9 | 100% | 97 | 7.6 | Sergei Eisenstein |
| 16 | Greed '1924 | Drama / Crime | 8.0 | 96% | - | 7.3 | Erich von Stroheim |
| 17 | The Wind '1928 | Drama / Western / Romance / Thriller | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Victor Sjöström |
| 18 | The Big Parade '1925 | Romance / War / Drama | 7.9 | 100% | - | 7.6 | King Vidor |
| 19 | The Last Command '1928 | Drama / War | 7.9 | 95% | - | 7.4 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 20 | Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge '1924 | Drama / Fantasy | 7.9 | 89% | - | 7.6 | Fritz Lang |
| 21 | Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ '1925 | Drama / Romance / Action | 7.8 | 96% | - | 7.3 | Fred Niblo |
| 22 | Pandora's Box '1929 | Drama / Crime / Romance | 7.7 | 93% | - | 7.5 | G.W. Pabst |
| 23 | Diary of a Lost Girl '1929 | Drama | 7.8 | 100% | - | 7.3 | G.W. Pabst |
| 24 | Ménilmontant '1926 | Drama | 7.8 | - | - | 7.4 | Dimitri Kirsanoff |
| 25 | He Who Gets Slapped '1924 | Drama / Thriller / Romance | 7.7 | - | - | 7.5 | Victor Sjöström |
| 26 | The Man Who Laughs '1928 | Drama / Romance / Horror | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.4 | Paul Leni |
| 27 | Nanook of the North '1922 | Documentary / Drama | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Robert Flaherty |
| 28 | Strike '1925 | Drama | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.4 | Sergei Eisenstein |
| 29 | Flesh and the Devil '1926 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 94% | - | 7.2 | Clarence Brown |
| 30 | Destiny '1921 | Drama / Fantasy / Thriller | 7.6 | 79% | - | 7.4 | Fritz Lang |
| 31 | Lonesome '1928 | Romance / Drama | 7.7 | 71% | - | 7.5 | Pál Fejős |
| 32 | Wings '1927 | Drama / Action / War / Romance | 7.5 | 94% | 78 | 7.2 | William A. Wellman |
| 33 | The Kid Brother '1927 | Comedy / Drama | 7.6 | 92% | - | 6.9 | Ted Wilde |
| 34 | The Docks of New York '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.0 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 35 | 7th Heaven '1927 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Frank Borzage |
| 36 | October (Ten Days that Shook the World) '1928 | Drama | 7.4 | 92% | - | 6.9 | Sergei Eisenstein |
| 37 | Underworld '1927 | Drama / Crime / Romance | 7.5 | 90% | - | 7.1 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 38 | The Patsy '1928 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 7.5 | 100% | - | 6.8 | King Vidor |
| 39 | The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.2 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 40 | Laugh, Clown, Laugh '1928 | Drama | 7.5 | - | - | 7.4 | Herbert Brenon |
| 41 | The Scarlet Letter '1927 | Drama | 7.6 | - | - | 7.1 | Victor Sjöström |
| 42 | By the Law '1926 | Drama | 7.6 | - | - | 6.6 | Lev Kuleshov |
| 43 | Mother '1926 | Drama | 7.4 | - | - | 7.1 | Vsevolod Pudovkin |
| 44 | Beggars of Life '1928 | Drama / Crime | 7.5 | - | - | 7.1 | William A. Wellman |
| 45 | Lucky Star '1929 | Romance / Drama | 7.6 | - | - | 7.6 | Frank Borzage |
| 46 | The Wedding March '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 64% | - | 7.2 | Erich von Stroheim |
| 47 | L'Argent '1928 | Drama | 7.5 | - | - | 7.1 | Marcel L'Herbier |
| 48 | A Page of Madness '1926 | Horror / Drama | 7.3 | - | - | 7.3 | Teinosuke Kinugasa |
| 49 | Street Angel '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | - | - | 7.1 | Frank Borzage |
| 50 | Orphans of the Storm '1921 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 88% | - | 6.8 | D.W. Griffith |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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Other genres in the 1920s
Animation of the 1920s Comedy of the 1920s Crime of the 1920s Fantasy of the 1920s Horror of the 1920s Romance of the 1920s
Directors on this list
Fritz Lang Charlie Chaplin Carl Theodor Dreyer F. W. Murnau Abel Gance King Vidor Victor Sjöström Sergei Eisenstein Erich von Stroheim Josef von Sternberg Fred Niblo G.W. Pabst
Actors on this list
Charlie Chaplin Mack Swain Janet Gaynor Emil Jannings Werner Krauss Conrad Veidt Buster Keaton Lillian Gish John Gilbert Lon Chaney Norma Shearer Greta Garbo