Movie Auditor › Rankings › 1920s › Romance
Best Romance Movies of the 1920s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
104 romance films from the 1920s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is The General (1926), at 8.1 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.6.
Filter, sort and search this list live
| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The General '1926 | Comedy / War / Romance | 8.1 | 92% | - | 7.9 | Clyde Bruckman |
| 2 | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans '1927 | Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 98% | 95 | 7.8 | F. W. Murnau |
| 3 | The Circus '1928 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 97% | 90 | 7.9 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 4 | Safety Last! '1923 | Comedy / Romance / Thriller | 8.1 | 97% | - | 7.7 | Sam Taylor |
| 5 | The Crowd '1928 | Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 96% | - | 7.6 | King Vidor |
| 6 | The Cameraman '1928 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.8 | Edward Sedgwick |
| 7 | The Wind '1928 | Drama / Western / Romance / Thriller | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Victor Sjöström |
| 8 | Steamboat Bill, Jr. '1928 | Comedy / Romance | 7.8 | 96% | - | 7.6 | Charles Reisner |
| 9 | The Adventures of Prince Achmed '1926 | Animation / Fantasy / Romance | 7.8 | 100% | - | 7.5 | Lotte Reiniger |
| 10 | The Big Parade '1925 | Romance / War / Drama | 7.9 | 100% | - | 7.6 | King Vidor |
| 11 | Seven Chances '1925 | Comedy / Romance | 7.8 | 94% | - | 7.5 | Buster Keaton |
| 12 | Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ '1925 | Drama / Romance / Action | 7.8 | 96% | - | 7.3 | Fred Niblo |
| 13 | Pandora's Box '1929 | Drama / Crime / Romance | 7.7 | 93% | - | 7.5 | G.W. Pabst |
| 14 | The Unknown '1927 | Thriller / Romance / Horror | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.5 | Tod Browning |
| 15 | The Thief of Bagdad '1924 | Romance / Fantasy | 7.7 | 97% | - | 7.3 | Raoul Walsh |
| 16 | Our Hospitality '1923 | Comedy / Romance / Thriller | 7.7 | 97% | - | 7.5 | Buster Keaton |
| 17 | He Who Gets Slapped '1924 | Drama / Thriller / Romance | 7.7 | - | - | 7.5 | Victor Sjöström |
| 18 | The Man Who Laughs '1928 | Drama / Romance / Horror | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.4 | Paul Leni |
| 19 | Flesh and the Devil '1926 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 94% | - | 7.2 | Clarence Brown |
| 20 | Lonesome '1928 | Romance / Drama | 7.7 | 71% | - | 7.5 | Pál Fejős |
| 21 | Wings '1927 | Drama / Action / War / Romance | 7.5 | 94% | 78 | 7.2 | William A. Wellman |
| 22 | Show People '1928 | Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | 92% | - | 7.1 | King Vidor |
| 23 | The Navigator '1924 | Comedy / Action / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Buster Keaton |
| 24 | Girl Shy '1924 | Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | - | - | 6.9 | Sam Taylor |
| 25 | Neighbors '1920 | Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | - | - | 7.1 | Edward F. Cline |
| 26 | The Docks of New York '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.0 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 27 | Spies '1928 | Thriller / Romance | 7.5 | 95% | - | 7.3 | Fritz Lang |
| 28 | The Freshman '1925 | Comedy / Romance | 7.5 | 95% | - | 7.0 | Sam Taylor |
| 29 | 7th Heaven '1927 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Frank Borzage |
| 30 | Underworld '1927 | Drama / Crime / Romance | 7.5 | 90% | - | 7.1 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 31 | The Patsy '1928 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 7.5 | 100% | - | 6.8 | King Vidor |
| 32 | The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.2 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 33 | 3 Bad Men '1926 | Romance / Western | 7.5 | - | - | 7.0 | John Ford |
| 34 | Lucky Star '1929 | Romance / Drama | 7.6 | - | - | 7.6 | Frank Borzage |
| 35 | The Wedding March '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 64% | - | 7.2 | Erich von Stroheim |
| 36 | Street Angel '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | - | - | 7.1 | Frank Borzage |
| 37 | Orphans of the Storm '1921 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 88% | - | 6.8 | D.W. Griffith |
| 38 | Way Down East '1920 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 96% | - | 6.9 | D.W. Griffith |
| 39 | Woman in the Moon '1929 | Drama / Sci-Fi / Romance | 7.3 | 80% | - | 7.2 | Fritz Lang |
| 40 | La Roue '1923 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 80% | - | 7.3 | Abel Gance |
| 41 | Variety '1925 | Drama / Crime / Romance | 7.4 | 100% | - | 6.7 | E.A. Dupont |
| 42 | Sadie Thompson '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 83% | - | 6.6 | Raoul Walsh |
| 43 | It '1927 | Comedy / Romance | 7.2 | 88% | - | 6.9 | Clarence G. Badger |
| 44 | Underground '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | - | - | 6.8 | Anthony Asquith |
| 45 | The Iron Horse '1925 | Western / Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 73% | - | 6.8 | John Ford |
| 46 | The Merry Widow '1925 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 100% | - | 6.7 | Erich von Stroheim |
| 47 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame '1923 | Romance / Drama / Horror | 7.2 | 93% | - | 6.5 | Wallace Worsley |
| 48 | A Woman of Affairs '1928 | Drama / Romance | 7.1 | - | - | 6.5 | Clarence Brown |
| 49 | Michael '1924 | Drama / Romance | 7.1 | 94% | - | 6.4 | Carl Theodor Dreyer |
| 50 | Cœur fidèle '1923 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | - | - | 7.2 | Jean Epstein |
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.
All romance movies
All movies of the 1920s
Romance in other decades
Romance of the 1930s Romance of the 1940s Romance of the 1950s Romance of the 1960s Romance of the 1970s Romance of the 1980s Romance of the 1990s Romance of the 2000s Romance of the 2010s Romance of the 2020s
Other genres in the 1920s
Animation of the 1920s Comedy of the 1920s Crime of the 1920s Drama of the 1920s Fantasy of the 1920s Horror of the 1920s
Directors on this list
Clyde Bruckman F. W. Murnau Charlie Chaplin Sam Taylor King Vidor Victor Sjöström Buster Keaton Fred Niblo G.W. Pabst Tod Browning Raoul Walsh Clarence Brown
Actors on this list
Buster Keaton Janet Gaynor Charlie Chaplin Harold Lloyd Mildred Davis Lillian Gish John Gilbert Lon Chaney Joe Roberts Norma Shearer Conrad Veidt Greta Garbo