1927 Movies
Take a nostalgic look back at the top movies of 1927, celebrating the films, directors and actors that defined the year and left a lasting legacy in the world of entertainment.
California
Directed by: Michele Lupo
Starring: Miguel Bosé, Giuliano Gemma, Malisa Longo, Enzo Fiermonte, Andrea Aureli, Raimund Harmstorf, William Berger, Franco Fantasia, Mario Novelli, Franco Ressel, Dana Ghia, Chris Avram
Country: Italy
The Gaucho
Directed by: F. Richard Jones
Starring: Lupe Velez, Joan Barclay, Eve Southern, Gustav von Seyffertitz
Country: United States of America
Outline: A girl is saved by a miracle after she falls from a cliff in the Argentine Andes, and is blessed with healing powers. A shrine is built on the site, and a whole city grows around it, rich ...
When a Man Loves
Directed by: Alan Crosland
Starring: John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, Warner Oland, Sam De Grasse
Outline: A nobleman studying for the priesthood abandons his vocation in 18th Century France when he falls in love with a beautiful, but reluctant, courtesan.
The Jazz Singer
Directed by: Alan Crosland
Starring: Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, Eugenie Besserer
Country: United States of America
Outline: The son of a Jewish Cantor must defy the traditions of his religious father in order to pursue his dream of becoming a jazz singer.
Metropolis
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Starring: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Country: United States of America
Outline: In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Sunrise
Directed by: F.W. Murnau
Starring: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing
Country: United States of America
Outline: An allegorical tale about a man fighting the good and evil within him. Both sides are made flesh - one a sophisticated woman he is attracted to and the other his wife.
Sadie Thompson
Directed by: Raoul Walsh
Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Blanche Friderici, Charles Lane, Florence Midgley
Country: United States of America
Outline: A prostitute seeking a fresh start becomes the obsession of a religious extremist.
West Point
Directed by: Edward Sedgwick
Starring: William Haines, Joan Crawford, William Bakewell, Neil Neely
Country: United States of America
Outline: Wealthy Brice Wayne enters West Point and, though he does well on the football field, angers fellow cadets with his arrogance. Disciplined by the coach he yells "To hell with the Corps!" ...
Spring Fever
Directed by: Edward Sedgwick
Starring: William Haines, Joan Crawford, George K. Arthur, George Fawcett
Outline: To impress a wealthy young woman, a clerk pretends he is a pro-golfer.
Napoleon
Directed by: Abel Gance
Starring: Albert Dieudonné, Vladimir Roudenko, Edmond Van Daële, Alexandre Koubitzky
Country: United States of America
Outline: A film about the French general's youth and early military career.
My Best Girl
Directed by: Sam Taylor
Starring: Mary Pickford, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Sunshine Hart, Lucien Littlefield
Country: United States of America
Outline: A department store's stock girl falls in love with a co-worker, the son of the store's manager; the feeling is mutual though he is engaged to a debutante and focusing on becoming successful without the influence of his father.
The Beloved Rogue
Directed by: Alan Crosland
Starring: John Barrymore, Conrad Veidt, Marceline Day, Lawson Butt
Country: United States of America
Outline: François Villon, in his lifetime the most renowned poet in France, is also a prankster, an occasional criminal, and an ardent patriot.
The Love of Jeanne Ney
Directed by: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Starring: Édith Jéhanne, Uno Henning, Fritz Rasp, Brigitte Helm
Country: United States of America
Outline: In the Crimea, the Reds and the Whites aren't done fighting, and Jeanne discovers that the man she loves is a Bolshevik (when he kills her father). Penniless, she returns to Paris where she...
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: June Tripp, Ivor Novello, Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney
Country: United States of America
Outline: A landlady suspects her new lodger is the madman killing women in London.
Chicago
Directed by: Frank Urson
Starring: Phyllis Haver, Victor Varconi, Virginia Bradford, Robert Edeson
Country: United States of America
Outline: Based on a true crime story, the movie is about a wild jazz-loving and boozing wife Roxie Hart who kills her boyfriend in cold blood after he leaves her, and how she finagles her way out ...
Rubber Tires
Directed by: Alan Hale
Starring: Bessie Love, Erwin Connelly, Frank Coghlan Jr., May Robson
Outline: The Stack family of New York City has fallen on difficult financial times. Pa Stack squandered the family's money by buying a home in Newhall, California, hoping that there would be oil on the land.
Dress Parade
Directed by: Donald Crisp
Starring: William Boyd, Bessie Love, Hugh Allan, Walter Tennyson
Outline: An amateur boxing champion stops at West Point to see a dress parade and falls for the commandant's daughter. He wins an appointment to the Academy and begins a rivalry for her affection.
The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands
Directed by: Walter Summers
Starring: Roger Maxwell, Craighall Sherry, Hans von Slock
Outline: Dramatic reconstruction of two 1914 naval battles off Coronel and the Falkland Islands.The first a defeat of the British by Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee, the second a retaliation by the British under vice Admiral Sturdee.
The Cat and the Canary
Directed by: Paul Leni
Starring: Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale, Forrest Stanley, Tully Marshall
Country: United States of America
Outline: Relatives of an eccentric millionaire gather in his spooky mansion on the 20th anniversary of his death for the reading of his will.
Running Wild
Directed by: Gregory La Cava
Starring: W.C. Fields, Marie Shotwell, Mary Brian, Claude Buchanan
Outline: Cowardly Elmer Finch is browbeaten by his wife, daughter, fat son and the family dog. After hypnosis he is domineering. He enters a contract with a fifteen-thousand dollar payoff, so his ...
College
Directed by: James W. Horne, Buster Keaton
Starring: Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall, Flora Bramley, Harold Goodwin
Country: United States of America
Outline: To reconcile with his girlfriend, a bookish college student tries to become an athlete.
The Yankee Clipper
Directed by: Rupert Julian
Starring: William Boyd, Elinor Fair, Frank Coghlan Jr., John Miljan
Outline: What starts as race from China to Boston to earn coveted tea trade contract on the high seas turns into dangerous journey with typhoon, mutiny, and no fresh water.
The Chess Player
Directed by: Raymond Bernard
Starring: Pierre Blanchar, Charles Dullin, Édith Jéhanne, Camille Bert
Country: United States of America
Outline: In 1776, an inventor conceals a Polish nobleman in his chess-playing automaton, a machine whose fame leads it to the court of the Russian empress.
The Drop Kick
Directed by: Millard Webb
Starring: Richard Barthelmess, Barbara Kent, Dorothy Revier, Eugene Strong
Outline: College football player Jack Hamill finds his reputation on the line when he pays an innocent visit to a woman whose husband kills himself.
The Show
Directed by: Tod Browning
Starring: John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Connelly
Country: United States of America
Outline: Performers in a Budapest sideshow encounter love, greed, and murder.
What happened in 1927?
Discover what the world looked like in 1927: