1928 Movies
Take a nostalgic look back at the top movies of 1928, celebrating the films, directors and actors that defined the year and left a lasting legacy in the world of entertainment.
Four Sons
Directed by: John Ford
Starring: James Hall, Margaret Mann, Charles Morton, Francis X. Bushman Jr.
Country: United States of America
Outline: A family saga in which three of a Bavarian widow's sons go to war for Germany and the fourth goes to America, Germany's eventual opponent.
The Singing Fool
Directed by: Lloyd Bacon
Starring: Al Jolson, Betty Bronson, Josephine Dunn, Arthur Housman
Outline: A singing waiter and composer (Al Jolson) loves two women (Betty Bronson, Josephine Dunn), conquers Broadway and holds his dying son, singing "Sonny Boy."
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Directed by: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, André Berley, Maurice Schutz
Country: United States of America
Outline: In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Show People
Directed by: King Vidor
Starring: Marion Davies, William Haines, Dell Henderson, Paul Ralli
Country: United States of America
Outline: A young lady from Georgia goes to Hollywood in the hopes of becoming an actress.
The Patsy
Directed by: King Vidor
Starring: Marion Davies, Orville Caldwell, Marie Dressler, Lawrence Gray
Country: United States of America
Outline: An awkward teenager hopelessly in love with her elder sister's boyfriend tries to make him notice her.
The Smart Set
Directed by: Jack Conway
Starring: William Haines, Jack Holt, Alice Day, Hobart Bosworth
Outline: An American polo player, arrogant and full of himself, must vindicate his actions to win the heart of a girl, Polly, after getting himself booted off the U.S. polo team.
Beggars of Life
Directed by: William A. Wellman
Starring: Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen, Blue Washington
Country: United States of America
Outline: After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal ...
Spies
Directed by: Fritz Lang
Starring: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, Willy Fritsch, Lien Deyers
Country: United States of America
Outline: The mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.
Speedy
Directed by: Ted Wilde
Starring: Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Bert Woodruff, Babe Ruth
Country: United States of America
Outline: Harold "Speedy" Swift, a fan of Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees, saves from extinction the city's last horse-drawn trolley, operated by his girlfriend's grandfather.
A Woman of Affairs
Directed by: Clarence Brown
Starring: Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lewis Stone, Johnny Mack Brown
Country: United States of America
Outline: When two childhood sweethearts are kept from marrying, misery ensues.
Bare Knees
Directed by: Erle C. Kenton
Starring: Virginia Lee Corbin, Donald Keith, Jane Winton, Johnnie Walker
Outline: A young married woman in a small town is visited by her sister, a single "flapper" who causes a scandal in town with her bobbed hair and short skirts. She attracts the attentions of some of...
The Fall of the House of Usher
Directed by: Jean Epstein
Starring: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-Goffard
Country: United States of America
Outline: Allan visits the sinister Usher family mansion, where his friend Roderick is painting a portrait of his sickly wife Madeline. The portrait seems to be draining the life out of Madeline, slowly leading to her death.
The Spieler
Directed by: Tay Garnett
Starring: Alan Hale, Clyde Cook, Renée Adorée, Fred Kohler
The Mysterious Lady
Directed by: Fred Niblo
Starring: Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Albert Pollet
Country: United States of America
Outline: An attractive Russian spy seduces an Austrian officer in order to get some important plans, but when she actually falls in love with him, both of them are placed in a dangerous situation.
Our Dancing Daughters
Directed by: Harry Beaumont
Starring: Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, Nils Asther, Dorothy Sebastian
Country: United States of America
Outline: A flapper who's secretly a good girl and a gold digging floozy masquerading as an ingénue both vie for the hand of a millionaire.
Storm Over Asia
Directed by: Vsevolod Pudovkin
Starring: I. Inkizhinov, I. Dedintsev, Valéry Inkijinoff, Aleksandr Chistyakov
Country: United States of America
Outline: In 1918 a simple Mongolian herdsman escapes to the hills after brawling with a western capitalist fur trader who cheats him. In 1920 he helps the partisans fight for the Soviets against the...
West of Zanzibar
Directed by: Tod Browning
Starring: Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Nolan, Warner Baxter
Country: United States of America
Outline: A magician seeks vengeance upon the man who paralyzed him and the illegitimate daughter he sired with the magician's wife.
Feel My Pulse
Directed by: Gregory La Cava
Starring: Bebe Daniels, Richard Arlen, William Powell, Melbourne MacDowell
Outline: A rich but hypochondriac heiress inherits a sanitarium. What she doesn't know is that it is a front for bootleggers, and a hideout for criminals on the run from the law.
Across to Singapore
Directed by: William Nigh
Starring: Ramon Novarro, Joan Crawford, Ernest Torrence, Frank Currier
Outline: Conflict ensues when a young man's childhood sweetheart becomes betrothed to his older brother.
The Trail of '98
Directed by: Clarence Brown
Starring: Dolores del Rio, Ralph Forbes, Karl Dane, Harry Carey
Country: United States of America
Outline: Fortune hunters from all over the country rush to the Klondike in 1897 to seek their fortunes in the gold are tested by hardships of the journey.
The Garden of Eden
Directed by: Lewis Milestone
Starring: Corinne Griffith, Louise Dresser, Lowell Sherman, Maude George
Outline: Toni Le Brun, a beautiful Viennese singer, becomes the ward of the wardrobe mistress of a Monte Carlo nightclub. Her benefactor, however, is actually a baroness incognito. Toni falls in ...
A Girl in Every Port
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Starring: Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong, Louise Brooks, Maria Alba
Country: United States of America
Outline: Two sailors with a rivalry over chasing women become friends. But when one decides to finally settle down, will this mysterious young women come between them?
The Michigan Kid
Directed by: Irvin Willat
Starring: Conrad Nagel, Renée Adorée, Lloyd Whitlock, Fred Esmelton
Outline: The Michigan Kid is a gambler in the backwoods of Alaska trying to make enough money to go back to his hometown and impress the girl he loves. His childhood rival for the girl happens to ...
Stand and Deliver
Directed by: Donald Crisp
Starring: Rod La Rocque, Lupe Velez, Warner Oland, Louis Natheaux
Easy Virtue
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall, Eric Bransby Williams, Ian Hunter
Country: United States of America
Outline: A recently divorced woman hides her scandalous past from her new husband and his family.
What happened in 1928?
Discover what the world looked like in 1928: