my favorite movies of 1927:

(1) Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

(2) Metropolis

(3) The Unknown

(4) The Kid Brother

favorite of 1927:

Sunrise

A Song of Two Humans

(George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston. Directed by F.W. Murnau.)

Watch the whole thing here (in the public domain):

At the first Oscars, before they decided to give a single “Best Picture” award, this movie won an award that was never given again: “the Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Picture.”

Ebert’s review says a lot about the camerawork in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, which broke through technical limitations of the time by moving around with a new freedom. Ebert adds:

The story … is very simple, but it has power. The woman from the city persuades the man to drown his wife so they can run away together. The film has few titles, but they are dramatic: the word “drown” swims into view and then appears to run down the screen and disappear. …

It’s very broad melodrama, and the realism of spoken dialogue would have made it impossible. But silent films were more dreamlike, and Murnau was a genius at evoking odd, disturbing images and juxtapositions that created a nightmare state. Because the characters are simple, they take on a kind of moral clarity, and their choices are magnified into fundamental decisions of life and death. … The more you consider “Sunrise” the deeper it becomes — not because the story grows any more subtle, but because you realize the real subject is the horror beneath the surface.

2nd favorite of 1927:

Metropolis

(Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Fritz Rasp. Directed by Fritz Lang.)

Watch the whole thing here (in the public domain):

12 facts about Metropolis.

This might be the earliest movie on my list written by a woman: Thea von Harbou co-wrote it with her husband, Fritz Lang, the director.

Ebert said:

Lang created one of the unforgettable original places in the cinema. “Metropolis” fixed for countless later films the image of a futuristic city as a hell of material progress and human despair. … The laboratory of its evil genius, Rotwang, created the visual look of mad scientists for decades to come. … The device of the “false Maria,” the robot who looks like a human being, inspired the Replicants of “Blade Runner” [1982].

More analysis:

 

3rd favorite of 1927:

The Unknown

(Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Norman Kerry, John George. Directed by Tod Browning.)

Watch the whole thing here (in the public domain):

Joan Crawford is a circus performer who can’t stand men’s hands, while Lon Chaney plays an armless knife thrower.

4th favorite of 1927:

The Kid Brother

(Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Walter James, Constantine Romanoff, Eddie Boland, Josephine the monkey. Directed by Ted Wilde, J.A. Howe [uncredited director: Lewis Milestone].)

That video from Criterion focuses on Harold Lloyd’s climactic confrontation with the villain:

Wrestler Constantine Romanoff is ugly, malign, and powerful. It’s a shock to see him in the same frame as the sweet Harold — he barely seems to belong in the same film or genre. Harold’s inoffensiveness doesn’t seem bland in this context, but rather the light balancing the dark. Something about a climate of fear is conducive to laughter; there’s a deep, mysterious connection. Horror films and comedies both achieve their effects by building and then releasing tension. … Lloyd was a master at wringing laughs from fear. That’s where the monkey comes in. …

Watch the whole movie here (in the public domain):

Or you can stream a higher-quality version of The Kid Brother on the Criterion Channel, which has extras including commentary. (If you don’t subscribe, try a free trial.)

Click here for the full list of my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020.