Sunrise with George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor.
Best Films of 1927: Final year of the silent era offered remarkably accomplished releases
Silent movies were still being made and released in the United States and elsewhere into the mid-1930s – e.g., Charles Chaplin’s City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) – but the de facto final year of the silent era was 1927, when Warner Bros.’ part-talkie feature The Jazz Singer caused a sensation at movie houses (well, those equipped for sound) in the U.S. and much gnashing of teeth at executive offices at the Hollywood studios (whether actually located in Hollywood or elsewhere in the Los Angeles area).
F.W. Murnau’s romantic drama Sunrise probably remains the best known and most widely admired American release that year, but here are four less revered yet remarkably accomplished titles to come out in 1927:
- Fred Niblo’s German-set antiwar drama The Enemy could well be the filmmaker’s most mature work, starring a flawless Lillian Gish as a young married woman trying to cope with life in times of misery and destruction;
- Herbert Brenon’s Sorrell and Son adroitly handles “adult” themes – class disparities, incest, euthanasia – while boasting several first-rate performances (H.B. Warner, Alice Joyce, Anna Q. Nilsson)
- Ernst Lubitsch’s The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg stars Ramon Novarro as the title character, who, in heartbreaking fashion, discovers that having an envied position of power also means utter powerlessness to control his own life;
- Tod Browning’s perverse psychological thriller The Unknown, in which circus performer Lon Chaney learns the hard way that arms (or lack thereof) aren’t exactly what turn on/off 22-year-old Joan Crawford.
Malcolm St. Clair’s Breakfast at Sunrise features an excellent performance by Constance Talmadge – a more deft, more modern light comedienne than most actresses working today – while Charles Brabin’s The Valley of the Giants has a runaway train at its gripping climax.
Best Film
Breakfast at Sunrise – Dir.: Malcolm St. Clair; Scr.: Fred De Gresac & Gladys Unger
The Enemy – Dir.: Fred Niblo; Scr.: Willis Goldbeck & Agnes Christine Johnston; titles: John Colton
The Love of Jeanne Ney / Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney – Dir.: G.W. Pabst; Scr.: Ladislaus Vajda & Rudolf Leonhardt
Sorrell and Son – Dir.: Herbert Brenon; Scr.: Elizabeth Meehan
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg – Dir.: Ernst Lubitsch; Scr.: Hanns Kräly; titles: Marion Ainslee & Ruth Cummings
The Unknown – Dir.: Tod Browning; Scr.: Waldemar Young; titles: Joseph W. Farnham
The Valley of the Giants – Dir.: Charles Brabin; Scr.: Gordon Rigby
Best Actor
Lon Chaney – The Unknown
Ramon Novarro – The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
George O’Brien – Sunrise
H.B. Warner – Sorrell and Son
Best Actress
Joan Crawford – The Unknown
Marion Davies – The Fair Co-Ed
Marion Davies – The Red Mill
Janet Gaynor – 7th Heaven
Lillian Gish – The Enemy
Norma Shearer – The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
Constance Talmadge – Breakfast at Sunrise
Best Supporting Actress
Flora Finch – The Cat and the Canary
Brigitte Helm – The Love of Jeanne Ney
Alice Joyce – Sorrell and Son
Anna Q. Nilsson – Sorrell and Son
Best Supporting Actor
George Fawcett – The Valley of the Giants
Jean Hersholt – The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
Best Cinematography
The Enemy – Oliver T. Marsh
The Love of Jeanne Ney – Fritz Arno Wagner & Robert Lach
Mr. Wu – John Arnold
Napoleon / Napoléon – Jules Kruger & Léonce-Henry Burel
Old San Francisco – Hal Mohr
The Red Mill – Hendrik Sartov
7th Heaven – Ernest Palmer & Joseph A. Valentine
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg – John Mescall
Sunrise – Karl Struss & Charles Rosher
The Valley of the Giants – Ted McCord
Best Original Score
Sunrise – Hugo Riesenfeld
When a Man Loves – Henry Hadley