Best films of the 1910s: Impressive achievements during the first decade of feature filmmaking
Among the most notable titles released during the 1910s is Broken Blossoms, D.W. Griffith’s 1919 drama about hopeless interethnic love and dysfunctional family relationships.
Griffith not only effectively maneuvers the plot’s more melodramatic elements, but he also elicits terrific performances from his three leads: Lillian Gish as an abused London waif, Richard Barthelmess as a sensitive Chinese immigrant who loves her, and future Oscar winner Donald Crisp (How Green Was My Valley, 1941) as the young woman’s brutish alcoholic father.
Best Film
Broken Blossoms – dir. & Scr.: D.W. Griffith
Carmen – Dir.: Cecil B. DeMille; Scr.: William C. de Mille
The False Faces – dir. & Scr.: Irvin Willat
The Hoodlum – Dir.: Sidney Franklin; Scr.: Frances Marion
The Italian – Dir.: Reginald Barker; Scr.: Thomas H. Ince & C. Gardner Sullivan
Little Pal – Dir.: James Kirkwood; Scr.: Marshall Neilan
Love and Journalism / Kärlek och journalistik – Dir.: Mauritz Stiller; Scr.: Harriet Bloch
Old Wives for New – Dir.: Cecil B. DeMille; Scr.: Jeanie Macpherson
A Romance of the Redwoods – Dir.: Cecil B. DeMille; Scr.: Jeanie Macpherson
The Sentimental Bloke – Dir.: Raymond Longford; Scr.: Raymond Longford & Lottie Lyell
Sold for Marriage – Dir.: Christy Cabanne; Scr.: William E. Wing
The Wrath of the Gods – Dir.: Reginald Barker; Scr.: Thomas H. Ince & William H. Clifford
Best Actor
Richard Barthelmess – Broken Blossoms
George Beban – The Italian
Elliott Dexter – Old Wives for New
Elliott Dexter – A Romance of the Redwoods
Douglas Fairbanks – Reaching for the Moon
Richard Lund – Love and Journalism
Tully Marshall – The Devil’s Needle
Thomas Meighan – Male and Female
Arthur Tauchert – The Sentimental Bloke
Best Actress
Theda Bara – A Fool There Was
Geraldine Farrar – Carmen
Pauline Frederick – The Love That Lives
Lillian Gish – Broken Blossoms
Lillian Gish – Enoch Arden
Lillian Gish – The Greatest Question
Lillian Gish – Sold for Marriage
Mary Johnson – Sir Arne’s Treasure / Herr Arnes pengar
Ossi Oswalda – I Don’t Want to Be a Man / Ich möchte kein Mann sein
Mary Pickford – Heart o’ the Hills
Mary Pickford – The Hoodlum
Mary Pickford – Little Pal
Mary Pickford – A Romance of the Redwoods
Mary Pickford – Tess of the Storm Country
Gloria Swanson – Male and Female
Best Supporting Actress
Sylvia Ashton – Old Wives for New
Stina Berg – Love and Journalism
Josephine Crowell – The Greatest Question
Lila Lee – Male and Female
ZaSu Pitts – The Little Princess
Clarine Seymour – The Girl Who Stayed at Home
Norma Talmadge – The Devil’s Needle
Florence Vidor – Old Wives for New
Clara Williams – The Italian
Best Supporting Actor
Frank Bennett – Sold for Marriage
Lon Chaney – Victory
George Fawcett – The Habit of Happiness
Theodore Roberts – Old Wives for New
Best Cinematography
Broken Blossoms – G.W. Bitzer
Daddy Long Legs – Charles Rosher
The Greatest Question – G.W. Bitzer
Heart o’ the Hills – Charles Rosher
Hearts of the World – G.W. Bitzer
Joan the Woman – Alvin Wyckoff
The Little Princess – Walter Stradling
Male and Female – Alvin Wyckoff
The Man from Painted Post – Victor Fleming & Harry Thorpe
Old Wives for New – Alvin Wyckoff
Polly of the Circus – George Hill
A Romance of the Redwoods – Alvin Wyckoff
Snow White – H. Lyman Broening
Stella Maris – Walter Stradling
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Eugene Gaudio
Victory – George Hill
The Woman God Forgot – Alvin Wyckoff & Charles Edgar Schoenbaum
Best Score
Broken Blossoms – Louis F. Gottschalk
Best Short Film
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch – Dir.: D.W. Griffith; Scr.: D.W. Griffith & Henry Albert Phillips
By Man’s Law – Dir.: Christy Cabanne; Scr.: William E. Wing
“Best Movies of the 1910s” notes
Richard Barthelmess and Lillian Gish Broken Blossoms image: Griffith | United Artists.
“Best Movies of the 1910s” credits via the American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog database.