Best Drama Movies of 1924

Story of an inventor who, suffering betrayal in life, makes a career of it by becoming a clown whose act consists of getting slapped by all the other clowns. He falls in love with another circus performer, and those who betrayed him enter his life yet again.

Comedy which concerns the struggles of an ambitious department store sales clerk who is caught up in New York high society.

The Enchanted Cottage stars Richard Barthelmess as Oliver, a physically and emotionally wounded World War I veteran who comes home to a fiancée who promptly leaves him. Licking his wounds in solitude, he meets a young woman named Laura (May McAvoy). They fall in love and agree to marry, but unexpected and magical events occur inside The Enchanted Cottage where they have agreed to spend their wedding night.

Jean and Marise, young lovers forced from their homes, flee to Paris. Irrevocably separated there, their lives deviate into the slums and hard labor of low-class French society. All the while, the two desperately search for one another.

During a tempestuous storm, a lighthouse keeper finds an infant girl who washes ashore tied to some wreckage. He adopts her and they become inseparable. Eventually her real family finds her and wants her to live with them.

It is 1774, the eve of the American War of Independence. Janice comes from a Tory household. She cavorts with American and British alike, is pursued by Charles Fownes, patriot and friend of General Washington.

In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.

The adventures of Oliver Tressilian, who goes from English gentry to galley slave to captain of a Moorish fighting ship.

Millie Stope lives with her grandfather on a remote island. Man-child Nicholas, a fugitive from justice, also lives there and is terrorizing them - and he's interested in Millie. One day widower John Woolfolk, sailing on his yacht, happens upon the island. Soon he and Millie fall in love. Will jealous Nicholas stand for this?

The Family Secret is an early film adaptation of a popular 19th century melodrama. The plot concerns the daughter of a wealthy man who has secretly married a man below her station of whom her father violently disapproves. The father, in an excess of parental concern, separates the lovers by sending his daughter away so that she might forget her inamorata, unaware of their married state; during this time, she gives birth to a daughter. After some months, the young mother returns to her family manor and presents her father with his new granddaughter, which causes a most unfortunate scene. Unbeknownst to the young woman, her enraged father falsely accuses his son-in-law of theft and has him incarcerated in order to separate the lovers in an irrational attempt to force his daughter to forget this "unworthy" young man.

Renée (Mae Murray) is the heiress of a Mexican ranch, granddaughter of a woman known for her recklessness and frivolity at night. This first "Mademoiselle Midnight" is banished in the opening scene by Napoleon III at Empress Eugenie's insistence to Mexico. Renee is kept locked at the hacienda at night by her father to prevent her following in her grandmother's wayward footsteps. She falls in love with a visiting American (Monte Blue) but is also pursued by the craven outlaw Manuel Corrales. Miss Murray gets to do some of her trademark dancing, but this one isn't a comedy, despite comic relief provided by Johnny Arthur.

By 1820, Edmund Kean is the most admired Shakespearan actor. But if his art is peerless, his free lifestyle is ill thought of, particularly by the high society. Kean has fallen passionately in love with Countess Elena de Koefeld, the wife of the ambassador of Denmark. Elena loves him too but hesitates to give up her rank in society and follow Kean. On the other hand, Anna, a rich heiress who refuses to marry Lord Mewill, the husband chosen by her parents, confesses her love for Kean and decides to become an actress like him... The aristocrats, outraged by Edmund's profligate ways, decide to boycott his performances and his career is broken. Kean does not recover from such a blow and, on a stormy night, dies in Elena's arms.

Alice is engaged with Sven. She is interested in having fun and dancing, preferably with Faustino della Novarro. Sven gets upset by her behavior. They break the engagement. Alice finds work as a maid on a farm.

An orphan boy wins a prize for his drawing.

Wealthy playboy Grant Van Gore means to have his way with his beautiful maid, the innocent Hattie Lou. He swears his love to the naive girl, and in an act so heinous as to defy belief, has the captain of his yacht perform a fake marriage ceremony. He ruins poor Hattie Lou, and then abandons her ashore the very next morning. A year later, the destitute girl and her starving baby are wandering the streets. When she sees a newspaper headline announcing that Grant has drowned at sea, Hattie Lou hatches a desperate plan for survival. She will present herself to the wealthy Van Gore's, who cannot fail to provide for their late son's widow and child!

In the year 1550, Sir George Vernon agrees to have his young daughter Dorothy betrothed to John Manners, the son of the Earl of Rutland. Sir George signs a contract, promising that the marriage will take place on Dorothy's 18th birthday, or else he will have to pay a large penalty to Rutland. But when the two children have grown older, rumors of John's wild behavior in France provoke Sir George to call off the engagement, and to pledge his daughter instead to her cousin Malcolm. Rutland now claims the forfeit from Sir George, and meanwhile, John has befriended Mary Stuart, the sworn enemy of Elizabeth, who is now Queen of England.

An Earl's disowned son becomes a chauffeur, loves a landlady, and is jailed for theft.

A Spanish soldier seduces and falls in love with the young wife of a smuggler.

Romantic and slapstick mishaps on a golf course.

Romantic and slapstick mishaps on a golf course.