Best Movies of 1923

A man returns to his Appalachian homestead. On the trip, he falls for a young woman. The only problem is her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.

The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.

When Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean, she decides to leave for Paris on her own. After spending a year in the city as a mistress of the wealthy Pierre Revel, she is reunited with Jean by chance. This leaves her with the choice between a glamorous life in Paris, and the true love she left behind.

In 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.

A hypochondriac vacations in the tropics for the fresh air - and finds himself in the middle of a revolution instead.

A comedic short filmed directed by an uncredited Alfred Hitchcock about an affair.

The rituals of courtship, romantic rivalry and love play out three times as a man vies with a villain for the girl. In the Stone Age, the rivalry is set off by dinosaurs, a turtle used as a ouija board, and a round of golf with stones. In ancient Rome, the men display their brawn through a chariot race, using dogs instead of horses. In contemporary times, the man finds himself overcome by modernity, including a very fragile car.

In an attempt to forget his lost sweetheart, Buster takes a long trip at the sea when he's caught by pirates.

The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.

Colonel Heeza Liar jumps off the drawing board and into the real world to track down a stolen rooster.

Buster and Phyllis endure a number of outdoor adventures trying to prove to each other their survival skills. The balloon which lands Buster in the wilderness proves useful later on as their canoe is about go over a waterfall.

Sue Graham is a small town girl who wants to be a motion picture star. She wins a contract when a picture of a very pretty girl is sent to a studio instead of her picture. When she arrives in Hollywood, the mistake is discovered and she starts working in the props department of the studio instead. Her parents then come out to California and invest some money with a very shifty individual.

An Irish girl comes to America disguised as a boy to claim a fortune left to her brother who has died.

Based on Oscar Wilde's play, the films tells the story of how Salomé agrees to dance for King Herod in return for the head of John the Baptist.

A law student becomes an outlaw French revolutionary when he decides to avenge the unjust killing of his friend. To get close to the aristocrat who has killed his friend, the student adopts the identity of Scaramouche the clown.

In this one, Farmer Al Falfa and Henry the Cat go down to beach, where Al is singularly unsuccessful in impressing the pretty young ladies.

Angela Chiaromonte is the daughter of a wealthy Italian prince who is killed in a fall from his horse. Though Angela stands to inherit half of a large estate, her older half-sister burns the will and thus inherits everything herself, throwing Angela into poverty. Fortunately, Angela is engaged to marry dashing Captain Giovanni Severi - but he soon is captured by Arabs while on an expedition to Africa. Believing him dead, Angela, dedicating her life to his memory, becomes a nun, unaware that her lover has escaped his captors and is returning to Italy. The dramatic climax takes place against a backdrop of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

David Compton leaves his expecting French girl-friend Louise Boucher, a dancer at the Moulin Rouge, for the war where he looses his memory. Building a new life from scratch after the war, he gets married in London. Louise, now a mother, thinks him dead. She becomes a famous dancer under the name Deloryse but falls gravely ill. One night, as David is in the audience of her show, he recovers his memory. When she learns that David is married to another woman, Louise turns her son in the care of David's new wife and accepting a dancing job at a party, she dies there of exhaustion and sorrow.

The no-good son of a company owner is sent to investigate a problematic business deal.

A wealthy young Southern aristocrat, Joseph, graduates from a seminary and, before he takes charge of his assigned parish, decides to go out and see what "the real world" is all about. He winds up in New Orleans and finds himself attracted to a poor, unsophisticated orphan girl, Bessie. One thing leads to another, and before long Bessie finds that she is pregnant with Joseph's child.

A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.

First, Max, in his pyjamas, gets back up and draws an isolated mountain area and puts Koko on top of a steep mountain. "That will keep you busy for the night," says the real-life somewhat nasty cartoonist to his subject. The cartoon really gets wild from that point with guest appearances from Mutt and Jeff, and other "stars" of the day as Koko experiences one adventure after another from the "Cave Of The Winds" to Goliath chasing him all over.

The gang operates a donkey-propelled tour bus. Later, a cut-rate vaudeville producer hires them to help out with his show, which they wreck.

A young woman is lured to the Yukon by a gambler with promises of marriage and a grubstake for a gold mine. She takes her ailing father with her, only to discover when she gets there that the gambler was lying to her and actually planned to sell her to a dance hall. She gathers her father and an old miner she has met, takes a dogsled and supplies from the gambler and the three of them head for the wilderness to look for a lost gold claim the old miner has been looking for.

The King tosses Rosita in jail and when Don Diego, who Rosita loves, tries to defend her, he too is thrown in jail. While Don Diego is sentenced to be executed, the King lusts after Rosita and decides to put her up in a luxurious villa. To give her a title, he marries her to a masked nobleman, who turns out to be Don Diego.

In Gossette (1923), Dulac experimented with and designed a number of special lenses and prisms to produce a variety of effects and multiply the expressive means which translate the characters' visions and mental states. She also reversed class and gender roles, as she made the female character Gossette come to the aid of Phillipe de Savières, falsely accused of murder, in order to save his name.

Michael Ramsay only has time for gathering his fortune in wheat. His wife seeks comfort elsewhere and, to avoid a scandal, her daughter Matilda assumes her mother's guilt. Ramsay nearly goes broke but gets rich again; his wife returns.

The story is about a crackpot inventor who manages to get himself in a heap of trouble. Though no fault of his own, it appears that he's run off with the wife of a cop and both the policeman and the inventor's wife are in hot pursuit. What makes this interesting are the inventor's clever devices--such as a hot air balloon car!

Mickey and Jackie feud over Mary, so Sammy schedules a championship bout between the two rivals.

The gang is trying just about anything to pass the time during their summer vacation. As usual, Mickey and Jack are trying to win the affections of Mary. In the interim, the village blacksmith, "Dad" Anderson, receives a lucrative contract to produce a creation of his: a sail-propelled scooter. The gang is lucky enough to get a hold of a few of these scooters, and happily sail down the city streets.

Two war orphans, Joseph, apprentice printer, and Lisette, typist, live with their grandmother in Belleville. Lisette loves his next door neighbor, the painter Amedee, but this one does not offer him a union. Joseph Amedee learning is the son of a general, advocates for Lisette and everything ends in marriage.

A starving actor, reduced to trying his luck in the movies, travels to Hollywood. His cat, Felix, poses as a travel bag and comes along.

The gang creates its own makeshift county fair, highlighted by a "movie," which is really a clever stage performance.

Two wagon caravans converge at what is now Kansas City, and combine for the westward push to Oregon. On their quest the pilgrims will experience desert heat, mountain snow, hunger, and Indian attack. To complicate matters further, a love triangle develops, as pretty Molly must chose between Sam, a brute, and Will, the dashing captain of the other caravan. Can Will overcome the skeleton in his closet and win Molly's heart?

This northwoods comedy-drama, by way of a circus drama, was directed by John Griffith Wray for Thomas H. Ince, and stars Madge Bellamy.

Ernie and Farina anger the police force with their shoeshine scheme. Later, the gang switches places with some runaways about to board a train.

This one has to be seen to be believed. Apparently the gang has witnessed a Ku Klux Klan meeting. They decide to form their own lodge. They call themselves the Cluck Cluck Clams. There is nothing racist about their lodge, which includes member Sunshine Sammy Morrison. The film ends with a chase. The gang gets tangled up with bank robbers. Sunshine Sammy gets his uncle and his pals to chase the bank robbers with the gang riding along.

After the gang goes to the horse races, they decide to have a derby of their own.

10-year-old Toby runs away from his abusive uncle to join the Big Top.

While visiting China, an American man falls in love with a young Chinese woman, but he then has second thoughts about the relationship. The plot is a variation of the Madame Butterfly story, set in China instead of Japan. The Toll of the Sea was one of the first and most successful Technicolor feature films.

A cobbler receives his back pension and invites the gang to celebrate with a picnic, but his car stalls along the way.

An Aesop's Fables cartoon about a hippo who had a few too many to drink, resulting in his wife kicking him out of the house. To win her back, the hippo conjures up a plan to make her jealous.

In Shanghai, an American girl who helps runs an opium ring meets an American agent disguised as a mining engineer. The two fall in love, and she has to determine where her loyalties lie.

This historical piece, set in the Huguenot days of France, is Norma Talmadge's 37th feature film and the longest to date at two hours. The plot involves a man forced into servitude who falls in love with the sister of his persecutor. It was Ms. Talmadge's fourth involvement with director, Frank Lloyd and the cast included future star, Wallace Beery.

A troubled young woman comes to live with her estranged father on the New York waterfront. A tough sailor falls in love with her, sparking conflict between her father and her suitor. What neither knows is that she has a secret that could cause her to lose both of them.

Entertaining Our Gang comedy has poor Mickey in the hospital being fed castor oil when his friends stop by to pay him a visit. As you'd expect, the kids start making all sorts of noise so the doctors decide to teach them a lesson by scaring them.

Author Fawn Ochletree stages a charity performance of her latest play, a Romanesque epic. The gang and other neighborhood kids are forced into starring in the play, much to the chagrin of the gang. They are completely unable to remember their lines, and struggle with maintaing their composure during the more serious moments of the melodrama. Finally, Jackie sets off a slew of firecrackers as the finale, scaring all involved.

Zaza is an actress and the favorite at an open-air theater in a small French town. When diplomat Bernard Dufresne comes to the village, he stays away for fear he will fall for her. But during one performance, while Zaza is singing on a swing, her rival cuts the rope and she falls. Zaza is badly injured and she makes Dufresne's acquaintance. A romance quickly springs up and he installs her in a villa. Their happiness is marred, however, when his wife appears.