The 40 most popular 1920s adventure movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


White Mice
1926 · 1h · US
Roddy Forrester has formed the White Mice club with a pal. The purpose of the club is to help those in trouble. When Roddy's father sends him to the South American republic of Montebello, he gets his chance to be of service. General Rojas, the former president, is locked away in a prison and slowly dying. Roddy decides to rescue him, especially since he has been inspired by the general's pretty daughter, Inez.


The Gold Rush
1925 · 1h 35m · US
A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.


Burning Words
1923 · 50m · US
David Darby and his younger brother Ross are both members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Ross is accused of murdering Slip Martin, but David doesn't believe his brother committed the murder and, not wanting to see him executed, takes the blame himself.


Soft Cushions
1927 · 1h 10m · US
Douglas MacLean stars as The Young Thief, who falls in love with The Girl, played by Sue Carol. Alas, the Girl has been sold into the harem of The Wazir (Albert Prisco), forcing the Thief to sneak into the palace to rescue her.


The Navigator
1924 · 1h 5m · US
The wealthy and impulsive Rollo Treadway decides to propose to his beautiful socialite neighbor, Betsy O'Brien. Although Betsy turns Rollo down, he still opts to go on the cruise that he intended as their honeymoon. When circumstances find both Rollo and Betsy on the wrong ship, they end up having adventures on the high seas.


Der Fremdenlegionär
1928 · DE
No overview available


Broken Chains
1922
No overview available
Shifting Sands
Shifting Sands
1923 · US
No overview available


Robin Hood
1922 · 2h 13m · US
The dashing Earl of Huntingdon excels in courtly life and jousting before King Richard departs for the Crusades. While away, Richard's treacherous brother, Prince John, seizes power and inflicts brutal tyranny on the civilians. Huntingdon transforms into the heroic outlaw Robin Hood, gathers his 'merry men', and battles to restore the true king and protect lovely Lady Marian.


Moonland
1926 · 11m · US
The Man in the Moon invites little Mickey and his dog over for a visit. They go on a magical trip and meet strange characters along the way.


Silver Valley
1927 · 50m · US
Fired for crashing his aeroplane into his employer's ranch, Tom Mix is elected sheriff in a town with, as a title stated, "a high mortality rate among sheriffs." Mix, of course, prevails against almost impossible odds, at one point cornering a gang of cutthroats holding leading lady Dorothy Dwan captive in the crater of a volcano about to erupt.


The Holy Mountain
1926 · 1h 46m · DE
In the mountains, Diotima meets Karl and fall in love and have an affair. Karl's friend Vigo mistakenly believes she's in love with him, causing rifts in all relationships.
Alma rifeña
Alma rifeña
1922 · ES
No overview available


Blockade
1928 · 1h 10m · US
Blockade was one of those curious 1929 hybrids known as a "part-talkie." The story of a dauntless female prohibition agent. In her pursuit of a gang of Florida rum-runners, Bess assumes three identities. At various junctures, she is "herself," a society belle and a gangster's moll.


Desperate Youth
1921 · 50m · US
Will the orphan girl win her hero in spite of scheming relatives who seek to keep her in the background?


Monte Cristo
1929 · 3h 43m · FR
Young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes, finds treasure, and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who betrayed him.


Belphégor
1927 · 4h 53m · FR
Belphégor deals with a series of mysterious appearances by a masked-and-robed figure in the Louvre; a security guard is murdered, and a later police trap is foiled when the phantom—“Belphégor” (the name of a legendary demon)—uses knock-out gas. Journalist Jacques Bellegarde of “Le Petit Parisien” (the real-life newspaper which published the original story in serial installments), investigates, and eventually discovers famous detective Chantecoq and his vivacious daughter Colette are also on the case.


Shanghai Bound
1927 · 1h · US
Landing at a Chinese port, tough sea captain Bucklin and his passengers are threatened by a marauding war lord, who intends to kill the captain and hold the others hostage as part of his campaign of destruction against all white men.


The Warning
1927 · 56m
This story of the British Silent Service operating on the coast of China finds Tom Fellows, captain of an opium-smuggling ship, going into a notorious Chinese joint called "The House of a Thousand Delights," where he finds a beautiful girl, Mary Blake, bound and captive. He starts a brawl, rescues Mary in the mêlée that follows, and then loses her when she flees to a hotel. He follows her and finds she is mixed up in some mysterious activity. However, he knows more about her than she does him (because he isn't what he is supposed to be - and she isn't, either), he stays close by, even to the point of using a machine-gun to dispel a mob at a Chinese temple.


Chasing Trouble
1926 · 50m · US
"Blizz" Ballard, summoned by the Homesteaders' League to track down a gang of cattle rustlers, arrives in Paradise Valley. In the saloon, he is taunted by Jerome Garrett, who hopes to intimidate him but is himself beaten in a fight. Ballard, after proving himself by riding an outlaw horse, is taken on at the Gregg ranch. Garrett, in the family's favor and admired by Emily, the judge's daughter, accuses Ballard of being a cattle thief, while his accomplices capture and torture the sheriff.


Captain Kidd
1922 · 3h 20m · US
Swashbuckling serial starring Eddie Polo. Chapter titles: 1. Shanghaied 2. The Pirate's Slave 3. Hidden Treasure 4. The Lost Fortune 5. The Missing Plans 6. Trapped 7. The Secret Passage 8. Outwitted 9. The Third Degree 10. Double-Crossed 11. [unknown] 12. A Fight for a Fortune 13. [unknown] 14. A Fight in Mid-Air 15. Victory and Happiness.
Unter Räubern und Bestien
Unter Räubern und Bestien
1921 · DE
German drama by Ernst Wendt


Deerslayer
1920 · DE
Chingachgook, son of the chief of the Delaware Indian tribe and faithful friend of Hawkeye the Deerslayer is raised by his tribe after being orphaned.


Pirate Gold
1920 · US
No overview available


Wüstenrausch
1923 · 1h 32m · DE
A romantic adventure set in the Sahara desert.


Mandrin
1924 · 5h · FR
Directed by Henri Fescourt.


The Poisoned Light
1921 · 1h 2m
Professor Grant signs a contract with Dr. Selin for the sale of his invention of cold light with the plans for his invention being kept in Grant's apartment. The negotiations are secretly heard by the illusionist Durk, who wants to seize the invention. A few days later Selín is found dead, killed by a light bulb filled with poisonous gas. Durk performs at the birthday party of Grant's daughter Anna and seizes the plans for the invention.


Fury
1923 · 1h 30m · US
Boy Leyton is second mate on board the Lady Spray, the ship on which his father is Captain Leyton. Boy is often chided by his father for his effeminacy and more often beaten. While in port Boy proposes to Minnie and suggests that she go to Glasgow to meet him there to be married. The ship sails and the Captain learns of his son's intention to marry. He calls him in and tells him about his mother, who deserted him, and tries to turn him away from all women, but Boy refuses to listen. The Captain is suddenly taken ill, but before he dies he makes Boy promise that he will not marry until he has found the man who wronged his mother. The Captain is buried at sea and the ship continues on its course. Upon reaching Glasgow Boy tells Minnie what happened. While at the bar, he meets an old woman who comes in begging. During the conversation he discovers that she is his mother, and he forces her to tell him who her betrayer was. A lost film.


Dog Scents
1926 · 23m · US
A short western/crime film.


Treasure Island
1920 · 1h 16m · US
Young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of the buried treasure of the buccaneer Captain Flint, in this adaptation of the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.


The Thief of Bagdad
1924 · 2h 29m · US
A nameless thief falls in love with the Caliph of Bagdad's daughter. The Caliph will give her hand to the suitor that returns with the rarest treasure after seven moons. The thief sets off on a magical journey while, unbeknownst to him, another suitor, the Prince of the Mongols, is not playing by the rules.


The King of the Kongo
1929 · 3h 9m · US
A Secret Service agent seeks his missing brother in Africa, and finds his mission complicated by ivory thieves, a girl with a mysterious past, and a troublesome gorilla.


Luis Candelas' Odd Adventure
1926 · 1h 6m · ES
Luis Candelas, the mythical bandit, just and generous, comes to the aid of a nobleman who saved his life. Adventure film directed by José Buchs.


Jimmy Higgings
1928 · SU
Jimmy Higgings is a worker of the plant making weapons for the Tsarist Russia and the German Empire. During World War I, Jimmy speaks at a spontaneous rally against the war. He is arrested. When released, he becomes unemployed. He is happy to hear the news about the revolution; he volunteers into the American expeditionary force thinking that having the weapons he can fight against Germans – the enemies of the Russian revolution. However, finding himself in Russia, Jimmy soon realises that the expeditionary force of American volunteers fights not against the Germans, but against the young Socialist Russia. Without any hesitations, he takes the path of revolutionary struggle, he spreads propaganda among the American soldiers and distributes Bolshevik leaflets. Captured by the American military police, Jimmy Higgings does not betray his friends. He is sentenced to twenty years in a military prison. Jimmy cannot stand it and loses his mind. Lost movie.
Flyin' Thru
Flyin' Thru
1925 · 50m · US
Lieutenant Willis returns home from France, where he was an aviation ace, to find that his father has been falsely jailed for the murder of Judson Blair.


Super Speed
1925 · 50m · US
Pat O'Farrell, a rich young man, takes a job as a truck-driver for his uncle's milk company, and falls in love with Cliare Knight, daughter of the Knight Car Company.
The Heart of the Yukon
The Heart of the Yukon
1927 · 1h 10m · US
A girl, Anita Wayne, finds herself an heiress of her mother's estate, but learns that her father lives in Alaska. Determined to find her father she travels to a mining town in the Klondike, but runs into "Cash" Gynon, a villainous saloon keeper, who claims to be her father.


Fair Lady
1922 · 1h 10m · US
Countess Margherita is a Sicilian girl who is about to be married, but Caesar Maruffi, the head of a criminal syndicate, wants her for himself. He arranges to have the bridegroom assassinated, and Norvin Blake, a young American (Robert Elliott), almost loses his life in his attempt to save him.
Silent Pal
Silent Pal
1925 · 1h · US
New Yorker David Kingston, a university student involved in the study of mine engineering, is falsely accused of theft and expelled from school. David's mother soon dies of grief, and he decides to end it all by jumping in the river. David is deterred from suicide, however, when he adopts a stray pup, which he names "Thunder." The dog later finds a map indicating the location of a gold mine, and David heads west to Northern California.


Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1925 · 2h 23m · US
Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy Jewish prince in Jerusalem, is betrayed by his childhood friend, Roman tribune Messala, and wrongfully sent to the galley slaves.
The 1920s were silent cinema's artistic peak, when directors had perfected a purely visual storytelling language just as sound arrived to displace it. German Expressionism and Soviet montage both date from here.
Adventure films are built on journey and discovery: lost worlds, long voyages, and heroes far from home. The genre overlaps heavily with fantasy and action, but its engine is always forward motion into unfamiliar territory.