1920s Thriller Movies

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.

A gang of Tripolitan pirates swooped down and kidnapped 13 wealthy brides, whom they held for ransom.

Un Chien Andalou is an European avant-garde surrealist film, a collaboration between director Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.

Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main attraction of the show, passes him information on Mabuse's next intended victim, the young millionaire Edgar Hull. Mabuse then uses psychic manipulation to lure Hull into a card game where he loses heavily. When Police Commissioner von Wenk begins an investigation of this mysterious crime spree, he has little to go on, and he needs to find someone who can help him.

London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.

When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.

As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman poisons herself in order to join him and is met by Death, who gives her three opportunities to prove that love is stronger than death, thereby freeing her beloved from his fate.

Norine Lawton is a young woman living by her wits in New York City. When she becomes friendly with Count Bonzi, a swindler, he enlists her aid in his scheme to sell worthless Mercer oil company stock to wealthy Christopher Gibbons, a retired war hero.

An action movie serial that premiered in 1924

The film is about a woman who experiences frightening visions after visiting an insane asylum where one of the inmates claims to be Count Dracula (here following the Hungarian spelling Drakula). She has trouble determining whether the inmate's visions are real or merely nightmares.

In a poor neighborhood of a big city, a crippled mailman is in love with a maid who lives in his building. However, she is in love with a wealthy and handsome young man, who soon disappears. The mailman provides the maid with letters that get her hopes up... but tragedy will soon befall all three.

A young racing driver combines the best features of two rival cars, thus producing an automobile which is the best entry in the race. He triumphs over the other contestants, incidentally winning the girl of his heart.

A poor man refrains from proposing to the woman he loves until he can secure the fortune left him by his uncle. Believing the treasure awaits in his uncle's abandoned mansion, he begins searching... only to uncover mystery, murder, and a killer ape.

London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.

A mirror in a creepy old Bavarian castle has the magical ability to reveal the future of whoever looks into it while the full moon shines brightly. A series of characters looks into the glass to learn their fate, and most are unhappy with what they learn. In the end, the hero smashes the glass and then commits suicide. After he is dead, the mirror magically reassembles itself into a whole as before.

A young man falls for a young woman on his trip home; unbeknownst to him, her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.

Lady Diana Wynham, a crumbling aristocrat, entrusts her new secretary, Prince Séliman, with a daring mission on whose success will depend the survival of her fortune.

The Soviet embassy in England sends two couriers with diplomatic mail to Leningrad. The inspector of security police, White, and a group of policemen attack the Soviet diplomatic couriers at night. The documents get to an English trackman, who gives them to his son, a sailor in Portsmouth.

The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.

Thirteen wealthy American daughters visiting Europe are secretly abducted in Berlin by a dubious guide and governess. Stenographer Eddie, who missed their arrival, discovers a plea for help from one girl and pursues the kidnappers across the countryside. After capture and escape, he ultimately tracks them down, rescues the young women, wins their gratitude, and secures his dream job as a reporter.

On the lam, criminal Alonzo hides in the circus as The Armless Wonder—a performer who uses his feet to hurl knives. Alonzo keeps the arms he really has concealed to hide his identity. Meanwhile, ringmaster's daughter Nanon has a phobia of being touched by men, but is romantically pursued by not only Alonzo but the strongman Malabar. Alonzo's desperation to remain with Nanon will only end in tragedy.

A young woman tries to find out the reason behind why all of her female ancestors have been killed before they reach their 21st birthday.

A world-famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he is horrified to learn they once belonged to a murderer.

After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown whose act consists of being slapped repeatedly and becomes infatuated with a showgirl colleague whose father intends to marry her off to the baron.

The mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.

A pretty movie star is stalked by a strange gang whose leader is infatuated with her in this superior Pathé serial written by genre specialist H.H. van Loan. Released in 15 chapters between May and August of 1920, the serial offered a glimpse into the still mysterious world of movie-making

1920 American silent serial.

Wealthy Bob visits his mother's Florida houseboat in order to remove her jewelry and stumbles upon a bobbed-hair bandit and her male accomplice, who mistake him for another burglar. A fight is broken up by the arrival of an elderly couple (still more burglars) who are posing as guests. Bob keeps his identity secret and passes himself off as the butler; the girl and her partner pretend to be the maid and the cook. A couple of idiotic detectives, arrive on the scene, closely followed by a heavy fog that traps them all on board.

When Letty Mason relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind and sand. Arriving at her new home at the ranch of her cousin, Beverly, she receives a surprisingly cold welcome from his wife, Cora. Soon tensions in the family and unwanted attention from a trio of suitors leave Letty increasingly disturbed.

Ma McGregor, big-hearted owner of a race-track hot dog stand, goes turf crazy and spends her savings on a stable of five horses, including Tarcutta; and hires "Losing" Jones as trainer.

Joe Ryan, a veteran train engineer, is demoted to a flagman position after a disastrous crash-- one caused by his cowardly and opportunistic partner. Though Ryan's failing eyesight is named as the cause of the crash, he's undeterred as he designs an automatic braking invention.

Learning his father's railroad business from the ground up, layabout Leonard Hathaway undertakes to win a large ore-hauling contract by making his the company with the fastest train. No trick is overlooked by the villain, Thomas Webber, but the hero thwarts his opponents and proves himself worthy.

Brice, a secret service agent, seeks information regarding stolen silver which disappeared from the government in 1804. Hade and Milo seek the fortune for themselves, as do the "conches" natives of Florida since the time the money was buried. Claire, half sister of Milo, falls in love with Brice, who is captured by Milo and Hade and taken to an island where he is to be killed.

A Chinese doctor vows revenge against the allied troops who killed his wife and child during the Boxer Rebellion.

To spite her fiancé, who claims to know how to handle women, Rosamond engages in reckless behavior, including racing cars and getting arrested. Climax: After surviving a car crash, she is captured by criminals but eventually rescued, leading to her submissive reform.

In a Western capitalist country where a fascist government attempts to suppress a socialist uprising, revolutionary leader Thomas Lamm is imprisoned by the government but he escapes to the Soviet Union. There, he meets the engineer Podobed who invents the 'death ray' – a device which explodes gunpowder and fuel mixtures at a distance.

A trapeze artist causes the death of another over their mutual love of a girl. When a new artist joins the troupe and falls in love with her, she must protect him from her ex-lover's jealous rage.

Philibert Bretonneau signs novels which are actually written by Moluchet, his secretary, secretly in love with Bretonneau's charming wife, Pauline... One day, Jim la houlette, the king of thieves, resurfaces in France. He steals jewels from Madame Clisson, the wife of a lawyer. Saint-Lévy, Bretonneau's publisher, has an idea : to simulate the theft of a manuscript by Jim la houlette, in fact by Moluchet posing as the criminal. But Moluchet, confronted by the real Jim, lets him run away and is arrested...

Jimmy Bradley, a fireman on the old locomotive No. 99, loves Kate Murphy, daughter of the proprietress of the local lunch counter. His rival, Bat Mullins, is engineer of the new mail train scheduled to make a competition run. When Mullins overturns the new train, Bradley completes the run and earns the contract for his company by delivering the mail in record time on No. 99. A promotion to engineer helps him win Kate.

A newspaper publisher finds out that his wild daughter has fallen in with a ring of gamblers. A reporter who has infiltrated the gang to get a story falls in love with the gang's female leader, and when the two are caught in a police raid, they find themselves in equal amounts of trouble.