Top 10 Films of 1926

1. "The General" (Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton, United Artists)

2. "A Page Of Madness" (Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japan)

3. "Mantrap" (Victor Fleming, Paramount)

4. "For Heaven's Sake" (Sam Taylor, Paramount)

5. "The Strong Man" (Frank Capra, First National)

6. "So This Is Paris" (Ernst Lubitsch, Warner)

7. "Mother" (Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet Union)

8. "Ella Cinders" (Alfred E. Green, First National)

9. "Beau Geste" (Herbert Brenon, Paramount)

10. "Fig Leaves" (Howard Hawks, Fox)

Other great films:

The Adventures Of Prince Achmed (Germany)
The Bat
Battling Butler
Bed And Sofa (Soviet Union)

The Bride Of Glomdal (Norway)
Brown Of Harvard
Cyganka Aza (Poland)
Don Juan
Dura lex (Soviet Union)
Faust (Germany)

Gribiche (France)

It's The Old Army Game
Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni (Italy)

Moana

Nell Gwyn (UK)

The Overcoat (Soviet Union)

The Scarlet Letter
The Show Off
Song Of Home (Japan)

Sparrows
Three Bad Men
Tramp Tramp Tramp

The Triumph Of The Rat (UK)

Voyage au Congo (France)

The Winning Of Barbara Worth

Short Top 10:

1. "Wandering Willies" (Del Lord, Sennett, Pathe)

2. "Menilmontant" (Dimitri Kirsanoff, France)

3. "Circus Today" (Del Lord, Sennett, Pathe)

4. "45 Minutes From Hollywood" (Fred Guiol, Roach, Pathe)

5. "Danger Ahead" (Percy Pembroke, USA)

6. "Hoboken To Hollywood" (Del Lord, Sennett, Pathe)

7. "Mighty Like A Moose" (Leo McCarey, Roach, Pathe)

8. "Thundering Fleas" (Robert McGowan, Roach, Pathe)

9. "Filmstudie" (Hans Richter, Germany)

10. "A Plantation Act" (Philip Roscoe, Warner)

Other great shorts:

Along Came Auntie

Ice Cold Cocos

Cartoon Top 10:

1. "Alice's Mysterious Mystery" (Walt Disney, Winkler)

2. "Spirals" (Oskar Fischinger, Germany)

3. "Where Friendship Ceases" (Paul Terry, Pathé)

4, "Koko's Toot Toot" (Dave Fleischer, Red Seal)

5. "Anemic Cinema" (Marcel Duchamp, France)

6. "Fadeaway" (Dave Fleischer, Red Seal)

7. "Koko The Convict" (Dave Fleischer, Red Seal)

8. "Koko's Paradise" (Dave Fleischer, Red Seal)

9. "Alice In The Wooly West" (Walt Disney, Winkler)

10. "Alice The Fire Fighter" (Walt Disney, Winkler)  

Other great cartoons:

Alice's Orphan

Weak films of 1926:

Bardelys The Magnificent
The Bells
Black Pirate
The Boob
Flesh And The Devil
The Holy Mountain (Germany)
Love 'Em And Leave 'Em
Nana (France)
Son Of The Sheik
So's Your Old Man
Torrent
What Price Glory

Weak shorts:

Bromo And Juliet
Chasing The Chaser
Clara Cleans Her Teeth
Emak-Bakia (France)
For Sadie's Sake
Fresh Paint
Hoboken To Hollywood
Long Fliv The King
Now You Can Tell One
The Plumber
Rien que les heures (France)
Saturday Afternoon
Three Of A Kind

Weak cartoons:

Alice On The Farm
Alice's Balloon Race
Alice's Little Parade
Buck Fever
In The Good Old Summertime
Roman Scandal

Slick Sleuths
Through Thick And Thin
Two-Lip Time
Watered Stock
Why Argue
The Windjammers

A Page Of Madness (1926) *****

The greatest Japanese movie of the 1920's, a visual masterpiece of amazing cinematography and dizzying montage.

The General (1926) *****

The best silent comedy of all times, starring Buster Keaton as a Southern railway engineer trying to recover his locomotive stolen by Union spies during the Civil War. Perfectly directed and screamingly funny.

Beau Geste (1926) ****

The original, silent adaptation starring Ronald Coleman.

For Heaven's Sake (1926) ****

Exciting Harold Lloyd comedy full of wild chases.

Mantrap (1926) ****

Clara Bow was the greatest sex symbol of the Jazz Age and this is her best film - a funny comedy set in the Canadian wilderness.

The Strong Man (1926) ****

Harry Langdon's best feature film. It should be seen by everyone who questions his place as one of four great silent comics alongside Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. It's a story of a Belgian soldier who comes to America looking for his girlfriend. Gags are many and great.

Ella Cinders (1926) ****

Coleen Moore gives a fabulous performance as a modern-day Cinderella who tries to become a Hollywood movie star. Forget “The Artist” (Oscar or no Oscar) – this is the best silent film set in Tinseltown, with Marion Davis' “Show People” a close runner-up. Of course, “Singin' In The Rain” is still the greatest film about Hollywood, sound or silent.

Brown Of Harvard (1926) ***

A touching homosexual love story is barely concealed in this otherwise routine, thought very well-made, college drama set in Harvard.

Three Bad Men (1926) ***

Uneven western directed by John Ford.

The Bride Of Glomdal (1926) ***

A Norwegian melodrama directed by Carl T. Dreyer.

Song Of Home (1926) ***

Kenji Mizoguchi's earliest surviving film, an ode to the virtues of country life.

It's The Old Army Game (1926) ***

The luminous presence of legendary Louise Brooks lifts this otherwise average silent comedy starring W.C. Fields.

Battling Butler (1926) ***

Buster pretends to be a boxing champion to marry a pretty mountain girl. The most underrated of all Keaton's silent comedies. Quite amusing.

The Scarlet Letter (1926) ***

Lillian Gish gives a sublime performance as Hester Prynne in this silent adaptation of Hawthorne's classic novel.

Bed And Sofa (1926) ***

Very unusual Soviet film about a woman living in the same appartment with her husband and her lover.

Don Juan (1926) ***

Exciting swashbuckler starring John Barrymore as the famous Spanish playboy saving an innocent girl (Mary Astor) from the cruel fangs of the treacherous Borgias.

[In the copy I saw on TV, an early segment (67-87 min) in fact belongs later in the film, immediately after the (87-105 min) segment].

Alice In The Wooly West (1926) ***

Fadeaway (1926) ***

The Adventures Of Prince Achmed (1926) ***

The first feature-length animated film, using the shadow puppet technique, made in Germany and directed by Lotte Reininger.

The Winning Of Barbara Worth (1926) ***

Fig Leaves (1926) ***

One of Howard Hawks' earliest films, with his sense of irony already in full display. Hilarious intertitles.