American Feature Films of 1923

What This Page Contains

On this page you will find a list of all 60 American silent feature films of 1923 that can be viewed online, mostly on YouTube. For each film on the list, you will find a link to the best online version of the film.

Highlights of Our List of 1923 Online Films

The most noteworthy movie in our list of 1923’s online films is Safety Last, which includes what is perhaps silent film’s most iconic image: that of Harold Lloyd hanging from the outside clock of an early Los Angeles skyscraper.

A most interesting feature of 1923 was the release of 2 documentaries, both beginning with the same letter: Evolution and The Einstein Theory of Relativity; more importantly, both of these movies were enhanced with the talents of pioneering animators Max and Dave Fleischer.

Two important actors played their first starring roles in 1923: Norma Shearer (in A Clouded Name) and Ronald Colman (in The White Sister). Handsome and athletic Richard Talmadge’s earliest commercially-available film, Let’s Go, which features some absolutely stunning stunt work from the acrobat, was also released in this year.

Other stars who appear on our lists for the first time in 1923 are rugged Richard Dix and lovely Eleanor Boardman.

1923 was a great year for actresses Colleen Moore and Irene Rich, both of whom star in three films on our list, the latter twice with Monte Blue.

Turning to directors, we find three comedies on our 1923 list from Mack Sennett Studios stalwart F. Richard Jones, two starring Mabel Normand, and one with Ben Turpin. Lambert Hillyer took a break from filming William S. Hart westerns to direct Lon Chaney in The Shock. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, we find Ernst Lubitsch’s first Hollywood productions in our list for this year, Rosita, with Mary Pickford. In 1923, Charlie Chaplin directed his favorite starlet Edna Purviance in his first non-comedic work, A Woman of Paris.

Lastly, any article on film in 1923 would be remiss if it did not mention one of the most memorable of all silent pictures, the indelible production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Lon Chaney in his most memorable roles, outside of The Phantom of the Opera.

Want to See Films From Other Years?

Go to American Feature Films of: 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931

1923 Statistics (per the Library of Congress silent movie database):

Number of Features Released: 590
Number Extant (complete and incomplete): 208
Number Completely Lost: 382

1923 American Feature Films Available for Viewing Online

American Feature Films of 1923 Commercially Available,
But Not Yet Uploaded Online

The goal is to get the films listed below uploaded to YouTube. All of these films are in the public domain. However, any musical accompaniment is likely not in the public domain, and may be flagged by YouTube; consequently, you may wish to upload them without any soundtrack (or add your own). And of course, IF YOU ADD A NEW FILM TO YOUTUBE, LET US KNOW, and we will link to your video.