
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
Harold Lloyd in Safety Last (1923) Colleen Moore in Flaming Youth (1923) Theodore Roberts as Moses in
The Ten Commandments (1923)
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
Title | # Reels | Director | Stars | Genre | Youtube Link | Comments | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adam and Eva | 8 | Robert G. Vignola | Marion Davies | Comedy | Link | A 2-minute video, representing what may be the only surviving fragment of this film. | |
Adam's Rib | 10 | Cecil B. DeMille | Milton Sills, Elliot Dexter, Anna Q. Nilsson | Drama | Link | ||
Anna Christie | 8 | John Griffith Wray, Thomas H. Ince | Blanche Sweet, William Russell | Drama | Link | ||
Brass | 9 | Sidney Franklin | Monte Blue, Marie Prevost | Drama | Link | ||
Bright Lights of Broadway | 7 | Webster Campbell | Doris Kenyon, Harrison Ford | Drama | Link | No music. | |
Broken Hearts of Broadway | 7 | Irving Cummings | Colleen Moore, Johnnie Walker | Drama | Link | ||
Chapter in Her Life, A | 6 | Lois Weber | Claude Gillingwater, Jane Mercer | Drama | Link | ||
Clouded Name, A | 5 | Austin O. Huhn | Norma Shearer, Gladden James | Drama | Link | ||
Cameo Kirby | 7 | John Ford | John Gilbert, Gertrude Olmstead | Drama | Link | No music; poor quality print; intertitles in Spanish. | |
Covered Wagon The | 10 | James Cruze | J. Warren Kerrigan, Lois Wilson | Western | Link I Link II | Link I: with organ score. Link II: with live organ score, from Circle Cinema. Organ player shown as inset alongside video of film. |
|
Daytime Wives | 7 | Emile Chautard | Derelys Perdue, Wyndham Standing | Drama | Link | No music. Last reel (out of 7 total) is lost. | |
Defying Destiny | 6 | Louis Chaudet | Monte Blue, Irene Rich | Drama | Link | No music. | |
Desert Rider | 5 | Robert N. Bradbury | Jack Hoxie | Western | Link | No music; video may be surviving abridged version of slightly longer 5-reel film. | |
Down to the Sea in Ships | 12 | Elmer Clifton | Marguerite Courtot, Raymond McKee | Adventure, Drama | Link I Link II | Link I: with piano score. Link II: no music, but marginally better video quality. |
|
Darling of New York, The | 6 | King Baggot | Baby Peggy, Sheldon Lewis | Drama | Link | 5-minute video, only surviving footage fragment of this film. | |
East Side - West Side | 6 | Irving Cummings | Kenneth Harlan, Eileen Percy | Drama | Link | ||
Evolution | 6 | Ovide Decroly, Dave Fleischer, Max Fleischer | n/a | Documentary | Link I Link II | Link I: with mood-enhancing organ soundtrack; film ends at 41:10, though video is longer. Link II: no music, better quality video. |
|
Einstein Theory of Relativity, The | 4 | Hanns Walter Kornblum, Dave Fleischer, Max Fleischer | n/a | Documentary | Link | ||
Enemies of Woman, The | 11 | Alan Crosland | Lionel Barrymore, Alma Rubens | Drama | Link | No music. | |
Extra Girl, The | 7 | F. Richard Jones | Mabel Normand, Ralph Graves | Comedy | Link I Link II | Link I: with organ score, but aspect ratio wrong (too wide). Link II: no music, bit clean print and correct aspect ratio. |
|
Flaming Youth | 9 | John Francis Dillon | Colleen Moore, Milton Sills | Drama | Link | This 11-minute video represents the only surviving footage (1 reel) of this film. | |
Green Goddess, The | 10 | Sidney Olcott | George Arliss, Alice Joyce | Adventure | Link | Film quality not great. | |
Grub Stake, The | c. 10 | Nell Shipman, Bert Van Tuyle | Nell Shipman, Hugh Thompson | Western | Link | ||
Haldane of the Secret Service | 6 | Harry Houdini | Harry Houdini, Gladys Leslie | Crime, Drama | Link I Link II | Link I: with small ensemble accompaniment. Link II: with classical soundtrack, slightly lesser quality video. |
|
Hunchback of Notre Dame, The | 12 | Wallace Worsley | Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller | Horror, Period drama | Link I Link II Link III Link IV Link V | Link I: restored version with small ensemble score. Link II: live-showing accompaniment with Spanish guitar and keyboard. Link III: with classical soundtrack. Link IV: live organ accompaniment in inset, lesser film quality, from Circle Cinema. Link V: with Renaissance period music accompaniment, but lesser picture quality. |
|
Is Money Everything? | 6 | Glen Lyons | Norman Kerry, Miriam Cooper | Drama | Link | ||
Let's Go | 6 | William K. Howard | Richard Talmadge, Eileen Percy | Drama, Action | Link | No music; films needs restoration. | |
Little Church Around the Corner | 6 | William A. Seiter | Claire Windsor, Kenneth Harlan | Drama | Link | No music; films needs restoration. | |
Little Old New York | 11 | Sidney Olcott | Marion Davies, Stephen Carr | Comedy | Link | ||
Lucretia Lombard | 7 | Jack Conway | Irene Rich, Monte Blue | Drama | Link: part 1,2, 3,4,5 | Only upload of movie is in 5 parts. No music. | |
Maytime | 8 | Louis J. Gasnier | Ethel Shannon, Harrison Ford | Drama | Link | Film is 51 minutes, but is shown twice on same uploaded video. | |
Merry-Go-Round | 10 | Rupert Julien, Erich von Stroheim | Norman Kerry, Mary Philbin | Drama | Link | With ads. | |
North of Hudson Bay | 5 | John Ford | Tom Mix, Kathleen Key | Western | Link | No music; with Czech intertitles and English subtitles. | |
Nth Commandment, The | 8 | Frank Borzage | Colleen Moore, James Morrison | Drama | Link | A badly deteriorated 21-minute fragment. According to the LOC, 5 reels out of the original 8 supposedly survive. | |
Our Hospitality | 7 | John G. Blystone, Buster Keaton | Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge | Comedy | Link | ||
Penrod and Sam | 7 | William Beaudine | Ben Alexander, Newton Hall | Comedy | Link | ||
Pilgrim, The | 4 | Charlie Chaplin | Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance | Comedy | Link | Video quality not very good, but this is the best there is online at this moment. | |
Regeneration | 6 | Richard E. Norman | Stella Mayo, M.C. Maxwell | Adventure, Drama | Link | An 11-minute video, representing only surviving reel of this film. Badly deteriorated. | |
Rosita | 9 | Ernst Lubitsch, Raoul Walsh | Mary Pickford, Holbrook Blinn | Comedy | Link | ||
Safety Last | 7 | Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor | Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis | Comedy | Link | ||
Scaramouche | 10 | Rex Ingram | Lloyd Ingraham, Alice Terry | Period drama | Link | ||
Slow as Lightning | 5 | Grover Jones | Kenneth MacDonald | Action, Drama | Link | ||
Soul of the Beast | 5 | John Griffith Wray | Madge Bellamy, Cullen Landis | Drama | Link | Film needs restoring. | |
Souls for Sale | 8 | Rupert Hughes | Eleanor Boardman, Frank Mayo | Comedy | Link | ||
Suzanna | 8 | F. Richard Jones | Mabel Normand | Comedy | Link | Film does not survive in complete form. | |
Shock, The | 7 | Lambert Hillyer | Lon Chaney, Virginia Valli | Drama | Link I | ||
Shriek of Araby, The | 5 | F. Richard Jones | Ben Turpin, Kathryn McGuire | Comedy | Link | Film quality not great. | |
Silent Command, The | 8 | J. Gordon Edwards | Edmund Lowe, Martha Mansfield, Bela Lugosi | Drama | Link | ||
Tango Cavalier | 5 | Charles R. Seeling | George Larkin, Ollie Kirby | Drama | Link | No music; aspect is off slightly. | |
Three Ages | 6 | Edward F. Kline, Buster Keaton | Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery | Comedy | Link I Link II | Spoof of 1916's "Intolerance". Link I: small ensemble score. Link II: organ score. |
|
Tiger Rose | 8 | Sidney Franklin | Lenore Ulric, Forrest Stanley | Drama, Western | Link | No music. | |
Ten Commandments, The | 13 | Cecil B. DeMille | Theodore Roberts, Estelle Taylor, Richard Dix, Leatrice Joy | Biblical drama, Drama | Link I Link II | Link I: organ score. Link II: mixed contemporary score. |
|
Woman of Paris, A | 8 | Charlie Chaplin | Edna Purviance, Carl Miller | Drama | Link | ||
Where the North Begins | 6 | Chester M. Franklin | Rin Tin Tin, Claire Adams, Fred Huntley | Adventure | Link | No music; film needs restoring. | |
White Tiger | 7 | Tod Browning | Priscilla Dean, Matt Moore | Crime, Drama | Link | ||
Within the Law | 8 | Frank Lloyd | Norma Talmadge | Drama | Link | No music. | |
West Bound Limited, The | 7 | Emory Johnson | Ralph Lewis, Claire McDowell | Drama | Link | No music. | |
White Rose, The | 12 | D.W. Griffith | Mae Marsh, Ivor Novello | Drama | Link | No music; film quality poor. | |
White Sister, The | 13 | Henry King | Lillian Gish, Ronald Colman | Drama | Link | ||
Zaza | c. 8 | Allan Dwan | Gloria Swanson, H.B. Warner | Drama | Link I Link II | Link I: piano score. Link II: with live organ accompaniment, which appears in inset; from Circle Cinema. |
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.
Title | Director | Stars | Buy From | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ashes of Vengeance | ?? | Johnny Hines | Oldies.com SHOF | SHOF #11 | |
Bell Boy 13 | William A. Seiter | Douglas MacLean | Oldies.com | Part of "The Douglas MacLean Collection." | |
Cricket on the Hearth, The | Lorimer Johnston | Josef Swickard Fritzi Ridgeway | SHOF | SHOF #96 | |
Drifting | Todd Browning | Priscilla Dean | Oldies.com | ||
Forbidden Trail, The | Robert N. Bradbury | Jack Hoxie | Oldies.com | ||
Luck | Edward Sedgwick | Hoot Gibson | Grapevine | Listed as lost in LOC database. | |
None So Blind | Burton L. King | Dore Davidson Zena Keefe | Grapevine Oldies.com | ||
Radio-Mania | Roy William Neill | Grant Mitchell | SHOF | SHOF #188 | |
Untameable, The | Herbert Blaché | Gladys Walton | SHOF | SHOF #62 | |
Virginian, The | Tom Forman | Kenneth Harlan, Florence Vidor | Grapevine | ||
Wolf Tracks | Robert N. Bradbury | Jack Hoxie | Oldies.com |