Films

Read about the films 

Find a film by title, director, mood or the time you have.

Browse films

Films from 1928 — 22 films

Year: 1928Clear filters
The number 13 frames a cutaway house and concealed figures.
13 Washington Square
1928 · Melville W. Brown70 min · Comedy mystery

A status-conscious mother tries to prevent her son’s marriage while a burglar, a supposedly haunted house, and several competing schemes disrupt her control.

FunnyMysteryEasy
A branching plant root hangs against a numbered grid, with botanical sketches along the margin.
Alraune
1928 · Henrik Galeen108 min · Science-fiction horror

A scientist creates a woman through an experiment shaped by a mandrake legend, then attempts to control the life he treats as proof of his theory.

StrangeTenseModerate
A gambler's cuff partly conceals a playing card beside another card on worn green felt.
Avalanche
1928 · Otto BrowerWestern

A gambler finances his ward’s education by cheating at cards in Otto Brower’s silent Western for Paramount.

A shallow glass bowl distorts a pink and green chequered pattern, with the title curving across the glass.
Champagne
1928 · Alfred Hitchcock105 min · Comedy drama

A wealthy young woman’s father pretends to lose his fortune, forcing her to test whether independence and romance survive without inherited ease.

FunnyRomanticEasy
A woman's eyes peer over a newspaper filled with further eyes and the title on a pink strip.
Easy Virtue
1928 · Alfred Hitchcock70 min · Romantic melodrama

A divorced woman tries to begin again abroad, but marriage draws her back into a society determined to turn her past into a permanent verdict.

RomanticTenseEasy
High-kicking legs in stockings emerge from layered pink, white and black ruffles.
Moulin Rouge
1928 · Ewald André Dupont130 min · Romantic drama

Backstage life at the Moulin Rouge places performance, desire, and family loyalty under the pressure of Parisian nightlife.

RomanticTenseModerate
Two figures carrying bundles walk through a wide, golden landscape.
Ramona
1928 · Edwin Carewe78 min · Romantic drama

A young woman of mixed heritage leaves a hostile household with the Indigenous man she loves, only to face displacement, poverty, and violence.

RomanticBleakModerate
Original illustration: Immense cream Spies lettering on cobalt blue above small railway tracks and signals.
Spies
1928 · Fritz Lang150 min · Silent film

A master criminal, a government agent, and a conflicted operative move through a modern network of surveillance and deception.

TenseMysteryModerate
Original illustration for Steamboat Bill Jr.: A whimsical yet carefully engineered paddle steamer with enormous red paddle wheel, deck and brass chimney on a paper river; a gust curls flags and torn cloud layers.
Steamboat Bill Jr.
1928 · Charles Reisner70 min · Silent film

An awkward college son returns to his riverboat father just as rivalry, romance, and a cyclone overturn every expectation.

FunnyGentleEasy
A long-haired figure stands on rough ground, clothing blown sideways against orange.
Storm over Asia
1928 · Vsevolod Pudovkin130 min · Revolutionary drama

A Mongolian trapper is exploited by occupying forces and transformed into a political symbol they believe they can control.

TenseBeautifulPatient
A close-up of frayed dark fabric, a brass button and a strip of white lining.
Tempest
1928 · Sam Taylor, Lewis Milestone, Victor Tourjansky105 min · Historical romance

A peasant officer’s love for a princess collides with military hierarchy, imprisonment, and the Russian Revolution.

RomanticTenseEasy
THE CAMERAMAN lettering above Momo operating a large movie camera among blue and cream skyscrapers.
The Cameraman
1928 · Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton69 min · Romantic comedy

A street photographer buys a motion-picture camera and tries to become a newsreel cameraman while pursuing a woman who works at the studio.

FunnyRomanticEasy
The Crowd — Office windows and crowds merge with monumental lettering.
The Crowd
1928 · King Vidor98 min · Drama

One ambitious office worker discovers how difficult it is to remain an individual inside a modern city.

BleakGentleModerate
Original illustration: An engraved nocturnal dock with a steamer, coiled rope, wet planks and glowing windows beneath the title.
The Docks of New York
1928 · Josef von Sternberg75 min · Romance

A coal stoker on one night of shore leave rescues a woman from the water, and their hurried marriage tests whether either can imagine a life beyond the docks.

RomanticBleakEasy
Four wooden chairs stand in a row on pale green, one facing a different direction.
The Farmer's Wife
1928 · Alfred Hitchcock107 min · Romantic comedy

A widowed farmer makes a list of suitable women to marry, overlooking the person who understands both him and his household best.

FunnyGentleEasy
An empty film-set chair under a spotlight casts an imperial figure's shadow.
The Last Command
1928 · Josef von Sternberg88 min · Drama

A former Russian general, now an impoverished Hollywood extra, is cast by a director who recognises him from the revolution that destroyed his old life.

BleakBeautifulModerate
A girl's hands protect a lit match whose warm glow opens into translucent fantasy shapes.
The Little Match Girl
1928 · Jean Renoir, Jean Tedesco32 min · Fantasy drama

A poor girl selling matches on a winter street escapes hunger and cold through visions that grow increasingly elaborate.

BleakBeautifulModerate
A close-up drawing of a grinning man resting his cheek on his hand, with tents behind him.
The Man Who Laughs
1928 · Paul Leni110 min · Romance

A performer whose face was surgically fixed into a grin is pulled between love, spectacle, and aristocratic power.

RomanticBleakModerate
The Passion of Joan of Arc — A white flower and severe architectural shadows form a stark woodcut.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
1928 · Carl Theodor Dreyer81 min · Drama

A face, a trial, and nowhere for the truth to hide.

BleakBeautifulPatient
A bride's long pale train crosses rows of dark-clothed figures viewed from above.
The Wedding March
1928 · Erich von Stroheim113 min · Romantic drama

An impoverished Viennese prince falls for a working-class woman while family debt and social expectation prepare marriages for both of them.

RomanticBleakModerate
Original illustration for The Wind: A lonely timber house at lower right almost swallowed by long sweeping engraved arcs of sand and wind; one small amber-lit window.
The Wind
1928 · Victor Sjöström95 min · Romance

A young woman arrives on an isolated Texas plain where relentless wind turns social danger into psychological siege.

TenseBleakModerate
The title Under the Tonto Rim follows a stepped contour above a muted turquoise terrain print.
Under the Tonto Rim
1928 · Herman C. RaymakerWestern

A silent adaptation of Zane Grey’s novel directed by Herman C. Raymaker, listed as lost in the Library of Congress’s February 2021 inventory. Later versions appeared in 1933 and 1947.

TenseRomantic

Read a film closely

Character companions, film comparisons and a closer look at particular scenes.