James Hall

John Ford's silent drama about a Bavarian widow whose four sons are scattered by the First World War: three go to fight for Germany, and one emigrates to America and ends up on the other side of the lines. The film was Ford's answer to the wave of anti-war films that followed The Big Parade, and it is built around the mother waiting at home while the war absorbs her family one by one. Ford's feeling for family and loss, the thing his later films are most remembered for, is already fully formed here. The film was a hit and established Ford as a director who could handle large-scale emotional material, not just westerns and action pictures. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · War · Silent

Howard Hughes produced and directed this World War I aviation epic, spending three years and a fortune on it and reshooting much of it for sound after The Jazz Singer changed the industry. The story follows two brothers, Roy and Monte, who join the Royal Flying Corps and fall for the same woman, with Jean Harlow making her debut as the platinum blonde who comes between them. The film is best remembered for its airborne sequences, staged with real aircraft and real danger; several pilots died during production. The Zeppelin climax, shot in early two-color Technicolor, is a spectacle of its era. Published in 1930, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

War · Drama · Action