My Collection of Early Color Films.
by emertens | created - 06 Jan 2023 | updated - 07 Jan 2023 | PublicMy collection of still extant early color films.
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1. The Toll of the Sea (1922)
Unrated | 54 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
While visiting China, an American man falls in love with a young Chinese woman, but he then has second thoughts about the relationship.
Director: Chester M. Franklin | Stars: Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan, Beatrice Bentley, Priscilla Moran
Votes: 898
Two-strip Technicolor feature. Last two reels are lost.
2. Cyrano de Bergerac (1923)
TV-G | 113 min | Drama, Romance, War
Cyrano de Bergerac is a joyous and witty poet filled with plenty of charisma and bravado in 17th-century France. He has only one flaw: an unusually long nose which makes him unattractive to any woman.
Director: Augusto Genina | Stars: Pierre Magnier, Linda Moglia, Angelo Ferrari, Maurice Schutz
Votes: 341
Not really a color movie, but very impressive stencil-/hand-colored
3. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Passed | 93 min | Horror
A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer.
Directors: Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle, Edward Sedgwick | Stars: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe
Votes: 20,099 | Gross: $3.75M
Horror movie with two-strip Technicolor inserts. (actually: only in the 1929 version. That version should have a separate entry on the imdb, but sadly, it doesn't.)
4. Seven Chances (1925)
Passed | 56 min | Comedy, Romance
A man learns that he will inherit a fortune if he marries by 7PM that evening.
Director: Buster Keaton | Stars: Buster Keaton, Ruth Dwyer, T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards
Votes: 11,731 | Gross: $1.30M
Two-strip Technicolor opening sequence.
5. The Open Road (1926)
64 min | Documentary
Travelogue filmed between 1924 and 1926 on a motor journey between Land's End and John O'Groats using Friese-Green's two colour additive process.
Director: Claude Friese-Greene | Star: Norman Swan
Votes: 177
Biocolor travelogue (Biocolor = another two-strip color process)
6. The Black Pirate (1926)
Not Rated | 88 min | Adventure, Action
Seeking revenge, an athletic young man joins the pirate band responsible for his father's death.
Director: Albert Parker | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove, Tempe Pigott, Donald Crisp
Votes: 2,141 | Gross: $0.68M
Two-strip Technicolor feature. Survives complete.
7. Irene (1926)
90 min | Comedy, Romance
Irene, a feisty Irish girl in Philadelphia, clashes with her family and walks out, heading to New York City to seek fame and fortune. She gets a job as a dressmaker's model and becomes ... See full summary »
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, George K. Arthur, Charles Murray
Votes: 102 | Gross: $0.30M
Two-strip Technicolor inserts
8. The Viking (1928)
Passed | 90 min | Adventure, History
Vikings compete for power and the love of a woman.
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Donald Crisp, Pauline Starke, LeRoy Mason, Anders Randolf
Votes: 489
Two-strip Technicolor feature with synchronized music score and sound effects (but no dialog or "live" sound).
9. Redskin (1929)
82 min | Western, Adventure, Drama
Wing Foot (Richard Dix), a Navajo, is educated in an otherwise all-white school. In the course of the story, he experiences prejudice from both the whites because of his race and the ... See full summary »
Director: Victor Schertzinger | Stars: Richard Dix, Julie Carter, Tully Marshall, George Regas
Votes: 223
Mostly two-strip Technicolor, but with sepia-toned sequences. Also synchronized music score and sound effects (but no dialog or "live" sound).
10. It's a Great Life (1929)
Passed | 93 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Sisters Casey and Babe work in a department store that puts on a show every year. As expected, things are going wrong with every act until Casey comes out to help Babe with her song. They ... See full summary »
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Rosetta Duncan, Vivian Duncan, Lawrence Gray, Jed Prouty
Votes: 315
Musical feature with two-strip Technicolor inserts
11. Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929)
Passed | 101 min | Comedy, Musical
Three Broadway chorus girls seek rich husbands.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Nancy Welford, Conway Tearle, Winnie Lightner, Ann Pennington
Votes: 214 | Gross: $5.54M
Two-strip Technicolor musical feature. Sadly only 2 incomplete reels and some short fragments are extant. See: Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films (2011)
12. The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
Passed | 130 min | Comedy, Music
An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.
Directors: Charles Reisner, Christy Cabanne, Norman Houston | Stars: Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer
Votes: 2,255
Musical feature with two-strip technicolor inserts. It's a shame it only features Laurel & Hardy in black & white.
13. Sally (1929)
Passed | 103 min | Musical
Sally was an orphan who got her name from the telephone exchange where she was abandoned as a baby. In the orphanage, she discovered the joy of dancing and has been practicing since. ... See full summary »
Director: John Francis Dillon | Stars: Marilyn Miller, Alexander Gray, Joe E. Brown, T. Roy Barnes
Votes: 415
Two-strip Technicolor musical feature. Wikipedia and imdb note that only a small part in color has survived. Maybe my copy is digitally colorized...
14. Broadway (1929)
Passed | 104 min | Crime, Music, Romance
A naive young dancer in a Broadway show innocently gets involved in backstage bootlegging and murder.
Director: Pál Fejös | Stars: Glenn Tryon, Evelyn Brent, Merna Kennedy, Thomas E. Jackson
Votes: 460
Musical with two-strip Technicolor ending.
15. The Mysterious Island (1929)
Passed | 95 min | Adventure, Romance, Sci-Fi
On a volcanic island near the kingdom of Hetvia rules Count Dakkar, a benevolent leader and scientist who has eliminated class distinction among the island's inhabitants. Dakkar, his ... See full summary »
Directors: Lucien Hubbard, Benjamin Christensen, Maurice Tourneur | Stars: Lionel Barrymore, Jacqueline Gadsdon, Lloyd Hughes, Montagu Love
Votes: 848 | Gross: $0.06M
Two-strip Technicolor Sci-fi feature. According to the wikipedia only the black & white version is available on DVD. Maybe my version is digitally colorized.
16. Devil-May-Care (1929)
Passed | 97 min | Music, Romance, War
A Bonapartist falls for a Royalist.
Director: Sidney Franklin | Stars: Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Jordan, Marion Harris, John Miljan
Votes: 164
Musical feature with a two-stip Technicolor insert
17. Rio Rita (1929)
Passed | 140 min | Comedy, Musical, Western
Capt. James Stewart pursues the bandit "The Kinkajou" over the Mexican border and falls in love with Rita. He suspects, that her brother is the bandit.
Director: Luther Reed | Stars: Bebe Daniels, John Boles, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey
Votes: 764
A Wheeler & Woolsey musical comedy feature with a half hour long two-strip technicolor ending.
18. King of Jazz (1930)
Passed | 99 min | Comedy, Musical
American Pre-Code color film starring Paul Whiteman and his Jazz orchestra.
Directors: John Murray Anderson, Walter Lantz | Stars: Paul Whiteman, John Boles, Laura La Plante, Jeanette Loff
Votes: 1,612
Two-strip Technicolor musical feature
19. Dixiana (1930)
Passed | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
In antebellum New Orleans, two men vie for the affections of a beautiful young girl during Mardi Gras.
Director: Luther Reed | Stars: Bebe Daniels, Everett Marshall, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey
Votes: 423
A Wheeler & Woolsey musical comedy feature with a 20 minutes long two-strip technicolor ending.
20. The Cuckoos (1930)
Passed | 97 min | Comedy, Musical
Two phony fortune tellers get mixed up with gypsies.
Director: Paul Sloane | Stars: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Jobyna Howland
Votes: 262
A Wheeler & Woolsey musical comedy feature with two-strip technicolor inserts.
21. Viennese Nights (1930)
92 min | Musical, Romance
In 1890, Gus Sascher joins the Austrian Army and romances the impoverished girl Elsa Hofner. Elsa instead marries the wealthier officer Franz von Renner, in an attempt at social climbing. ... See full summary »
Director: Alan Crosland | Stars: Vivienne Segal, Alexander Gray, Jean Hersholt, Walter Pidgeon
Votes: 100
Two-strip technicolor operetta feature
22. The Florodora Girl (1930)
Passed | 79 min | Drama, Musical, Mystery
A New York chorus girl's friends encourage her to pursue a handsome socialite.
Director: Harry Beaumont | Stars: Marion Davies, Lawrence Gray, Walter Catlett, Louis John Bartels
Votes: 1,385
Musical feature with a two-strip Technicolor finale
23. Follow Thru (1930)
92 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Club champion Lora Moore loses a golf match to a woman from another golf club. Then Jerry Downs, a handsome golf pro, and his goofy friend Jack Martin show up. Lora takes him on as her golf... See full summary »
Directors: Lloyd Corrigan, Laurence Schwab | Stars: Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Nancy Carroll, Zelma O'Neal, Jack Haley
Votes: 261
Two-strip technicolor musical comedy
24. Peacock Alley (1930)
Passed | 63 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Claire Tree is a singer/dancer who goes after what she wants in a straight-forward, no-nonsense manner, so when she finds herself in the New York City hotel-suite, in fashionable Peacock ... See full summary »
Director: Marcel De Sano | Stars: Mae Murray, George Barraud, Jason Robards Sr., Richard Tucker
Votes: 149
Musical feature with two-strip Technicolor insert.
25. Mamba (1930)
Passed | 78 min | Drama
August Bolte, the richest man in a settlement in German East Africa in the period before World War I, is called "Mamba" by the locals, which is the name of a deadly snake. Despised by the ... See full summary »
Director: Albert S. Rogell | Stars: Jean Hersholt, Eleanor Boardman, Ralph Forbes, Claude Fleming
Votes: 108
Two-strip Technicolor feature
26. Doctor X (1932)
Unrated | 76 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster
Votes: 4,267 | Gross: $0.88M
Two-strip Technicolor horror feature
27. Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Passed | 77 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh
Votes: 6,832
Two-strip Technicolor horror feature
28. Radio Parade of 1935 (1934)
96 min | Comedy, Musical
The Director General of the NBG is struggling with his staff as the complaints pile up on his programming.The staff put on a show that could turn the tide, if the DG can thwart a villainous agent and deal with his troublesome daughter.
Director: Arthur B. Woods | Stars: Will Hay, Helen Chandler, Clifford Mollison, Davy Burnaby
Votes: 158
Will Hay's first movie. Two sequences were filmed in Dufaycolor.
29. The Cat and the Fiddle (1934)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A romance between a struggling composer and an American singer.
Directors: William K. Howard, Sam Wood | Stars: Ramon Novarro, Jeanette MacDonald, Frank Morgan, Charles Butterworth
Votes: 471 | Gross: $0.99M
Black-and-white with final reel in color. First use of three-strip Technicolor in a feature-length film.
30. Kid Millions (1934)
Passed | 90 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A musical comedy about a Brooklyn boy (Eddie Cantor) who inherits a fortune from his archaeologist father, but must go to Egypt to claim it.
Directors: Roy Del Ruth, Willy Pogany | Stars: Eddie Cantor, Ann Sothern, Ethel Merman, George Murphy
Votes: 590
Musical comedy feature with 3-strip Technicolor finale.
31. Becky Sharp (1935)
Unrated | 84 min | Drama, Romance, War
Against the backdrop of Napoleon's Waterloo campaign, an ambitious woman from a family of entertainers begins a destructive climb up the social ladder.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke
Votes: 1,291
First 3-strip Technicolor Feature
32. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)
Approved | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A railroad man from the city befriends a mountain girl in a Kentucky family feud.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone
Votes: 1,366
33. Dancing Pirate (1936)
Approved | 83 min | Adventure, Comedy, Music
The story of a Boston dance teacher who gets shanghaied by buccaneers who might make his next steps be off the plank!
Director: Lloyd Corrigan | Stars: Charles Collins, Frank Morgan, Steffi Duna, Luis Alberni
Votes: 385
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