Best Early Color Films by Rank
40
1
1939
Victor Fleming, King Vidor, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy
Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley
Family / Fantasy / Adventure / Musical / Cult
USA
English
41
2
1939
Victor Fleming
Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Thomas Mitchell
Drama / War / Romance / Epic
USA
English
111
3
1937
David Hand
Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell, Lucille La Verne, Roy Atwell, Billy Gilbert
Animation / Family / Musical / Fantasy
USA
English
145
4
1938
Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles
Action / Adventure / Romance / Family
USA
English
490
5
1939
George Cukor
Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland
Comedy / Drama
USA
English
880
6
1925
Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton, T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards, Ruth Dwyer
Comedy / Family / Romance
USA
English (Silent)
1027
7
1937
William A. Wellman
Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly, Sig Ruman
Comedy / Drama / Romance
USA
English
1161
8
1939
Kenji Mizoguchi
Shôtarô Hanayagi, Kôkichi Takada
Drama / Period Film / Romance
Japan
Japanese
1232
9
1903
Edwin S. Porter
A.C. Abadie, Walter Cameron
Short / Action / Crime / Western
USA
English (Silent)
1233
10
1926
Albert Parker
Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove, Tempe Pigott, Donald Crisp, Sam De Grasse
Adventure / Action
USA
English (Silent)
1331
11
1925
Fred Niblo, Charles Brabin, Christy Cabanne, J.J. Cohn, Rex Ingram
Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy, Betty Bronson, Claire McDowell
Drama / Adventure / Romance / Epic / Religion / Action / History
USA
English (Silent)
1604
12
1939
Zoltan Korda
John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez
Adventure / War
UK
English
1646
13
1930
Howard Hughes, Edmund Goulding
Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jean Harlow, John Darrow, Lucien Prival, Frank Clarke
Drama / War / Adventure
USA
English
1704
14
1939
Michael Curtiz
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot, Frank McHugh
Western / Romance
USA
English
1747
15
1925
Harry O. Hoyt, William Dowling
Bessie Love, Lewis Stone, Lloyd Hughes, Wallace Beery, Arthur Hoyt
Adventure / Fantasy / Sci-Fi
USA
English (Silent)
1775
16
1924
Victor Sjöström
Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Tully Marshall
Drama / Thriller
USA
English (Silent)
1819
17
1934
Alfred L. Werker
George Arliss, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young, Robert Young
Drama / Romance / Biography
USA
English
2003
18
1923
Cecil B. DeMille
Theodore Roberts, Charles de Rochefort, Estelle Taylor, Julia Faye, James Neill
Drama / Religion / Epic
USA
English (Silent)
2010
19
1933
Michael Curtiz
Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Allen Vincent
Horror / Thriller / Crime
USA
English
2189
20
1935
Rouben Mamoulian, Lowell Sherman
Miriam Hopkins, Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke
Drama / Period Film
USA
English
2222
21
1914
Winsor McCay
George McManus, Thomas A. 'Tad' Dorgan, Roy L. McCardell, Winsor McCay
Animation / Comedy / Short
USA
English (Silent)
2231
22
1939
John Ford
Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, Eddie Collins, John Carradine
Adventure / War / Western
USA
English
2320
23
1939
Henry King, Irving Cummings
Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott, Henry Hull
Western / Biography
USA
English
2390
24
1938
Norman Taurog, George Cukor, H.C. Potter, William A. Wellman
Tommy Kelly, Jackie Moran, Ann Gillis, May Robson, Walter Brennan
Family / Adventure / Comedy
USA
English
2483
25
1938
Zoltan Korda
Sabu, Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Valerie Hobson
Adventure / War / Drama
UK
English
2483
25
1937
Herbert Wilcox
Anna Neagle, Anton Walbrook, Walter Rilla, H.B. Warner, Mary Morris
Drama / History / Romance / Biography
UK
English
2496
26
1929
Luther Reed
Bebe Daniels, John Boles, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Don Alvarado
Musical / Romance / Comedy / Western
USA
English
2502
27
1929
Roy Del Ruth
Nancy Welford, Conway Tearle, Winnie Lightner, Ann Pennington, Lilyan Tashman
Comedy / Musical / Romance
USA
English
2511
28
1927
F. Richard Jones
Douglas Fairbanks, Lupe Velez, Joan Barclay, Eve Southern, Gustav von Seyffertitz
Adventure / Romance / Drama / Religion
USA
English (Silent)
2511
28
1930
Thornton Freeland
Eddie Cantor, Ethel Shutta, Paul Gregory, Eleanor Hunt, Jack Rutherford
Comedy / Musical / Romance
USA
English
2524
29
1927
Cecil B. DeMille
H.B. Warner, Dorothy Cumming, Ernest Torrence, Joseph Schildkraut, James Neill
Drama / History / Religion / Epic / Family
USA
English (Silent)
2601
30
1930
John Murray Anderson, Pál Fejös
Paul Whiteman, John Boles, Laura La Plante, Jeanette Loff, Bing Crosby, Al Rinker
Music / Animation
USA
English
2601
30
1936
Dave Fleischer
Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, Gus Wickie
Animation / Short / Comedy / Musical / Family / Fantasy / Comic / Serial
USA
English
2605
31
1939
Michael Curtiz
Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale
Biography / Drama / Romance / History / Period Film
USA
English
2633
32
1938
Len Lye, Norman McLaren, William Coldstream, Pat Jackson, Lotte Reiniger, Harry Watt, Basil Wright
John Grierson, Stuart Legg, Evelyn Corbett, Dwight Godwin, Charlotte Leigh
Documentary / Musical / Animation / Short / Experimental / Comedy / Romance
UK / Canada
English
2633
32
1938
Ben Sharpsteen, Clyde Geronimi, Dick Lundy, Jack King, Jeff Kurtti
Florence Gill, Clarence Nash, Pinto Colvig, Billy Bletcher, Cliff Edwards
Animation / Family / Comedy / Documentary / Serial
USA
English
2689
33
1927
Alexandre Volkoff
Ivan Mozzhukhin, Suzanne Bianchetti, Diana Karenne, Jenny Jugo, Rina De Liguoro
Biography / Drama / Period Film
France
French (Silent)
2689
33
1936
Richard Boleslawski
Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith
Drama / Romance
USA
English
2689
33
1917
Wray Bartlett Physioc
Grace Darmond, Niles Welch, Herbert Fortier, Violet Axzelle, Charles Brandt
Comedy / Drama
USA
English (Silent)
2689
33
1939
Irving Cummings, Malcolm St. Clair, Buster Keaton
Alice Faye, Don Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg, Alan Curtis, Stuart Erwin, Jed Prouty
Comedy / Drama / History
USA
English
2689
33
1916
Cecil B. DeMille
Geraldine Farrar, Raymond Hatton, Hobart Bosworth, Theodore Roberts, Wallace Reid
Adventure / Drama / History / Mystery / War / Biography / Epic
USA
English (Silent)
2689
33
1903
Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès
Short / Fantasy
France
French (Silent)
2689
33
1929
Alan Crosland
Arthur Lake, Betty Compson, Joe E. Brown, Sally O'Neil, William Bakewell
Musical / Comedy
USA
English
2689
33
1929
Leo McCarey
Alan Hale, Kathryn Crawford, Walter O'Keefe, Josephine Dunn, Anita Garvin
Comedy / Musical
USA
English
2689
33
1921
Fred Niblo
Douglas Fairbanks, Léon Bary, George Siegmann, Eugene Pallette, Boyd Irwin
Action / Adventure / Romance
USA
English (Silent)
2689
33
1922
Chester M. Franklin
Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan, Beatrice Bentley, Priscilla Moran, Etta Lee
Drama / Romance
USA
English (Silent)
2689
33
1936
Henry Hathaway
Sylvia Sidney, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Fred Stone, Nigel Bruce, Beulah Bondi
Drama / Romance / Action
USA
English
2689
33
1937
Harold D. Schuster
Annabella, Henry Fonda, Leslie Banks, Stewart Rome, Irene Vanbrugh, Harry Tate
Drama / Romance / Period Film / Sports
UK
English
2691
34
1932
Michael Curtiz
Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, John Wray, Harry Beresford
Horror / Thriller / Mystery
USA
English
2709
35
1929
Charles Reisner
Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny, John Gilbert, Marion Davies
Musical
USA
English
2737
36
1938
Robert Clampett
Mel Blanc
Animation / Family / Short / Comedy
USA
English
2740
37
1929
Pál Fejös
Glenn Tryon, Evelyn Brent, Merna Kennedy, Thomas E. Jackson
Musical / Romance / Crime
USA
English
2740
37
1935
David Hand
Billy Bletcher
Animation / Comedy / Family / Musical / Short / Mystery
USA
English
2756
38
1932
Burt Gillett
Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, Esther Campbell, Marion Darlington
Animation / Short / Comedy / Family / Musical / Romance
USA
English
2756
38
1937
C. Allen Alexander
George Washington Carver
Documentary / Biography / History
USA
English (Silent)
2756
38
1922
John Capstaff
Mae Murray, Hope Hampton, Mary Eaton
Experimental
USA
English (Silent)
2756
38
1911
Winsor McCay, J. Stuart Blackton
John Bunny, Winsor McCay, George McManus
Short / Animation / Documentary / Comedy
USA
English (Silent)
2756
38
1939
Robert R. Snody
Marjorie Lord, Jimmy Lydon, Ruth Lee, Harry Shannon, Adora Andrews, Douglas Stark
Drama / Documentary
USA
English
2756
38
1933
Burt Gillett
Pinto Colvig, Dorothy Compton, Walt Disney, Mary Moder, Billy Bletcher
Animation / Musical / Family / Comedy / Short
USA
English
2792
39
1926
Howard Hawks
George O'Brien, Olive Borden, Phyllis Haver, George Beranger
Comedy
USA
English (Silent)
2807
40
1911
William F. Haddock
Francis Ford, Edith Storey
Short / Drama
USA
English
2807
40
1935
Ben Sharpsteen
Tommy Bupp
Family / Comedy / Animation / Musical / Short
USA
English
2807
40
1938
Tex Avery
Elvia Allman, Tex Avery, Mel Blanc, Bill Days, Paul Taylor Group, Bernice Hansen
Animation / Short / Comedy / Family / Fantasy
USA
English
2807
40
1937
Tex Avery
Tex Avery, Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher, Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Rogers, Danny Webb
Western / Family / Animation / Short / Comedy
USA
English
2807
40
1938
Dick Rickard
Don Wilson
Comedy / Family / Animation / Short
USA
English
2807
40
1938
Tex Avery
Tex Avery, Sara Berner, Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher, Arthur Q. Bryan, Hugh Farr
Animation / Short / Comedy / Family
USA
English
2807
40
1926
Reginald Barker
Antonio Moreno, Renée Adorée, Gardner James, William Austin
Drama / Crime / Romance
USA
English (Silent)
2807
40
1931
Max Fleischer, Dave Fleischer
Animation / Comedy
USA
English
2807
40
1939
Dave Fleischer
Jessica Dragonette, Lanny Ross, Pinto Colvig, Jack Mercer, Sam Parker
Family / Adventure / Animation / Fantasy / Comedy
USA
English
2807
40
1933
Jack Cummings
Ted Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Henry Armetta, Bonnie Bonnell
Comedy / Short / Musical
USA
English
2807
40
1934
Earl Duvall, Friz Freleng
Bernard B. Brown, Shirley Reed, The Rhythmettes, The Varsity Three
Family / Animation / Musical / Short / Comedy
USA
English
2807
40
1936
Tex Avery
Billy Bletcher, Tommy Bond, Joe Dougherty, Bernice Hansen, Martha Wentworth
Family / Animation / Short / Comedy / Music
USA
English
2807
40
1938
David Butler
Loretta Young, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, Douglass Dumbrille, Karen Morley
Drama / Romance / Sports
USA
English
2807
40
1934
Roy Del Ruth
Eddie Cantor, Ann Sothern, Ethel Merman, George Murphy, Berton Churchill
Comedy / Musical
USA
English
2807
40
1904
Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès
Short / Adventure / Comedy / Fantasy / Sci-Fi
France
French (Silent)
2807
40
1937
Burt Gillett
Billy Bletcher, Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, Clarence Nash
Comedy / Family / Animation / Short
USA
English
2807
40
1930
Albert S. Rogell
Jean Hersholt, Eleanor Boardman, Ralph Forbes, Claude Fleming, Will Stanton
Drama / Adventure
USA
English
2807
40
1929
Harry Edwards
Johnny Burke, Sally Eilers, Daphne Pollard, Matty Kemp, Carole Lombard
Comedy / Short
USA
English (Silent)
2807
40
1933
Nick Grinde
Pete Smith, Luis Alberni, Una Merkel, Franklin Pangborn
Comedy / Fantasy / Short
USA
English
2807
40
1938
Wilfred Jackson
Clarence Nash
Comedy / Family / Animation / Short
USA
English
2807
40
1935
Friz Freleng
Tommy Bond, The Debutantes
Animation / Short / Comedy / Family / Music
USA
English
2807
40
1925
Sering D. Wilson
Animation / Comedy / Short / Sports
USA
English (Silent)
2807
40
1925
Monta Bell
Zasu Pitts, Tom Moore, Ann Pennington, Lilyan Tashman, Bernard Randall
Comedy / Drama / Romance
USA
English (Silent)
2807
40
1907
Segundo de Chomón, Ferdinand Zecca
Short / Fantasy / Horror / Experimental
France
French (Silent)
2807
40
1929
Victor Schertzinger
Richard Dix, Julie Carter, Jane Novak, Larry Steers, Tully Marshall, Bernard Siegel
Western / Adventure / Drama
USA
English (Silent)
2807
40
1934
unknown
Leo Carrillo, Ted Fio Rito, The Debutantes, Eduardo Durant's Rhumba Band
Short / Music
USA
English
2807
40
1932
unknown
Patsy Kelly, Roy Fant, Judy Garland, Marjorie Beebe, Janet Reade
Short / Musical / Comedy
USA
English
2837
41
1935
David Butler
Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Evelyn Venable
Family / Drama
USA
English
2837
41
1912
James Keane, André Calmettes
Robert Gemp, Frederick Warde, Albert Gardner, James Keane, George Moss
Drama / History / Biography / Epic
France / USA
English (Silent)
