In 1928 the Academy Awards are handed out for the first time.

Wings wins Best Picture

Clara Bow

Top Movies of 1928

1. The Singing Fool , a musical drama Part-Talkie motion picture which was released in 1928 by Warner Brothers. The film starred Al Jolson and was a follow-up to his previous film, The Jazz Singer.Jolson plays a singing waiter who becomes a Broadway star .

2. The Lights of New York : the first all-talking feature film . The plot of the film centers around Eddie (Cullen Landis), a young kid from Upstate New York who is conned into fronting for a speakeasy on Broadway.

3. In one of his last silent films, Lon Chaney plays a magician who went into a kind of exile in the Belgian Congo after a fight with a man who stole his wife left him a cripple

Other Films

Lillan Gish in The Wind

A classic with stark realism, Gish plays Letty who goes out west to a cousin's ranch.She kills a man who tries to rape her and goes insane as the wind keeps uncovering the killers body .The movie, unlike the book upon which it was based , has an upbeat ending as her new husband helps her recover .

A Woman of Affairs, Greta Garbo and John Gilbert

A movie about fast living, 20s style

Lilac Time  Gary Cooper and Colleen Moore a WWI love story

There was a resurgence in WWI films in the late 20s .

Beggars of Life Wallace Berry, Richard Allen, Louise Brooks

An offbeat film about pre Depression hobos. Richard Allen is a gentleman hobo, who comes upon a crime scene.Brooks has killed her adoptive father, who tried to rape her .They travel together with her dressed as a boy

Myma Loy and Dolores Costello in Noah's Ark

One of Warner Brother's most expensive movies .

Un Chien Andalou

Un Chien Andalou (English: An Andalusian Dog) is a 16-minute surrealist film made in France in 1928 by Spanish writer/directors Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí .It is one of the best-known surrealist films of the French avant-garde film movement of the 1920s. You can watch it here .

The Last Command

The Last Command : A decorated, aristocratic Czarist General is reduced to penury after the collapse of Imperial Russia. An old adversary, now a successful director hires the general to re-enact the revolution which deposed him.

Chicago with Phyllis Haver and Victor Varconi