57 King Vidor Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

The Big Parade is a romantic war drama film which revolves around an idle young man from a rich family, who decides to enter the army when the US enters World War I. He begins to experience the harsh realities of war, and eventually falls in love with a Frenchwoman. However, they are unfortunately parted when he has to leave for the frontline.

Dorothy Gale, a simple farm girl finds herself in the magical land of Oz after a tornado hits Kansas. To return home, she must seek the help of the Wizard of Oz who stays in the Emerald city. On her way, she befriends a scarecrow, a Tin Man and a fainthearted Lion.

This romantic silent movie based on Rafael Sabatini’s 1906 novel of the same name follows an affluent courtier Bardelys in the court of France's King Louis XIII. Known for being a casual womanizer, he is challenged by another courtier to woo the beautiful Roxalanne. He accepts it and sets out to charm the lady, but instead finds himself in love with her.

Wine of Youth is a 1924 American silent comedy drama film which tells the story of a young girl Mary who is wooed by two suitors. One is a quiet and polite man named Lynn and the other is an aggressive man named Hal. However, due to the constant quarreling of her parents, she becomes disillusioned with marriage.       

On a hot summer afternoon, Emma Jones is gossiping with her neighbors about the affair that Mrs. Anna Maurrant is having with her milkman Steve Sankey. However, when the rude and unfriendly Frank Maurrant arrives all of a sudden, they are forced to change the subject. The next morning, Frank Maurrant informs his wife that he is traveling to Stamford on business purposes. Mrs. Maurrant sees this as the perfect opportunity to meet with Sankey, but she is unaware of the fact that her husband Frank is going to return soon.

Dulcinea Parker invites the Forbes’ family to spend the weekend, to get Mr. Forbes to invest in her fiancée Gordon’s costume jewelry business. But her habit of doing things incorrectly creates hilarious situations that create problems for her but also unwittingly redeem her.  

After his father kills himself after losing his fortune, his son Stephen Dallas tries to build his wealth on his own so that he can get married to his fiancée Helen Morrison. However, just before he was about to reach his goal, he reads in a newspaper that Helen has got married already. Therefore, he gets married to Stella Martin, the daughter of a mill-worker. Years later, Stephen runs into Helen, who is now a wealthy widow with three sons. Stephen finds himself attracted to Helen once again, and decides to ask Stella for a divorce.

American film director Wallis Vidor discusses with artist Andrew Wyeth, about how The Big Parade has influenced Wyeth’s life, as well as about the use of metaphors in art.

A great boxer, Billy gave up boxing and settled for hardscrabble life, taking care of his son, T.J, training horses, and drinking most of the time. Since his wife, Annie, had left him, he had the custody of his son T.J. However, Annie plans to return, triggering a new struggle. Billy is determined to keep T.J with him, so he returns to the ring. Will he be able to match his past success?

Unemployment during the Great Depression makes city couple John and Mary Sims take up farming, though they have no clue about agricultural work. With help of a Swedish farmer, they make good progress and form a cooperative with others. But when a draught threatens to crumble their dreams, the community digs a miles long trench to get creek water for their crops.

The Fountainhead is a romantic drama film which tells the story of a young individualistic architect Howard Roark, who is expelled from college because his design does not fit with the architectural thinking. Meanwhile, he is able to land a job with a like-minded man named Henry Cameron, but he again finds himself in the same spot after Cameron drinks himself to death.

In this movie, based on John P. Marquand bestselling novel - H. M. Pulham, Esq - a middle aged wealthy businessman Harry Pulham looks back at his life after he receives a phone call from his former Harvard friend about a college reunion and another one from a lady, Marvin Myles, who he was once in love with. The two calls make him reflect on his own disciplined life and whether he ever was happy.

Cynara is a 1932 romantic drama film, which revolves around the theme of adultery. The film tells the story of a British lawyer, who has to pay a heavy price after he has an affair with a young woman. 

John, a reclusive widower, falls in love with Millie who's been taken hostage by an escaped convict. The silent drama is based on a novel of the same name.

A recently divorced New Yorker leaves the city to join her 85 years old grandfather at his Iowa farm. Although he welcomes her, a number of distant relatives, who have been living on the farm since long, are not at all happy to see her and become especially alarmed when the old man starts showing preference to her.  

The Jack-Knife Man is a drama film which tells the story of a lonely riverboat man who is left a child by a dying mother. He begins to take care of the child and they begin to love one another, but there are others who feel that the child may be better off in an orphanage.

After her father is executed for shooting his wife and her lover, a half Native-American girl named Pearl, is sent to live with distant relatives in Texas. Although she is welcomed, she is met with hostility from the ranch-owner. She soon attracts the attention of Lewt, son of the ranch owner, who is lustful and unruly, but despite this, Pearl finds herself drawn physically to him as well.

This is the story of a penniless Czech immigrant, who arrives in the USA sometime in 1890s with nothing but a heart full of dream. Beginning his life as a mine worker, he soon takes up a more name and learns English before moving to Chicago to become a great industrialist, struggling at every step, but never giving up. 

Set in 1878 Texas, the film shows three western outlaw buddies, Jim, Lorn and Wahoo, saving a young orphan girl from a ruthless racketeer. They then take her to a rancher to be brought up in his ranch. Later Jim and Wahoo become rangers, while Lorn continues with his old ways. Meanwhile the girl grows up to be a beautiful woman. 

Ezekiel Whaley breaks up his daughter Tilly’s marriage to John, after learning that John’s mother may have had a bad reputation. John is upset thinking that Tilly has abandoned him and he moves to the city and gets busy in work. Meanwhile, Ezekiel tells his daughter that John has passed away, and  convinces her to marry another man named Joel.  

War and Peace is a romantic war drama film which revolves around the lives of few members of the Russian aristocracy, just few years before Napoleon’s invasion. After his friend passes away, Count Pierre Bezukhov receives a significant inheritance, and decides to get married. As for his friend, Prince Andrei Bolonsky, his wife dies of childbirth. Shortly after, he falls in love with another woman named Natasha, but is soon called to war.  

Bankrupt novelist, Tony Barrett, and his wife, Dora, are forced to move into Tony’s run-down farm in Connecticut. There Tony’s neighbor buys a piece of his land and Dora returns to New York. Tony stays behind and becomes romantically involved with his neighbor’s daughter Manya. Tragedy strikes the night Manya weds her fiancé, Fredrick. 

When chased by the law, three robbers, Jim, Wahoo and Sam, get separated. Later, Jim and Wahoo join Texas Rangers when they meet Sam and decide to use inside information to work with Sam. But as they rescue an orphan boy from Indian attack and thwart another major attack, Jim has second thoughts. Will he join Sam or lead an honest life?

Lightning Strikes Twice is a mystery drama film that tells the story of an actress who on her wedding night, discovers that her husband might be guilty all along for a murder. She also feels that his next intended victim might be she herself. 

It is a story of an anxious, distressed wife who bravely waits and prays for her husband to return safely during the Civil War.

Proud Flesh is a romantic comedy drama film which tells the story of Fernanda, a young orphaned girl who had survived an earthquake in San Francisco. She is soon adopted by her relatives in Spain, and raised as a gentlewoman. Years later, she is courted by Don Jaime, but she starts to dislike him. Eventually, she decides to return to the US, where she falls for a young plumber who manufactures bathtubs.

While running away from an abusive home and forced marriage, Susan Lenox falls in love with a kind stranger and begins to live with him in a nearby cabin. Caught once the stranger leaves, she flees again to become a dancer at a circus, eventually climbing the ladder to become a much sought after mistress. But what happens to her love?   The stranger she has met in the rented cabin? 

Irish-American outlaw Billy the Kid is caught stealing by cattleman Tunston, who decides to include him in his gang. Soon Billy grows close to Tunston and his fiancée Claire. When the territory-boss Hatfield kills Tunston, Billy goes after the man, but Sheriff Garrett is in hot pursuit to apprehend Billy and friends. Later, while escaping from jail, Billy gets shot by Garrett.

After falling off a yacht near some tropical islands, Johnny Baker is rescued by the daughter of a local native chieftain. Johnny and Luana fall in love, but when the volcano of her Luana’s home island begins to erupt, Luana knows that she must sacrifice herself to save her home island.  

On Our Merry Way is a slapstick comedy film revolving around Oliver, who has lied to wife about being a reporter in a newspaper, though he is actually a clerk there. 

A billionaire businessman hires a man in order to influence a South American dictator. Soon, the man starts having an affair with the wife of the billionaire after being infatuated with her, which turns the situation complicated.

Regarded as one of the most influential silent films, this film tells us four different stories, that demonstrates humanity’s persistent intolerance throughout the ages.