The Iron Mask has just enough talking to not be a silent movie, but it’s considered to be Douglas Fairbanks’ farewell to that swashbuckling era. It’s based on Alexandre Dumas’ sequel to The Three Musketeers, and has been repeatedly remade as The Man in the Iron Mask.

Although silent films aren’t eligible the Internet Archive Top 100 (they’ll get their own list later), it’s nice that this hybrid ranked high enough to provide a wider audience to Fairbanks’ signature film style.

Leonard Maltin wrote that Detour “is the quintessence of film noir.” (He also said it was shot in six days, but later research suggests it took about a month.) A New York nightclub pianist hitchhikes to Hollywood to join his girlfriend. After a lowlife driver dies mysteriously, the pianist takes his identity to avoid police investigation. Then a woman discovers the ruse and starts applying pressure.

In 1992, Detour was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. There are at least a half-dozen copies in the Internet Archive. I hope I picked the best copy from its Feature Films collection for this entry in the IA Top 100.

Royal Wedding isn’t in the top 10 of the Internet Archive Top 100, but it includes the most famous scene of any movie on the list.  This classic MGM musical might have been known for Fred Astaire’s dance with a hat stand, but another solo performance stands out. Near the end of the movie, an ecstatic Astaire dances on the floor of his room, then on the walls, then on the ceiling.

Oh yes, there’s a movie too. Astaire and Jane Powell play a brother and sister song and dance team at the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten in London. It’s a fairly lightweight film, but musical fans will find a lot to enjoy here.

Woman on the Run is more than just a fine film noir with snappy dialogue. It’s also a time capsule of San Francisco and of the roller coaster at the pier in Santa Monica. Really it’s Dennis O’Keefe who does most of the running as the only witness to a mob murder. He goes into hiding, then his wife (Ann Sheridan) tries to track him down with the help of a newspaper reporter (Dennis O’Keefe). Meanwhile, the police and the mob are also searching for O’Keefe.

This movie was recently restored and preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. But this version is quite watchable, and it’s free as part of the Internet Archive Top 100.

The Stranger is just dripping with star power. Directed by and starring Orson Welles, it follows Edward G. Robinson as a war crimes investigator tracking down a high-ranking Nazi fugitive to an idyllic town in Connecticut where Loretta Young lives. It’s a film noir that captures the mood immediately after World War II, and it’s a fine addition to the Internet Archive Top 10.

“No one who worked on the film can remember any special anecdotes or problems concerning it,” wrote biographer Frank Brady. “Welles has said, since the making of The Stranger—which he completed one day before schedule and under budget—that nothing in the film was his, this despite the fact that the unmistakable Wellesian moods, shadows, acute angles, and depth-of-focus shots are pervasive.” Welles’ first film in four years was the only one he ever directed to have been a bona fide box office success upon its release.