Inspired by "Midnight In Paris" I've tracked down a masterpiece from the 20's - Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
Now I know that - to modern tastes- it's overacted, a little extreme, but look at the effects - the theme, the facial expressions -all this for the 1920's!
It is amazing. And if you can't read the German subtitles, well, it doesn't matter, the film explains (for this 10 minutes at least) itself. Marvelous.