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This study investigates the role of masonry infill walls in the responses and failure modes of RC frames subjected to earthquake, by applying shaking table tests on two three-story, two-bay, 1/4-scale RC frame structures. Two types of RC frame structures, an infilled RC frame without infill walls in the first story (pilotis frame) and a bare RC frame, are constructed according to the seismic design codes of China. The pilotis and bare frames are simultaneously deployed on a shaking table when I-ELC180 ground motion and Wolong ground motion excitations are used. The two specimens are subjected to a sequence of dynamic tests with increasing intensity. This paper mainly presents and compares the phenomena observed from the shaking table tests of the pilotis and bare frames, including the dynamic properties, acceleration and displacement responses, evolution of damage and final failure mechanisms. The tests indicate that, compared with the bare frame, the infill walls in the pilotis frame can significantly affect the failure mode and damage distribution. Plastic hinges first appear in the 1st story columns for the pilotis frame under seismic loading, while plastic hinges first appear at the beam ends in the 1st story for the bare frame; The damage to the pilotis frame is increasingly concentrated in the 1st story as the earthquake intensity increases, while the damage distribution along the height of the bare frame remains almost the same as the earthquake intensity increases. The maximum interstory drift ratio of the pilotis frame is up to 50% larger than that of the bare frame under the same earthquake intensity.