text:
1919 in film

The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top six 1919 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Events

 * February 5 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.
 * March – Oscar Micheaux premieres The Homesteader, the first feature-length race film, starring pioneering African American actress Evelyn Preer, becoming the first African American to produce and direct a motion picture.
 * May 13 – D. W. Griffith's first film to be released by United Artists, Broken Blossoms, has its premiere in New York City.
 * August 29 – The Miracle Man displayed Lon Chaney's talent for make-up and made him famous as a character actor.
 * September 1 – United Artists release their first film, His Majesty, the American starring Douglas Fairbanks.
 * September 18 – Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin opens rebuilt as a permanent cinema with the première of Ernst Lubitsch's Madame Dubarry.
 * September 25 – Dalagang Bukid (The Country Maiden), the first Filipino feature-length film made in the Philippines, released.
 * October 24 – The Capitol Theatre in New York City becomes one of the largest cinemas in the world with 4,000 seats.
 * November 16 – Constance Talmadge becomes a star with the release of A Virtuous Vamp.
 * November 23 – Cecil B. DeMille's Male and Female is released and grosses $1,256,226.59, establishing Gloria Swanson as a worldwide star.
 * Harold Lloyd begins holding test screenings of his films and modifying them based on audience feedback, a technique which continues in use.
 * Tri-Ergon sound-on-film technology is developed by three German inventors, Josef Engl, Hans Vogt (engineer), and Joseph Massole; however, the era of sound films is over 6 years away.

A

 * Anne of Green Gables, directed by William Desmond Taylor; starring Mary Miles Minter and Paul Kelly
 * The Avalanche directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
 * L'atleta fantasma/ The Ghost Athlete (Italian), directed by Raimondo Scotti, starring Mario Guaita-Ausonia and Elsa Zara, features a masked superhero/ wrestler character

B

 * The Beetle, directed by Alexander Butler – (GB) based on the 1897 novel The Beetle: A Mystery by Richard Marsh
 * The Belle of New York, directed by Julius Steger; starring Marion Davies
 * The Better 'Ole – (GB)
 * Blind Husbands, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim
 * Bolshevism on Trial, directed by Harley Knoles
 * The Boy in Blue (Knabe in Blau), directed by F. W. Murnau – (Germany)
 * Broken Blossoms, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess
 * Bumping into Broadway, starring Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels

C

 * Captain Kidd's Kids, a Harold Lloyd short
 * The Cinema Murder, directed by George D. Baker; starring Marion Davies
 * Country Maiden (Dalagang Bukid), directed by José Nepomuceno; starring Atang de la Rama – Philippines
 * Creaking Stairs (aka Dearie) directed by Rupert Julian for Universal Pictures, starring Mary MacLaren and Herbert Prior

D

 * Daddy-Long-Legs, starring Mary Pickford
 * Damaged Goods, directed by Alexander Butler – (GB)
 * Dance of Death/ Totentanz (German) written by Fritz Lang, directed by Otto Rippert, starring Werner Krauss
 * The Dark Star, directed by Allan Dwan; starring Marion Davies and Norman Kerry
 * The Delicious Little Devil, starring Mae Murray and Rudolph Valentino
 * The Devil's Locksmith (Austrian) directed by Franz Ferdinand, starring Ferdinand and Herr Ruibar
 * Different from the Others, directed by Richard Oswald, starring Conrad Veidt – (Germany)
 * The Doll, directed by Ernst Lubitsch – (Germany)
 * Don't Change Your Husband, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gloria Swanson

E

 * The Echo of Youth, directed by Ivan Abramson

F

 * The Face at the Window (Australian) directed by Charles Villiers, starring D.B. O'Conner, Agnes Dobson and Claude Turton, based on the 1897 stage play by F. Brooke Warren
 * The False Faces, directed by Irvin Willat, starring Henry B. Walthall and Lon Chaney
 * The First Men in the Moon – (GB)

G

 * Getting Mary Married, directed by Allan Dwan; starring Marion Davies and Matt Moore
 * The Grim Game, starring Harry Houdini

H

 * The Haunted Bedroom (aka The Ghost of Whispering Oaks) directed by Fred Niblo for Thomas H. Ince, starring Enid Bennett (Niblo's wife) and Dorcas Matthews
 * Haunting Shadows, directed by Henry King, starring H. B. Warner and Edward Peil Sr., based on the 1906 novel The House of a Thousand Candles by Meredith Nicholson
 * Hawthorne of the U.S.A. directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
 * Heart o' the Hills directed by Sidney Franklin, starring Mary Pickford
 * Here Comes the Bride directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore, Faire Binney
 * His Majesty, the American, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * The Homesteader, directed by Oscar Micheaux, starring Evelyn Preer

I

 * Intoxication, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Asta Nielsen (Germany)

J

 * The Jack of Hearts, starring Hoot Gibson
 * J'accuse (French), written and directed by Abel Gance for Pathe Films – (France) starring Romuald Joubé, Severin-Mars, and Maryse Dauvray; this was Gance's most acclaimed film and he remade it with sound in 1938

K

 * The Knickerbocker Buckaroo, starring Douglas Fairbanks

L

 * The Life Line, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Wallace Beery
 * Lilith and Ly (Austrian) written by Fritz Lang, directed by Erich Kober, starring Elga Beck and Ernst Escherich
 * The Lost Battalion
 * The Love Cheat, starring June Caprice and Creighton Hale
 * Love's Prisoner, starring Olive Thomas
 * Lucrezia Borgia (Italian) directed by Augusto Genina, starring Diana Karenne

M

 * Madame DuBarry, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings – (Germany)
 * Madness / Wahnsinn (German) produced and directed by Conrad Veidt, who also starred in the film; adapted from a novel by Kurt Muenzner
 * Male and Female, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Gloria Swanson and Thomas Meighan
 * The Master Mystery, (serial), starring Harry Houdini
 * The Miracle Man, starring Thomas Meighan, Lon Chaney and Betty Compson
 * The Mistress of the World, directed by Joe May (Weimar Republic)
 * The Monkey's Paw (British) lost film based on the story by W. W. Jacobs first published by 1902, and the related one-act stage play written by Louis N. Parker in 1907
 * My Lady's Garter, directed by Maurice Tourneur
 * My Wife, the Movie Star, directed by Ernst Lubitsch (Germany)

N

 * Nabeshima Neko Sodo (Japanese) a ghost-cat film produced by Nikkatsu Films, starring Matsunosuke Onoe, based on the Kabuki play by Joko Segawa III
 * Okazaki Kaibyo-den (Japanese) starring Matsunosuke Onoe, another ghost-cat movie based on an early 1820s Japanese novel (which was adapted as a Kabuki play in 1827)

O

 * The Oyster Princess (Die Austerprinzessin) – (Germany)

P

 * The Phantom Honeymoon, written and directed by J. Searle Dawley (who directed the 1910 Thomas Edison Frankenstein), starring Leon Dadmun and Marguerite Marsh
 * The Plague of Florence / Die Pest in Florenz (German) written by Fritz Lang, directed by Otto Rippert, starring Otto Mannstaedt and Anders Wikman; this was Fritz Lang's adaptation of The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

R

 * Ravished Armenia (aka Auction of Souls) – directed by Oscar Apfel, starring Aurora Mardiganian
 * The Roaring Road, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid

S

 * Sahara, starring Louise Glaum, written by C. Gardner Sullivan
 * Satanas / Satan (German) written by Robert Wiene, directed by F. W. Murnau, starring Fritz Kortner and Conrad Veidt; a small fragment of this film still exists at the Cinémathèque Française
 * The Sentimental Bloke – (Australia)
 * Sir Arne's Treasure (Herr Arnes pengar), directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Richard Lund – (Sweden)
 * A Society Exile directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
 * Sons of Ingmar (Ingmarssönerna), directed by Victor Sjöström – (Sweden)
 * South (documentary of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition), filmed by Frank Hurley – (GB)

T

 * The Test of Honor, directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore, and Constance Binney
 * The Thirteenth Chair, directed by Leonce Perret, starring Yvonne Delva and Creighton Hale, based on a play by Bayard Veiller; this film was later remade by Tod Browning in 1929 with sound
 * To Let (British) short ghost film directed by James Reardon, starring Reardon and Peggy Patterson
 * The Trembling Hour, directed by George Siegmann for Universal Films, starring Kenneth Harlan and Helen Jerome Eddy; parts of this film were shot in San Quentin State Prison in California
 * True Heart Susie, starring Lillian Gish and Bobby Harron
 * The Twin Pawns (aka The Curse of Greed) written and directed by Leonce Perret, starring Mae Murray (playing twins) and Warner Oland, based on the Wilkie Collins novel The Woman in White

V

 * The Valley of the Giants, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid
 * La Venganza de Don Silvestre, directed by José Nepomuceno – (Philippines)
 * Victory, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Lon Chaney, Seena Owen, Wallace Beery, Jack Holt

W

 * Weird Tales/ Unheimliche Geschichten/ Uncanny Tales (German) horror anthology written and directed by Richard Oswald, starring Conrad Veidt and Anita Berber; composed of 5 weird stories adapted from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and others
 * When the Clouds Roll By, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * The White Heather, directed by Maurice Tourneur
 * The Wicked Darling, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean
 * The Witness for the Defense starring Elsie Ferguson and Warner Oland

Y

 * Yankee Doodle in Berlin, directed by F. Richard Jones, starring Bothwell Browne, Ford Sterling, Marie Prevost, produced by Mack Sennett
 * You're Fired, directed by James Cruze, starring Wallace Reid & Wanda Hawley

Comedy film series
Only the films of the series released in 1919 are collected.

Buster Keaton (1917–1941)
Films starring Roscoe Arbuckle, featuring Buster Keaton released in 1919:
 * September 7: Back Stage a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
 * October 26: The Hayseed as a Manager, general store.

Charlie Chaplin (1914–1923)
Charlie Chaplin wrote, produced, directed, and starred in 9 films for his own production company between 1918 and 1923. These films were distributed by First National. Below the movies filmed in 1919: Score composed for 1973 re-release
 * May 15: Sunnyside; Three reels Score composed for 1974 re-release
 * December 15: A Day's Pleasure; Two reels. First film with Jackie Coogan, future star of "The Kid"

 * Uncompleted and unreleased films

 * The Professor as Professor Bosco, Slated as a two-reeler, but never issued

Harold Lloyd (1913–1921)
Glasses character ("The Boy"):
 * Wanted – $5,000
 * Going! Going! Gone!
 * Ask Father
 * On the Fire, aka. The Chef
 * I'm on My Way
 * Look Out Below
 * The Dutiful Dub
 * Next Aisle Over
 * A Sammy in Siberia
 * Just Dropped In
 * Young Mr. Jazz
 * Crack Your Heels
 * Ring Up the Curtain, aka Back-Stage!
 * Si, Senor
 * Before Breakfast
 * The Marathon
 * Pistols for Breakfast
 * Swat the Crook
 * Off the Trolley
 * Spring Fever
 * Billy Blazes, Esq. – as Billy Blazes; the film was a parody of Westerns of the time
 * Just Neighbors
 * At the Old Stage Door
 * Never Touched Me
 * A Jazzed Honeymoon
 * Count Your Change
 * Chop Suey & Co.
 * Heap Big Chief
 * Don't Shove
 * Be My Wife
 * The Rajah
 * He Leads, Others Follow
 * Soft Money
 * Count the Votes
 * Pay Your Dues
 * His Only Father
 * Bumping Into Broadway
 * Captain Kidd's Kids
 * From Hand to Mouth

Koko the Clown (1919–1934)
Koko the Clown was the first animated movie cartoon series. Below list of short films released in 1919:
 * The Tantalizing Fly
 * The Clown's Pups
 * Out of the Inkwell
 * Slides
 * Experiment No. 2
 * Experiment No. 3
 * Out of the Inkwell

Felix the Cat (1919–1936)
Below list of Felix the Cat short films released in 1919:
 * November 9: Feline Follies
 * November 16: The Musical Mews
 * December 14: The Adventures of Felix

Births

 * January 1 – Carole Landis, American actress (died 1948)
 * January 5 – Douglas Henderson, American actor (died 1978)
 * January 7 – Huang Feng, Hong Kong film director
 * January 10 – Amzie Strickland, American character actress (died 2006)
 * January 11 – Mort Mills, American actor (died 1993)
 * January 13 – Robert Stack, actor (died 2003)
 * January 14 – Joe Seneca, American actor and singer (died 1996)
 * January 21 – Jinx Falkenburg, model, actress (died 2003)
 * January 23 – Ernie Kovacs, comedian, actor (died 1962)
 * January 24 – Coleman Francis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1973)
 * February 4 – Janet Waldo, actress (died 2016)
 * February 5
 * Red Buttons, actor (died 2006)
 * Tim Holt, actor (died 1973)
 * February 11 – Eva Gabor, actress (died 1995)
 * February 12 – Forrest Tucker, actor (died 1986)
 * February 17 – Kathleen Freeman, actress (died 2001)
 * February 18 – Jack Palance, actor (died 2006)
 * March 2 – Jennifer Jones, actress (died 2009)
 * March 15 - Lawrence Tierney, actor (died 2002)
 * March 25 – Jeanne Cagney, actress (died 1984)
 * March 26 – Strother Martin, actor (died 1980)
 * March 29 – Eileen Heckart, actress (died 2001)
 * April 2 – Maxwell Reed, Northern Irish actor (died 1974)
 * April 6 – Caren Marsh Doll, American former actress
 * April 12 – Ivor Barry, Welsh actor (died 2006)
 * April 13 – Howard Keel, actor (died 2004)
 * April 18 – Vondell Darr, child actress (died 2012)
 * April 18 – Virginia O'Brien, American actress (died 2001)
 * May 8 – Lex Barker, actor (died 1973)
 * May 23 – Betty Garrett, actress (died 2011)
 * June 11 – Richard Todd, actor (died 2009)
 * June 12 – Uta Hagen, actress (died 2004)
 * June 14
 * Gene Barry, American actor and singer (died 2009)
 * June Spencer, English actress
 * Sam Wanamaker, director, actor (died 1993)
 * June 19 – Pauline Kael, film critic (died 2001)
 * June 24 – Al Molinaro, actor (died 2015)
 * June 29 – Slim Pickens, actor (died 1983)
 * July 7 – Jon Pertwee, actor (died 1996)
 * July 12 – Vera Ralston, figure skater, actress (died 2003)
 * July 19 – Patricia Medina, actress (died 2012)
 * July 26 – Virginia Gilmore, actress (died 1986)
 * August 2 – Nehemiah Persoff, actor (died 2022)
 * August 7 – Bertha Moss, Argentine-Mexican actress (died 2008)
 * August 8 – Dino De Laurentiis, producer (died 2010)
 * September 2 – Marge Champion, dancer, actress, choreographer (died 2020)
 * September 7 – Howard Morris, American actor, comedian and director (died 2005)
 * September 9 – Jacques Marin, French actor (died 2001)
 * September 17 – Helmut Ashley, Austrian cinematographer and director (died 2021)
 * September 18 – Diana Lewis, actress (died 1997)
 * September 24 – Rick Vallin, Russian-born actor (died 1977)
 * October 5 – Donald Pleasence, actor (died 1995)
 * October 18 – Orlando Drummond, Brazilian actor and comedian (died 2021)
 * October 20 – Lia Origoni, Italian actress and singer (died 2022)
 * October 28 – Ezz El-Dine Zulficar, Egyptian director and producer (died 1963)
 * November 2 – Warren Stevens, American actor (died 2012)
 * November 4
 * Shirley Mitchell, actress (died 2013)
 * Martin Balsam, actor (died 1996)
 * November 13
 * Mary Beth Hughes, actress (died 1995)
 * Amelia Bence, actress (died 2016)
 * November 15 – Nova Pilbeam, actress (died 2015)
 * November 19
 * Lynn Merrick, actress (died 2007)
 * Alan Young, actor (died 2016)
 * November 20 – Phyllis Thaxter, American actress (died 2012)
 * December 5 – Guido Gorgatti, Italian-born Argentine actor (died 2023)
 * December 7 – Lis Løwert, Danish actress (died 2009)
 * December 11 – Marie Windsor, American actress (died 2000)
 * December 18 – Lynn Bari, American actress (died 1989)
 * December 21
 * Ove Sprogøe, Danish actor (died 2004)
 * Doug Young, American voice actor (died 2018)

Deaths

 * January 14 – Shelley Hull, 34, American stage & film actor, husband of Josephine Hull, brother of Henry Hull
 * January 31 – Nat Goodwin, 59, veteran stage star & silent film actor
 * February 3 – Mary Moore, 29, Irish actress, sister of Joe, Matt, Owen and Tom Moore, A Million a Minute
 * February 17 – Vera Kholodnaya, 25, Russian silent film actress, A Corpse Living, The Woman Who Invented Love, Her Sister's Rival, Song of Triumphant Love
 * April 9 – Sidney Drew, 55, American stage & film actor A Florida Enchantment
 * May 3 – Daniel Gilfether, 70, American actor of stage & screen
 * May 21 – Lamar Johnstone, 34, American silent film actor
 * August 27 – Clifford Bruce, 34, American silent film actor
 * November 24 – William Stowell, 34, American silent film star

Film debuts

 * Ernie Adams – A Regular Girl
 * Vilma Bánky – Im letzten Augenblick
 * Ronald Colman – The Toilers
 * Bebe Daniels – Male and Female
 * Miss DuPont – Lombardi, Ltd.
 * Ruth Dwyer – The Lurking Peril
 * Gladys George – Red Hot Dollars
 * Boris Karloff – The Lightning Raider
 * Roscoe Karns – Poor Relations
 * Fritz Lang (director) – Halbblut
 * Jack Perrin – Toton
 * Lydia Potechina – Anita Jo
 * Annie Rosar – Der Mord an der Bajadere
 * Christian Rub – The Belle of New York
 * Estelle Taylor – A Broadway Saint
 * Claire Windsor – The Pest
 * Anna May Wong – The Red Lantern

title: 1919 in film


text:
1918 in film

The year 1918 in film involved some significant events.

Events

 * January 27 – Tarzan makes his film debut in Tarzan of the Apes.
 * March 10 – Warner Bros. release their first produced picture, My Four Years in Germany.
 * July – The animated The Sinking of the Lusitania is one of the first examples of animation being used for something other than comedy.
 * Following litigation for anti-trust activities, the Motion Picture Patents Company disbands.
 * Louis B. Mayer arrives in Los Angeles and forms Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation.
 * 28 mm safety standard film, designed by Alexander Victor, becomes one of the earliest film formats to use "safety film" bases in order to safeguard the amateur market against nitrate fires.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top six 1918 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Argentina

 * Buenos Aires tenebroso, directed by Juan Glize
 * En un día de gloria, directed by Mario Gallo and Alberto Traversa
 * La garra porteña, directed by Juan Glize
 * Sin dejar rastros, directed by Quirino Cristiani
 * Violeta o La reina del tango, directed by Juan Glize

Egypt

 * Bedouin's honor (Sharaf El Badawi), starring and directing by Mohammed Karim
 * The Deadly Flowers (Al Azhar Al Momita), starring and directing by Mohammed Karim

France

 * The Ghost of the Rancho (aka Range Busters), directed by William Worthington, starring Bryant Washburn and Rhea Mitchell, a hybrid Horror/Western/Comedy
 * The Tenth Symphony (La Dixième Symphonie), directed by Abel Gance, starring Séverin-Mars and Jean Toulout
 * Tih Minh, directed by Louis Feuillade, starring René Cresté
 * Vendemiaire, directed by Louis Feuillade

Germany

 * Alraune, die Henkerstochter, genannt die rote Hanne, directed by Eugen Illes and Joseph Klein, starring Max Auzinger and Hilde Wotner; released in the U.S. as Sacrifice; this was the 2nd film adaptation based on the 1911 novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers
 * Carmen, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Pola Negri
 * Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart (Dr. Hart's Diary), directed by Paul Leni
 * Eyes of the Mummy, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings
 * I Don't Want to Be a Man (Ich möchte kein Mann sein), directed by Ernst Lubitsch
 * The Other Self, aka Das Andere Ich (Austrian) directed by Fritz Freisler, starring Fritz Kortner
 * The Pied Piper of Hamelin (aka Der Rettenfanger von Hameln), written and directed by Paul Wegener, starring Wegener and Lyda Salmonova

Great Britain

 * The Haunted Hotel, an 11-minute comedy short directed by Fred Rains (Claude's father), starring Will Asher and Marion Peake
 * Victory and Peace, directed by Herbert Brenon

Hungary

 * A 99-es számú bérkocsi, directed by Mihály Kertész, starring: |Cläre Lotto and Béla Lugosi
 * Alraune, directed by Mihály Kertész and Edmund Fritz, starring: Géza Erdélyi and Gyula Gál (Lost film); first film adaptation based on the 1911 novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers
 * Casanova, directed by Alfréd Deésy, starring Alfréd Deésy
 * Faun, directed by Alexander Korda, starring: Gábor Rajnay and Artúr Somlay
 * Mary Ann, directed by Alexander Korda, starring: Ica von Lenkeffy and Tivadar Uray
 * Álarcosbál ||Alfréd Deésy, starring: Béla Lugosi
 * A víg Özvegy, directed by Mihály Kertész
 * Az ördög, directed by Mihály Kertész
 * Karoly bakak, directed by Zoltan Korda
 * Az Élet királya, directed by Alfréd Deésy, starring Béla Lugosi and Norbert Dán; based on the 1890 Oscar Wilde novel
 * Küzdelem a létért, directed by Alfréd Deésy, starring: Béla Lugosi
 * Lili, directed by Cornelius Hintner
 * Lulu, directed by Mihály Kertész
 * A Napraforgós hölgy, directed by Mihály Kertész, starring: Lucy Doraine, Cläre Lotto and Iván Petrovich
 * A Víg özvegy, directed by Mihály Kertész, starring: Mihály Várkonyi, Berta Valero, Endre Boross Árpád id. Latabár, Miklós Szomory and József Bánhidy

Italy

 * Fabiola directed by Enrico Guazzoni

Japan

 * Akakabe Myojin (aka Kaibyo Kaidan) a Ghost-Cat film starring Matsunosuke Onoe, produced by Nikkatsu Films
 * Izumo Kaidan (Japanese) aka Ghost Story of Izumo, starring Matsunosuke Onoe and Kitsuraku Arashi, produced by Nikkatsu Films
 * Yotsuya Kaidan Jitsuhi Kanetani Goro/ The Ghost of Yotsuya (Japanese) the 2nd ever film adaptation of the 1825 stage play Yotsuya Kaidan by Tsuruya Nanboku IV; starring Matsunosuke Onoe and Sentaro Nakamura

Sweden

 * The Outlaw and His Wife (Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru), directed by & starring Victor Sjöström (aka Victor Seastrom)

Denmark

 * A trip to Mars, directed by Holger-Madsen.

United States

 * Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Mary Pickford
 * Among the Cannibal Isles of the South Pacific
 * Are Crooks Dishonest?, a Harold Lloyd short
 * Arizona, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * The Bell Boy, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short
 * The Bells, directed by Ernest C. Warde, starring Frank Keenan and Lois Wilson; this was the 4th film adaptation of Erckmann-Chatrian's 1867 stage play Le Juif Polonaise (The Polish Jew)
 * Black Sherlock Holmes, produced by Ebony Pictures, starring Sam Robinson as a black version of Sherlock Holmes
 * 'Blue Blazes' Rawden, starring William S. Hart
 * The Blue Bird, directed by Maurice Tourneur
 * Bound in Morocco, directed by Allan Dwan, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * The Burden of Proof, directed by Julius Steger; starring Marion Davies
 * Cecilia of the Pink Roses, directed by Julius Steger; starring Marion Davies
 * The Cook, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle/Buster Keaton short
 * The Craving (aka Delirium) directed by Francis Ford for Universal Pictures, starring Francis Ford and Peter Gerald
 * Cupid Angling, starring Ruth Roland
 * The Eyes of Julia Deep, starring Mary Miles Minter
 * The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, written and directed by Willis O'Brien (who also starred in it and handled the special animation effects); existing print runs only 12 minutes
 * The Goddess of Lost Lake, starring Louise Glaum
 * The Haunted House, produced and written by Edward Frazee, a very obscure lost film (cast unknown)
 * Headin' South, directed by Allan Dwan, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * The Heart of Humanity, starring Erich von Stroheim
 * Hearts of the World, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish
 * The House of Mirth, directed by Albert Capellani, starring Katherine Corri Harris
 * Huck and Tom
 * The Lamb, a Harold Lloyd short.
 * Men Who Have Made Love to Me, starring Mary MacLane
 * Mickey, directed by F. Richard Jones, starring Mabel Normand
 * M'Liss, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Mary Pickford and Thomas Meighan
 * Moonshine, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle/Buster Keaton short
 * My Four Years in Germany, the first film produced by the four Warner Brothers
 * On the Quiet, directed by Chester Withey, starring Jack Barrymore
 * Out of the Inkwell, an animated film directed by Max Fleischer
 * Out West, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle/Buster Keaton short
 * The Romance of Tarzan, starring Elmo Lincoln
 * Salomé, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, starring Theda Bara
 * The Silent Mystery, a 15-chapter serial directed by Francis Ford, starring Ford and Rosemary Theby; a five-reel condensed version was also released at some point
 * The Sinking of the Lusitania, a short animated propaganda film by Winsor McCay; likely the longest animated film of its time.
 * Stella Maris, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Mary Pickford
 * Tarzan of the Apes, directed by Scott Sidney, starring Elmo Lincoln and Enid Markey
 * The Two-Soul Woman, directed by Elmer Clifton for Universal Pictures, starring Priscilla Dean and Ashton Dearholt, based on the novel by Gelett Burgess
 * Uncle Tom's Cabin
 * Under the Yoke, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, starring Theda Bara
 * Under the Greenwood Tree directed by Emile Chautard starring Elsie Ferguson
 * The Whispering Chorus, starring Raymond Hatton and Kathlyn Williams
 * Why Pick on Me?, starring Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels

U.S.S.R.

 * Cagliostro, historical melodrama directed by Wladyslaw Starevitch, starring M. Yarosh and Arseniy Bibikov, based on the novel Count Cagliostro by E. Salias
 * Father Sergius, directed by Yakov Protazanov, starring Ivan Mozzukhin

Comedy film series
Only the films of the series released in 1918 are collected

Buster Keaton (1917–1944)

Films starring Roscoe Arbuckle, featuring Buster Keaton released in 1918:
 * January 20: Out West as Sheriff / Saloon owner.
 * March 18: The Bell Boy as Bellboy.

Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)

 * 11 August: Triple Trouble; compilation assembled by Leo White with scenes from Police and an unfinished short, Life, along with new material shot by White. Chaplin includes this production in the filmography of his autobiography.
 * May 1918: Chase Me Charlie; a seven-reel montage of Essanay films, edited by Langford Reed. Released in England.

Charlie Chaplin wrote, produced, directed, and starred in 9 films for his own production company between 1918 and 1923. These films were distributed by First National. Below the movies released in 1918:

 * 14 April: A Dog's Life
 * 29 September: The Bond
 * 20 October: Shoulder Arms

 * Uncompleted and unreleased films

Reconstructed in 1981 by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill
 * How to Make Movies: Never assembled, although parts were used in The Chaplin Revue (see below)
 * Untitled film: A charity film co-starring Harry Lauder.

Harold Lloyd (1913–1938)

Glasses character ("The Boy"):
 * The Tip
 * The Lamb
 * Hit Him Again
 * Beat It
 * A Gasoline Wedding
 * Look Pleasant, Please
 * Here Come the Girls
 * Let's Go
 * On the Jump
 * Follow the Crowd
 * Pipe the Whiskers as Janitor
 * It's a Wild Life
 * Hey There!
 * Kicked Out
 * The Non-Stop Kid
 * Two-Gun Gussie
 * Fireman Save My Child
 * The City Slicker
 * Sic 'Em, Towser
 * Somewhere in Turkey
 * Are Crooks Dishonest? – sometimes wrongly titled as Doing, Doing, Done
 * An Ozark Romance
 * Kicking the Germ Out of Germany
 * That's Him
 * Bride and Gloom
 * Two Scrambled
 * Bees in His Bonnet
 * Swing Your Partners
 * Why Pick on Me?
 * Nothing but Trouble
 * Back to the Woods
 * Hear 'Em Rave
 * Take a Chance
 * She Loves Me Not

Lupino Lane (1915–1939)
Short films acting as his character Mr. Butterbun released in 1918:

 * His Busy Day
 * His Salad Days
 * Love and Lobster
 * The Blunders of Mr. Butterbun: Trips and Tribunals
 * The Blunders of Mr. Butterbun: Unexpected Treasure
 * The Haunted Hotel

Births

 * January 29 – John Forsythe, actor (died 2010)
 * February 4 – Ida Lupino, actress, director (died 1995)
 * February 15 - Allan Arbus, actor (died 2013)
 * February 16 – Patty Andrews, singer, actress, member of The Andrews Sisters (died 2013)
 * February 19 - Fay McKenzie, American actress and singer (died 2019)
 * March 1 – Roger Delgado, actor (died 1973)
 * March 9
 * Marguerite Chapman, actress (died 1999)
 * Mickey Spillane, writer, actor (died 2006)
 * March 14 –Dennis Patrick, actor (died 2002)
 * April 14 – Mary Healy, actress, singer (died 2015)
 * April 17
 * William Holden, actor (died 1981)
 * Anne Shirley, actress (died 1993)
 * April 18 – Shinobu Hashimoto, screenwriter (died 2018)
 * May 14 – June Duprez, actress (died 1984)
 * May 15 – Joseph Wiseman, Canadian-American actor (died 2009)
 * May 20 - Patricia Ellis, American actress (died 1970)
 * May 21 - Jeanne Bates, American actress (died 2008)
 * May 26 – John Dall, actor (died 1971)
 * June 8 – Robert Preston, actor, singer (died 1987)
 * June 10 - Barry Morse, actor (died 2008)
 * June 11 – Jane Bryan, actress (died 2009)
 * June 13 - Ben Johnson, actor (died 1996)
 * June 15 - Elisabeth Waldo, American former musician and actress
 * June 21 - Adriana Sivieri, Italian actress
 * June 26 – Ellen Liiger, actress (died 1987)
 * July 6 – Sebastian Cabot, actor (died 1977)
 * July 8 – Craig Stevens, American actor (died 2000)
 * July 14 – Ingmar Bergman, Swedish actor, writer, director (died 2007)
 * July 16 – William Bishop, actor (died 1959)
 * July 18 – Jane Frazee, singer, actress (died 1985)
 * July 25 - Nan Grey, actress (died 1993)
 * July 26 – Marjorie Lord, actress (died 2015)
 * August 1 – Cheryl Walker, model, actress (died 1971)
 * August 9 – Robert Aldrich, director (died 1983)
 * August 17 – Evelyn Ankers, actress (died 1985)
 * August 25 – Richard Greene, actor (died 1985)
 * September – Rin Tin Tin, canine actor (died 1932)
 * September 13 – Dick Haymes, Argentine actor, singer (died 1980)
 * September 16 - Branka Veselinović, Serbian actress (died 2023)
 * September 21 – Rand Brooks, American actor (died 2003)
 * September 24 - Audra Lindley, American actress (died 1997)
 * September 28 – Arnold Stang, American actor and comedian (died 2009)
 * October 9 – Lila Kedrova, Russian-born actress (died 2000)
 * October 13
 * Yvette Thuot, Canadian actress (died 2021)
 * Robert Walker, actor (died 1951)
 * October 17 – Rita Hayworth, actress (died 1987)
 * October 23 - Peggy Moran, actress (died 2002)
 * October 25 - Milton Selzer, actor (died 2005)
 * October 27 – Teresa Wright, actress (died 2005)
 * October 29 – Diana Serra Cary, born Peggy-Jean Montgomery ("Baby Peggy"), child silent film actress (died 2020)
 * November 4
 * Art Carney, actor (died 2003)
 * Cameron Mitchell, actor (died 1994)
 * November 27 - Stephen Elliott, actor (died 2005)
 * November 30 – Efrem Zimbalist Jr., actor (died 2014)
 * December 10 – Anne Gwynne, actress, model (died 2003)
 * December 15 – Jeff Chandler, actor (died 1961)
 * December 23 - Kumar Pallana, Indian-American character actress (died 2013)

Deaths

 * January 8 – Johannes Pääsuke, 25, Estonian photographer and director (train crash)
 * January 12 – Simeon Wiltsie, American actor
 * February 1 – Joseph Kaufman, 36, American silent film actor & director, married to film star Ethel Clayton
 * February 15 – Vernon Castle, 30, American dancer & writer
 * March 13 – William Courtleigh, Jr., 26, American actor
 * April 30 – "Mother" Mary Maurice, 73, American veteran stage & film actress
 * May 19 – Sidney Rankin Drew, 26, American actor and director.
 * June 29 – John van den Broek, 23, Dutch cinematographer
 * July 4 – Walter Stradling, 43, British cinematographer
 * August 12 – Anna Held, 46, Polish actress & singer
 * September 21 – Hal August, 28, American actor;
 * October 2 - Edwin Arden, American stage & film actor
 * October 19 – Harold Lockwood, 31, American actor
 * October 22 – Myrtle Gonzalez, 27, American actress
 * October 22 – Julian L'Estrange, 38, English actor
 * October 28 – Louise Vale, American actress
 * November 6 – William Shea, 67, Scottish veteran film actor & director
 * November 18 – Wayland Trask Jr., 31, American comedian
 * December 6 – Charles Gunn, 35, American actor
 * December 29 – Jode Mullally, 32, American actor

Debuts

 * Walter Abel – Out of a Clear Sky
 * Renée Adorée – £500 Reward
 * Erville Alderson – Her Man
 * Lionel Atwill – Eve's Daughter
 * Warner Baxter – All Woman
 * Karl Dane – My Four Years in Germany
 * Lya De Putti – The Emperor's Soldiers
 * Maude Eburne – A Pair of Sixes
 * Neil Hamilton – The Beloved Impostor
 * Phillips Holmes – Uneasy Money
 * Allan Jeayes – Nelson
 * Buck Jones – Western Blood
 * Cecil Kellaway – Bond and Word
 * Lila Lee – The Cruise of the Make-Believes
 * Ben Lyon – The Transgressor
 * Fay McKenzie – Station Content
 * Irene Rich – A Desert Wooing
 * Will Rogers – Laughing Bill Hyde
 * Elena Sangro – Fabiola

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 1918 in film


text:
1917 in film

1917 in film was a particularly fruitful year for the art form, and is often cited as one of the years in the decade which contributed to the medium the most, along with 1913. Secondarily the year saw a limited global embrace of narrative film-making and featured innovative techniques such as continuity cutting. Primarily, the year is an American landmark, as 1917 is the first year where the narrative and visual style is typified as "Classical Hollywood".

Events

 * January – Panthea is released, the first film from the company that Joseph Schenck formed with his wife, Norma Talmadge, after leaving Loew's Consolidated Enterprises.
 * February – Buster Keaton first meets Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in New York and is hired as a co-star and gag man.
 * April 9 – Supreme Court of the United States rule in Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Manufacturing Co. which ends the Motion Picture Patents Company appeal and results in the end of the company.
 * April 23 – Release in the United States of the short The Butcher Boy, the first of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's series of films with the Comique Film Corporation, and Buster Keaton's film debut.
 * April 25 – Thomas Lincoln Tally, in a meeting in New York, co-founds the First National Exhibitors Circuit.
 * June – Thomas H. Ince and Mack Sennett leave Triangle Film Corporation following Stephen Andrew Lynch taking control.
 * September 13 – Release in the United States of The Gulf Between, the first film made in Technicolor System 1, a two-color process.
 * November 9 – World's first feature-length animated film is made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani (El Apóstol)
 * December 18 – Foundation of Universum Film AG (UƒA), as a propaganda film company, in Berlin.
 * Movette, another revision of the 17.5 mm film format, is made available.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top five 1917 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Notable films released in 1917
United States unless stated

 * January 8 – Great Expectations, starring Jack Pickford
 * January 22 – Easy Street, starring Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance
 * January 22 – Her Right to Live, directed by Paul Scardon, starring Peggy Hyland, Antonio Moreno, Mae Costello, John S. Robertson
 * January 29 – A Man There Was (Terje Vigen), directed by Victor Sjöström – (Sweden)
 * February 2 – The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach, directed by Rudolf Biebrach, starring Henny Porten, Emil Jannings – (Germany)
 * February 18 – The Bad Boy, starring Robert Harron, Mildred Harris, Colleen Moore
 * March 3 – The Tornado, directed by John Ford (his debut)
 * March 5 – The Poor Little Rich Girl, starring Mary Pickford
 * March 7 – The Torture of Silence (Mater Dolorosa), directed by Abel Gance – (France)
 * April 15 – Teddy at the Throttle, a Keystone comedy starring Gloria Swanson
 * April 16 – The Cure, a Charlie Chaplin short.
 * April 23 – The Butcher Boy, starring "Fatty" Arbuckle with Buster Keaton
 * May 7 – Kidnapped, directed by Alan Crosland, starring Raymond McKee, Joseph Burke, and Ray Hallor
 * May 14 – A Romance of the Redwoods, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Mary Pickford
 * May 19 – One Law for Both directed by Ivan Abramson
 * May 20 – Souls Triumphant, starring Lillian Gish
 * May 21 – A Reckless Romeo, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle short.
 * May – Frank Hansen's Fortune directed by Viggo Larsen – (Germany)
 * June 17 – The Immigrant, starring Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance
 * June 24 – Wild and Woolly, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * June 25 – A Kentucky Cinderella, starring Ruth Clifford
 * June 25 – The Rough House, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
 * June – The Labour Leader, directed by Thomas Bentley, starring Owen Nares, Fay Compton – (GB)
 * July 5 – Big Timber
 * July – The Picture of Dorian Gray (Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray) – (Germany)
 * August 12 – Golden Rule Kate, a drama western starring Louise Glaum
 * August 20 – His Wedding Night, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
 * August 27 – The Little American, starring Mary Pickford; directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
 * August 27 – Straight Shooting, directed by John Ford
 * August 28 – Brcko in Zagreb – (Croatia)
 * August – The Gay Lord Quex directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Ben Webster and Irene Vanbrugh – (GB)
 * September 13 – The Gulf Between, All color movie.
 * September 22 – Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, starring Mary Pickford
 * September 30 – Camille, starring Theda Bara
 * September 30 – Oh Doctor!, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
 * September 30 – The Sultan's Wife, starring Gloria Swanson
 * September – Fear directed by Robert Wiene and starring Conrad Veidt – (Germany)
 * October 14 – Cleopatra, starring Theda Bara
 * October 21 – Satan Triumphant (Satana likuyushchiy) – (U.S.S.R.)
 * October 22 – The Adventurer, a Charlie Chaplin short.
 * October 29 – Coney Island, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
 * November 9 – El Apóstol (The Apostle), animated by Quirino Cristiani – (Argentina)
 * November 11 – A Little Princess, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Mary Pickford, Norman Kerry, ZaSu Pitts
 * November 12 – Harrison and Barrison, directed by Alexander Korda, starring Márton Rátkai – (Hungary)
 * November 25 – All Aboard, a Harold Lloyd short
 * November 26 – The Silent Man, starring William S. Hart
 * December 10 – Tom Sawyer, starring Jack Pickford
 * December 24 – Bucking Broadway, directed by John Ford, starring Harry Carey
 * December – Raffles the Amateur Cracksman, starring John Barrymore

Other 1917 Releases

 * Bestia (aka The Polish Dancer), starring Pola Negri – (Poland)
 * Black Orchids (aka The Fatal Orchid), directed by Rex Ingram for Universal Pictures, starring Cleo Madison and Jean Hersholt
 * The Bottle Imp (aka The Mountain Devil) directed by Marshall Neilan, produced by Jesse Lasky, starring Sessue Hayakawa and Lehua Waipahu; this was the 2nd ever film adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel
 * Brand of Satan, directed by George Archianbaud, starring Montagu Love and Gerda Holmes
 * The Colonel (aka Az Ezredes), directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Bela Lugosi – (Hungary)
 * The Darling of Paris, directed by J. Gordon Edwards for Fox Films, starring Theda Bara and Walter Law; an early film adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame
 * The Devil Stone, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, produced by Jesse L. Lasky, starring Geraldine Farrar, Tully Marshall and Gustav von Seyffertitz
 * The Devil's Assistant, directed by Harry A. Pollard, starring Monroe Salisbury and Margarita Fischer
 * Dombey and Son, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Hayford Hobbs – (GB)
 * Le Cygne (film) ("Umirayushchii Lebed") – (U.S.S.R.)
 * The Enchanted Kiss, directed by David Smith for Vitagraph, starring Chet Ryan and a young Jack Pierce; based on a short story by O. Henry
 * The Eternal Sin (aka Lucretia Borgia), directed by Herbert Brenon, starring Florence Reed and Richard Barthelmess, based on the 1833 Victor Hugo novel Lucretia Borgia
 * Even As You and I, directed by Lois Webber for Universal Pictures, starring Harry Carter (as Satan), Ben F. Wilson and Priscilla Dean
 * The Fall of the Romanoffs, directed by Herbert Brenon, starring Edward Connelly as Rasputin, based on a book written by a monk named Iliodor (who also played himself in the film)
 * The Fatal Ring, a 20-chapter serial directed by George B. Seitz for Pathe/Aster, starring Warner Oland, Earl Foxe and Pearl White
 * Fear/ Furcht (German) directed by Robert Wiene, starring Conrad Veidt and Bruno Decarli; this was the first time Wiene and Veidt worked together on a film
 * Flames (British) directed by Maurice Elvey, starring Owen Nates, Clifford Cobb and Douglas Munro; based on the novel by Richard Hichens
 * Ghost Hounds, comedy short starring Lloyd Hamilton and Bud Duncan
 * The Ghost House, directed by William C. DeMille (Cecil's brother) for producer Jesse L. Lasky, starring Jack Pickford (Mary's brother), Eugene Pallette and Louise Huff
 * The Ghost of Old Morro directed by Richard Ridgely for producer Thomas Edison, starring Mabel Trunnelle and Helen Strickland
 * The Golem and the Dancing Girl/ Der Golem und die Tanzerin (German), a lost 1917 parody of the 1915 film The Golem, written and directed by Paul Wegener, starring Wagner as the Golem and Lydia Salmonova as the dancer
 * The Haunted House, directed by Albert Parker, starring Winifred Allen, Richard Rosson and Albert Parker
 * Hilde Warren and Death (German) directed by Joe May, written by Fritz Lang, starring Mila May, Bruno Kastner and Georg John as "Death"
 * The Image Maker, directed by Eugene Moore for Thanhouser Films, starring Valda Valkyrien and Harris Gordon, deals with reincarnation
 * The Inspirations of Harry Larrabee, directed by Bertram Bracken, starring Clifford Grey and Margaret Landis, based on the short story by Howard Fielding
 * It's Never Too Late to Mend (British) directed by Dave Aylott, starring George Leyton and Margaret Hope, based on the political novel by Charles Reade
 * Kaidan Chibusa Enoki/ Ghost Story of the Breast-Nettle Tree (Japanese) produced by Nikkatsu Films, starring Matsunosuke Onoe and Kakumatsuro Arashi
 * Magia (Hungarian) directed by Alexander Korda, starring Mihaly Varkony and Lucie Labass; plot involves Baron Munchausen as a vampire
 * The Magic Girdle ("Der Magische Gürtel") (Germany)
 * The Man Without a Country, starring Florence La Badie
 * The Memoirs of Satan (German) directed by Robert Heymann, starring Kurt Brenkendorf and Friedrich Kuhne; a 3-chapter serial that relates the misadventures of Satan
 * Midnight, 11-minute short starring and directed by Allen Holubar for Universal Pictures, scripted by E.J. Clawson
 * Mothers of Men, starring Dorothy Davenport
 * Nabeshima Kaibyo (Japanese) a Ghost-cat horror film produced by Nikkatsu, starring Matsunosuke Onoe and Suminojo Ichikawa
 * The Picture of Dorian Gray/ Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (Germany) written and directed by Richard Oswald, starring Bernd Aldor and Lupu Pick, based on Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel
 * Rasputin (German) directed by Herr Arno, starring Max Hiller and Fritz Holbauer
 * Rasputin, the Black Monk, directed by Arthur Ashley, starring Montagu Love and Henry Hull
 * Runaway Romany, directed by George Lederer, starring Marion Davies and Matt Moore
 * Saga no yozakura (Japanese) ghost-cat film directed by Shozo Makino, starring Matsunosuke Onoe
 * Satan Triumphant (Russian) directed by Yakov Protazanov, starring Pavel Pavlov and Ivan Mozhukhin
 * Seven Keys to Baldpate, directed by Hugh Ford, starring Geoge M. Cohan and Hedda Hopper; first American film to be based on the 1913 novel by Earl Derr Biggers
 * She, directed by Kenean Buel for Fox Films, starring Valeska Suratt (as "She") and Ben Taggart as Leo Vincey; based on the eponymous novel by H. Rider Haggard (a lost film today)
 * A Sleeping Memory, directed by George D. Baker for Metro Films, starring Emily Stevens and Frank Mills, based on the 1902 novel by Edward Phillips Oppenheim
 * The Sorrows of Satan (British) directed by Alexander Butler, starring Ceceil Humphreys and Gladys Cooper, based on the 1895 novel by Marie Corelli
 * Tangled Lives, directed by J. Gordon Edwards for Fox Films, starring Genevieve Hamper and Stuart Holmes, based on the Wilkie Collins novel The Woman in White
 * Thaïs – (Italy)
 * U-Boote Heraus! ("U-Boat Release") (Germany)
 * Unconquered, directed by Frank Reicher for Paramount, written by Beatrice DeMille, starring Mabel Van Buren, Tully Marshall (wearing blackface) and Hobart Bosworth
 * The Voice on the Wire, a 15-chapter Universal serial directed by Stuart Paton, starring Ben Wilson, Neva Gerber, Hoot Gibson and Nigel De Brulier, based on the 1915 novel by Eustace Hale Ball
 * The Woman in White, directed by Ernest C. Warde for Thanhouser Films, starring Florence La Badie, Richard Neill and Gertrude Dallas, this was Thanhouser's second film adaptation of the eponymous Wilkie Collins novel (he also produced a 1912 version); the film was re-released in the early 1920s as The Unfortunate Marriage.

Comedy film series

 * Harold Lloyd (1913–1938)
 * Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)
 * Lupino Lane (1915–1939)
 * Buster Keaton (1917–1944)

Births

 * January 2 – Vera Zorina, dancer, actress (died 2003)
 * January 3 – Jesse White, actor (died 1997)
 * January 5 – Jane Wyman, actress (died 2007)
 * January 10 – Hilde Krahl, actress (died 1999)
 * January 21 – Lally Bowers, English actress and singer (died 1984)
 * January 24 – Ernest Borgnine, actor (died 2012)
 * February 6 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress (died 2016)
 * February 21 – Lucille Bremer, actress (died 1996)
 * February 25 – Brenda Joyce, American actress (died 2009)
 * March 2 – Desi Arnaz, actor (died 1986)
 * March 12 – Googie Withers, actress (died 2011)
 * March 22 – Virginia Grey, actress (died 2004)
 * April 2 - Dabbs Greer, actor (died 2007)
 * April 14 – Valerie Hobson, actress (died 1998)
 * April 17 – R. G. Armstrong, actor, playwright (died 2012)
 * April 29
 * Celeste Holm, actress (died 2012)
 * Maya Deren, experimental filmmaker (died 1961)
 * May 1 – Danielle Darrieux, actress (died 2017)
 * May 5 - June Lang, American actress (died 2005)
 * May 7 - David Tomlinson, English actor and comedian (died 2000)
 * May 10 – Margo, actress (died 1985)
 * May 16 – George Gaynes, actor (died 2016)
 * May 18 – James Donald, actor (died 1993)
 * May 21 – Raymond Burr, actor (died 1993)
 * May 22 - Nathan Davis (actor), American actor (died 2008)
 * May 25 – Steve Cochran, actor (died 1965)
 * June 2 - Max Showalter, American actor and musician (died 2000)
 * June 3 – Leo Gorcey, actor, comedian (died 1969)
 * June 7 – Dean Martin, singer, actor (died 1995)
 * June 30
 * Lena Horne, singer, actress (died 2010)
 * Susan Hayward, actress (died 1975)
 * July 1 – Virginia Dale, American actress (died 1994)
 * July 8 – Faye Emerson, actress (died 1983)
 * July 17 – Phyllis Diller, comedian, actress (died 2012)
 * July 26 – Lorna Gray, actress (died 2017)
 * August 6 – Robert Mitchum, actor (died 1997)
 * August 8 – Earl Cameron, actor (died 2020)
 * August 12 – Marjorie Reynolds, actress, dancer (died 1997)
 * August 13 – Gloria Dickson, actress (died 1945)
 * August 25 – Mel Ferrer, actor (died 2008)
 * September 9 – Rolf Wenkhaus, actor (died 1942)
 * September 11 – Herbert Lom, actor (died 2012)
 * September 18 - June Foray, American voice actress (died 2017)
 * October 7
 * Helmut Dantine, actor (died 1982)
 * June Allyson, actress (died 2006)
 * October 11 - J. Edward McKinley, American character actor (died 2004)
 * October 16 – Alice Pearce, actress (died 1966)
 * October 17 – Marsha Hunt, American actress (died 2022)
 * October 22 – Joan Fontaine, actress (died 2013)
 * November 2 – Ann Rutherford, actress (died 2012)
 * November 4 – Virginia Field, actress (died 1992)
 * November 30 - Ilse Steppat, German actress (died 1969)
 * December 7 – Hurd Hatfield, actor (died 1998)
 * December 12 – Margaret Marquis, actress (died 1993)
 * December 13 - John Hart, American actor (died 2009)
 * December 18 - Ossie Davis, American film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author and civil rights activist (died 2005)
 * December 22 – Frankie Darro, actor (died 1976)
 * December 28 - Kim Chan, Chinese-American actor and producer (died 2008)

Deaths

 * February 21 – Fred Mace, 38, American actor & comedian, What Happened to Jones, His Last Scent, A Lover's Might, The Love Comet
 * March 6 – Valdemar Psilander, 32, Danish actor, Rytterstatuen, Lykken, Lydia, Klovnen, Favoriten, In Defense of a Nation, John Redmond, the Evangelist
 * July 2 – Herbert Beerbohm Tree, 64, English stage & screen actor, Beerbohm Tree, The Great English Actor; Henry VIII; Macbeth; Trilby; The Old Folks at Home
 * October 13 – Florence La Badie, 29, American actress, The Man Without a Country, War and the Woman, The Woman in White, When Love Was Blind
 * October 25 – Jack Standing, 31, English actor, With Hoops of Steel, The Curse of Eve, The Innocent Sinner, The Price of Her Soul, One Touch of Sin
 * November 5 – Howell Hansel, 46, American actor and director
 * November 18 – Nino Oxilia, 28, Italian director, Rapsodia satanica, Blue Blood
 * December 20 – Eric Campbell, 38, Scottish actor, The Immigrant, Behind the Screen, The Count, Easy Street, The Adventurer(short), The Cure(short)

Film debuts

 * Maude Allen – The Moth
 * Eduardo Ciannelli – The Food Gamblers
 * Jackie Coogan – Skinner's Baby
 * Marion Davies – Runaway Romany
 * Vittorio De Sica – The Clemenceau Affair
 * Richard Dix – One of Many
 * Fritz Feld – The Golem and the Dancing Girl
 * John Ford (director) – Straight Shooting
 * Ferdinand Gottschalk – Please Help Emily
 * Taylor Holmes – Fools for Luck
 * Leslie Howard – The Happy Warrior
 * Isabel Jeans – The Profligate
 * Buck Jones – A Rough Shod Fighter
 * Madge Kennedy – Baby Mine
 * Bela Lugosi – Leoni Leo
 * Bert Lytell – The Lone Wolf
 * May McAvoy – Hate
 * Chester Morris – An Amateur Orphan
 * ZaSu Pitts – Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
 * Marjorie Rambeau – The Greater Woman
 * Gustav von Seyffertitz – Down to Earth
 * Amy Veness – Please Help Emily
 * Clifton Webb – National Red Cross Pageant
 * Marjorie Wood – National Red Cross Pageant
 * Loretta Young – The Primrose Ring

title: 1917 in film


text:
1916 in film

The year 1916 in film involved some significant events.

Events

 * Charlie Chaplin signs for Mutual Film for a salary of $10,000 a week and a signing on fee of $150,000, making him one of the highest-paid people in the United States.
 * June 24 – Mary Pickford signs a contract for $10,000 a week plus profit participation, guaranteeing her over $1 million per year.
 * July 19 – Famous Players–Lasky is formed through a merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company and Jesse L. Lasky's Feature Play Company. Later in the year, they acquire distributor Paramount Pictures.
 * August 10 – The official British documentary propaganda film The Battle of the Somme is premièred in London. In the first six weeks of general release (from 20 August) 20 million people view it.
 * September 5 – Release of D. W. Griffith's epic film Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages, starring Lillian Gish (as "The Eternal Motherhood") and Constance Talmadge (in two roles), in the United States. It is estimated to have cost around $2.5 million to make but is initially a commercial failure.
 * October 17 – Release of A Daughter of the Gods, the first US production with a million dollar budget, with the first nude scene by a major star (Annette Kellerman).
 * November 19 – Samuel Goldfish (later renamed Samuel Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures, later to become one of the most successful independent filmmakers.
 * The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded in the United States as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.
 * 11 mm, an amateur film gauge, appears on the market.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top six 1916 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Notable films released in 1916

 * 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, directed by Stuart Paton for Universal Pictures, starring Curtis Benton and Alan Holubar (as Capt. Nemo), based on the novel by Jules Verne
 * The Adventures of Peg o' the Ring Directed by Francis Ford
 * The Americano Directed by John Emerson
 * Arima no neko sodo (Japanese) starring Matsunosuke Onoe, another film adaptation of the Japanese legend of the "Ghost Cat of Arima"
 * Bake ginnan (Japanese) directed by Shozo Makino for Nikkatsu, starring Matsunosuke Onoe; a film adaptation of the Japanese legend of the "Monster Gingko Tree"
 * The Battle of the Somme – (GB)
 * Behind the Screen, directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Edna Purviance
 * The Black Crook, directed by Robert Vignola, starring Edward P. Sullivan; based on a play by Charles M. Barras, this "Faust"-like film was one of the earliest film musicals with choreographed dance numbers
 * The Bogus Ghost, an 11-minute comedydirected by Harry F. Millarde for Kalem Films
 * La Bohème, by Albert Capellani
 * Cenere, starring Eleonora Duse (the only film in which she appears) – (Italy)
 * Civilization, directed by Reginald Barker and Thomas H. Ince, starring Howard C. Hickman and Enid Markey
 * The Count, directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Edna Purviance
 * Crime and the Penalty (British) directed by R. Harley West, this film's plot was a cross between Murders in the Rue Morgue and Trilby, featuring a gorilla trained to strange people
 * The Crimson Stain Mystery (British) 16-chapter science-fiction serial directed by T. Hayes Hunter; a near-complete print exists in the Library of Congress
 * The Curse of Quon Gwon
 * The Danger Girl, starring Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon
 * A Daughter of the Gods, a 3-hour long movie directed by Herbert Brenon and starring Annette Kellerman; this was the United States' first million-dollar film production
 * The Dead Alive, directed by Henry J. Vernot, starring Marguerite Courtot
 * A Dead With the Devil (British) short Faustian film directed by Frank Wilson, produced by Cecil M. Hepworth
 * The Devil's Bondwoman, directed by Lloyd B. Carleton for Universal Pictures, starring Dorothy Davenport and Emory Johnson
 * The Devil's Toy, directed by Harley Knoles, based on an Edward Madden poem "The Mill of the Gods", starring Adele Blood and Montagu Love
 * Disraeli, directed by Charles Calvert and Percy Nash – (GB)
 * Doktor Satansohn (German) directed by Edmund Edel, starring Ernst Lubitsch
 * East Is East, starring Florence Turner – (GB)
 * Farmer Al Falfa's Cat-Tastrophe, animation produced by Paul Terry
 * The Fable of the Small Town Favorite Who Was Ruined by Too Much Competition, comedy short silent film

 * Fatty and Mabel Adrift, directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
 * Feathertop, directed by Henry J. Vernot, starring Mathilde Baring, John Reinhard and Marguerite Courtot; loosely based on the story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
 * The Floorwalker, directed by and starring Charles Chaplin
 * Frau Eva, directed by Robert Wiene and starring Emil Jannings (Germany)
 * The Grasping Hand (French) 13-minute ghost film directed by Max Linder who also starred in it
 * The Green-Eyed Monster, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, starring Robert B. Mantell and Stuart Holmes
 * Habit of Happiness, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * Haunted, a haunted cabin film starring Lillian Leighton and Ralph McComas
 * The Haunted Bell, directed by Henry Otto, starring King Baggot, based on a short story by Jacques Futrelle
 * Haunts for Rent, directed by C. Allan Gilbert, this film featured mixed live action with animated effects
 * Hell's Hinges, directed by Charles Swickard and William S. Hart, starring William S. Hart
 * Her Father's Gold (aka The Water Devil) directed by Eugene Moore for Thanhouser Films, based on a story by Crittenden Marriott
 * Homunculus (German) 6-chapter serial about a scientist who creates an artificial human, directed by Otto Rippert, starring Olaf Foenss as the Monster; plot similar to Frankenstein, Alraune and The Golem
 * Hoodoo Ann, starring Mae Marsh and Robert Harron
 * Hulda from Holland, starring Mary Pickford
 * Intolerance, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Constance Talmadge
 * Joan the Woman, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Geraldine Farrar
 * Judex, directed by Louis Feuillade, starring Musidora and René Cresté – (France)
 * Lights of New York, directed by Van Dyke Brooke, starring Leah Baird and Walter McGrail
 * Luke's Double (French) 11-minute comedy short based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring Harold Lloyd, directed by Hal Roach
 * The Lyons Mail, directed by Fred Paul – (Britain)
 * Man Without a Soul (British) directed by George Loane Tucker, starring Barbara Everest and Milton Rosmer
 * A Maori Maid's Love, directed by Raymond Longford – (Australia/New Zealand)
 * Mingling Spirits, short film directed by Al Christie for Universal Pictures, starring Betty Compson
 * Mr. Tvardovski (Russian) a Faustian-type film directed by Ladislas Starevitch, starring Nicolai Saltykov, based on a novel by J. I. Kraszevski; part of the film featured animation
 * The Mutiny of the Bounty, directed by Raymond Longford – (Australia/New Zealand)
 * The Mysteries of Myra, 15-chapter serial directed by Theodore and Leopold Wharton, starring Jean Sothern, Howard Estabrook and Warner Oland
 * The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, short directed by John Emerson, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * Night of Horror/ Nachte des Grauens (German) a lost film directed by Richard Oswald and Arthur Robison, starring Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss, cited in some references as being the first vampire film
 * Oliver Twist, starring Marie Doro
 * One A.M., directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin
 * The Pawnshop, a Charles Chaplin short
 * The Phantom of the Opera (German) first film version of the Gaston Leroux novel, directed by Ernst Matray, starring Nils Olaf Chrisander and Aud Egede Nissen
 * The Phantom Witness, directed by Frederick Sullivan for Thanhouser Films, starring Kathryn Adams and Edwin Stanley
 * The Picture of Dorian Gray (British) directed by Fred W. Durant, starring Henry Victor and Pat O'Malley
 * Police, a Charles Chaplin short with Edna Purviance and Wesley Ruggles
 * The Queen of Spades/ Pikovaya dama (Russian) directed by Yakov Protazanov, based on the short story by Alexander Pushkin, starring Tamara Duvan and Nikolai Panov
 * The Real Thing at Last (British) directed by James m. Barrie and L.C. MacBean, starring Ernest Thesiger
 * The Return of Draw Egan, directed by and starring William S. Hart
 * The Rink, a Charles Chaplin short
 * The Romantic Journey, directed by George Fitzmaurice, written by Ouida Bergere, starring William Courtenay
 * Saint, Devil and Woman, directed by Frederick Sullivan for Thanhouser Films, starring Florence La Badie
 * Sally Bishop directed by George Pearson – (GB)
 * Sally in Our Alley directed by Larry Trimble, starring Hilda Trevelyan, Mary Dibley, Reginald Owen – (GB)
 * Seven Keys to Baldpate (Australian) directed by Monte Luke, starring Dorothy Brunton and J. Plumpton Wilson; based on the 1913 novel by Earl Derr Biggers which was turned into a play by George M. Cohan
 * She (British) directed by Horace Lisle Lucoque and William G.B. Barker, starring Alice Delysia and Henry Victor; the first British film adaptation of the H. Rider Haggard novel
 * Sherlock Holmes (U.S.), directed by Arthur Berthelet, starring William Gillette as Holmes, based on the 1899 stage play which also starred William Gillette (Ernest Maupain played Moriarty)
 * The Shielding Shadow (aka Ravengar) 15-chapter serial directed by Louis Gasnier (who later directed Reefer Madness in 1936) and Donald MacKenzie, starring Grace Darmond and Ralph Kellard
 * The Silent Stranger (aka The Silent Man) 11-minute short starring, and directed by, King Baggot
 * Snow White, starring Marguerite Clark
 * Sold to Satan, starring and directed by Edward Sloman
 * The Soul's Cycle, directed by Ulysses Davis, starring Margaret Gibson and John Oaker, deals with reincarnation similar in plot to The Mummy (1932)
 * Trilby Frilled, 10-minute short directed by Edwin McKim, starring Davy Don as Svengali and Patsy De Forest; spoof of George Du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby
 * Under Two Flags, starring Theda Bara
 * Ultus, the Man From the Dead (British) directed by George Pearson for Gaumont Films, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus, a superhero apparently influenced by France's popular film character Fantomas; there were four Ultus films in the series, which were later re-edited into seven shorter films for overseas distribution
 * Ultus and the Grey Lady (British) 2nd film in the "Ultus" series, directed by George Pearson, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus
 * Ultus and the Secret of the Night (British) 3rd film in the "Ultus" series, directed by George Pearson, again starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus
 * Ultus and the Three-Button Mystery (British) 4th and final film in the "Ultus" series, directed by George Pearson, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus; this 4th film wasn't theatrically released until 1917
 * The Vagabond, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin
 * The Valley of Fear (British) directed by Alexander Butler, based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, starring H.A. Saintsbury as Sherlock Holmes and Arthur M. Cullin as Dr. Watson (Booth Conway played Moriarty)
 * The Vij (Russian) written and directed by Wadyslaw Starewicz, starring Ivan Mosjoukine and Olga Obolenskaya; the 2nd ever film adaptation of Nicolai Gogol's short story; featured stop motion animation
 * A Welsh Singer directed by Henry Edwards, starring Edwards, Florence Turner and Campbell Gullan – (GB)
 * The Wheel of Death (British) directed by A.E. Coleby, starring Arthur Rooke and Joan Legge
 * Where Are My Children?, directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber, starring Tyrone Power, Sr. and Juan de la Cruz
 * Willard-Johnson Boxing Match
 * The Wings (Vingarne) Swedish silent film directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Nils Asther, Egil Eide, Lars Hanson, Lili Bech, and Julius Hälsig
 * Witchcraft, directed by Frank Reicher, produced by Jesse L. Lasky, starring Fannie Ward and Jack Dean, based on a short story by Robert Ralston Reed
 * The Witch of the Mountains, starring Mareguerite Nichols, Gordon Sackville and Richard Johnson; produced by Knickerbocker Star Features
 * The Witching Hour, directed by George Irving, starring C. Aubrey Smith and Marie Shotwell; this was adapted from the 1907 stage play by Augustus Thomas

Short film series

 * Broncho Billy Anderson (1910–1916)
 * Harold Lloyd (1913–1921)
 * Charlie Chaplin (1914–1923)

Births

 * January 3
 * Maxene Andrews, singer, actress, member of Andrews Sisters (died 1995)
 * Betty Furness, actress, consumer activist (died 1994)
 * January 4 – Lionel Newman, composer (died 1989)
 * February 1 - Bruce Gordon, actor (died 2011)
 * February 13 – James Griffith, actor, musician, screenwriter (died 1993)
 * February 14
 * Sally Gray, born Constance Stevens, actress (died 2006)
 * Masaki Kobayashi, director (died 1996)
 * February 17 - Raf Vallone, Italian actor (died 2002)
 * February 26 – Jackie Gleason, actor (died 1987)
 * February 29 – Dinah Shore, singer, actress, television presenter (died 1994)
 * March 6 – Rochelle Hudson, actress (died 1972)
 * March 16 – Mercedes McCambridge, actress (died 2004)
 * March 21 - Vittorio Duse, Italian actor, screenwriter and director (died 2005)
 * March 24
 * Anna Maria Bottini, actress (died 2020)
 * Richard Conte, American actor (died 1975)
 * March 25 – Jean Rogers, actress (died 1991)
 * March 26 – Sterling Hayden, actor (died 1986)
 * March 29 - Sam Beazley, British actor (died 2017)
 * April 4 – David White, actor (died 1990)
 * April 5 – Gregory Peck, actor (died 2003)
 * April 26 – Vic Perrin, voice actor (died 1989)
 * April 30 – Phil Brown, actor (died 2006)
 * May 1 – Glenn Ford, actor (died 2006)
 * May 6 – Adriana Caselotti, singer, voice actress (died 1997)
 * June 12 – Irwin Allen, director, producer (died 1991)
 * June 14 – Dorothy McGuire, actress (died 2001)
 * June 19 – Karin Booth, actress (died 2003)
 * June 21 – Dorothea Kent, actress (died 1990)
 * June 23 – Irene Worth, actress (died 2002)
 * June 29 – Ruth Warrick, singer, actress, political activist (died 2005)
 * July 1 – Olivia de Havilland, actress (died 2020)
 * July 4 – Burton Zucker, actor, real estate developer, father of David and Jerry Zucker (d. 2008)
 * July 27 – Keenan Wynn, actor (died 1986)
 * August 18 - Don Keefer, American actor (died 2014)
 * August 19 - Marie Wilson, American actress (died 1972)
 * August 21 - Geoffrey Keen, English actor (died 2005)
 * August 24 - Hal Smith, American actor (died 1994)
 * August 25 – Van Johnson, actor (died 2008)
 * August 27
 * George Montgomery, actor (died 2000)
 * Martha Raye, actress (died 1994)
 * September 1 – Arleen Whelan, actress (died 1993)
 * September 13 - Lynne Carver, American actress (died 1955)
 * September 15 – Margaret Lockwood, actress (died 1990)
 * September 18 – Rossano Brazzi, actor (died 1994)
 * September 28 – Peter Finch, actor (died 1977)
 * October 4 – Robin Raymond, actress (died 1994)
 * November 20 – Evelyn Keyes, actress (died 2008)
 * November 23 - Michael Gough, British character actor (died 2011)
 * December 5 – Margaret Hayes, actress (died 1977)
 * December 8 - Richard Fleischer, American director (died 2006)
 * December 9 – Kirk Douglas, actor (died 2020)
 * December 13 – Mark Stevens, actor (died 1994)
 * December 18 – Betty Grable, actress (died 1973)
 * December 19 – Roy Baker, director (died 2010)

Deaths

 * January 17, Arthur V. Johnson, 39, American screen actor and director, The Sealed Room, The Unchanging Sea, The Adventures of Dollie, The Voice of the Violin, tuberculosis
 * June 22
 * Page Peters, 26, American screen actor, The Warrens of Virginia, The Purple Scar, An International Marriage, Davy Crockett, Pasquale, drowned swimming
 * Maurice Vinot, 27, French screen actor, airplane crash
 * September 9 – Sydney Ayres, 37, American stage & screen actor and director, The Sting of Conscience, The Avenger, As in a Dream, multiple sclerosis
 * September 17 – Arthur Hoops, 45, American stage & screen actor, The Secret of Eve, Bridges Burned, Extravagance, The Eternal Question, The Scarlet Woman, heart attack
 * September 27 – Camille D'Arcy, 37, American actress, The Prince Chap, Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, A Daughter of the City, The White Sister, The Pacifist, infection from bathing
 * October 6 – Henry Woodruff, 47, American stage & screen actor, A Beckoning Flame, A Man and His Mate, Bright's disease
 * November 30 – Dorrit Weixler, 23, German comic actress, Maria, Kammermusik, Heimgekehrt, Todesrauchen, suicide by hanging
 * unknown – Jean, the Vitagraph Dog (born 1902), American Border Collie, Jean and the Calico Doll, Fraid Cat

Debuts

 * Warner Anderson – The Sunbeam
 * Edward Arnold – The Misleading Lady
 * Richard Barthelmess – Gloria's Romance
 * Lina Basquette – The Dumb Girl of Portici
 * Constance Bennett – The Valley of Decision
 * Billie Burke – Peggy
 * Ann Dvorak – Ramona
 * Elinor Fair – The End of the Trail
 * Douglas Fairbanks Jr. – American Aristocracy
 * Edmund Gwenn – The Real Thing at Last
 * John Halliday – The Devil's Toy
 * Virginia Hammond – Vultures of Society
 * Hedda Hopper – The Battle of Hearts
 * Kate Lester – Molly Make-Believe
 * Dorcas Matthews – The Captive God
 * Grant Mitchell – The Misleading Lady
 * Colleen Moore – The Prince of Graustark
 * Frank Morgan – The Suspect
 * Mae Murray – To Have and to Hold
 * Ramon Novarro – Joan the Woman
 * Marie Prevost – Unto Those Who Sin
 * Edward G. Robinson – Arms and the Woman
 * Hermann Thimig – The Countess Heyers
 * Edward Van Sloan – Slander
 * Elsa Wagner – The Wandering Light
 * Lucile Watson – The Girl with the Green Eyes

title: 1916 in film


text:
1915 in film

The year 1915 in film involved some significant events.

Events

 * February 1: Fox Film Corporation founded
 * February 8: D.W Griffith's The Birth of a Nation premieres at Clune's Auditorium Los Angeles and breaks both box office and film length records (running at a total length of over three hours).
 * February: Metro Pictures, a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is founded
 * February 22: The Allan Dwan directed film David Harum is released. The film is the first in long line of a successful romantic onscreen pairings of actors May Allison and Harold Lockwood.
 * March 15: Universal Studios Hollywood opens (1964).
 * June 18: The Motion Picture Directors Association (MPDA) is formed by twenty-six film directors in Los Angeles, California.
 * July: Triangle Film Corporation is founded in Culver City, California and attracts filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas H. Ince and Mack Sennett
 * September 11: A nitrate fire at Famous Players in New York destroys several completed but unreleased silent films which are later remade. Films lost include Mary Pickford's Esmerelda and The Foundling and John Barrymore's The Red Widow.
 * October 1: A US court rules in United States v. Motion Picture Patents Co. that the Motion Picture Patents Company trust is monopolistic and orders it to be dissolved.
 * November 18: Release of Inspiration, the first mainstream movie in which a leading actress (Audrey Munson) appears nude.
 * December 13: Sessue Hayakawa becomes the first Asian actor to become a star in the US after his performance in The Cheat.
 * The Duplex Corporation creates a Split Duplex, an early widescreen film format where the film image is rotated 90 degrees and occupies half of a conventional frame.
 * Max Fleischer invents the rotoscoping animation process in the US.
 * The Kinematograph Renters’ Society of Great Britain and Ireland is formed to represent film distribution companies

Top-grossing films (U.S.)
The top ten 1915 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Notable films released in 1915
All following films are American, except where stated.

 * Adachihara Ubagaike Yurei (Japanese), starring Matsunosuke Onoe, produced in Japan by Nikkatsu
 * Agony of Fear, directed by Giles Warren
 * Are You a Mason?, directed by Thomas N. Heffron, starring John Barrymore
 * The Arrow Maiden, directed by Francis Powers
 * Assunta Spina, starring Francesca Bertini – (Italy)
 * The Avenging Hand (British) aka The Wraith of the Tomb, directed by Charles Calvert, written by William J. Elliott
 * Barnaby Rudge, directed by Thomas Bentley (Britain)
 * The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish
 * The Blood Seedling, produced by William Selig, directed by (and starring) Tom Santschi
 * The Bribe, short film directed by Lucius Henderson for Universal, starring Charles Ogle
 * Call From the Dead, early zombie film directed by Clem Easton for Thanhouser Films
 * The Caprices of Kitty, directed by Phillips Smalley, starring Elsie Janis
 * Carmen, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Geraldine Farrar
 * Carmen, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Theda Bara
 * The Case of Becky, directed by Frank Reicher, starring Blanche Sweet
 * The Castle of Thornfield (Italian) adapted from the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
 * The Champion, starring Charles Chaplin and Edna Purviance
 * The Cheat, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Fannie Ward and Sessue Hayakawa
 * The Cheval Mystery, directed by (and starring) Harry Myers for Victor Films
 * The Chronicles of Bloom Center, short comedy directed by Marshall Neilan
 * The Circular Staircase, directed by Edward J. LeSaint for Selig Films, based on the novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart, starring Eugenie Besserer and Stella Razeto
 * The Crazy Clock Maker, comedy starring Oliver Hardy
 * A Cry in the Night (British) a science fiction film about a winged gorilla created by a mad scientist, directed by Ernest G. Batley
 * Destiny's Skein, directed and scripted by George Terwilliger, about a murderer with a split personality
 * The Devil (aka Satan's Pawn), based on the play by Ferenc Molnar, this film was produced and co-directed by Thomas H. Ince, starring Arthur Maude and Bessie Barriscale
 * The Devil to Pay (British) short film directed by Edwin J. Collins, with a story similar to Faust
 * The Devil's Profession (British) written and directed by F.C.S. Tudor, foreshadowing Val Lewton's Bedlam (1946)
 * Double Trouble, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * A Drama of the Castle, or Do the Dead Return? (French) 6-minute film written and directed by Abel Gance
 * The Dream Dance, directed by Leon D. Kent for Lubin Films, starring Lee Shumway
 * The Duel in the Dark, starring Arthur Bauer and Carey L. Hastings, features an evil hypnotist
 * The Dust of Egypt, mummy film directed by George D. Baker, starring Antonio Moreno and Edith Storey
 * Enoch Arden, starring Lillian Gish
 * The Eleventh Dimension, science fiction film produced and written by Raymond L. Schrock, directed by Clem Easton
 * Fatty's Spooning Days, starring Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, and The Keystone Cops
 * Faust, directed by Edward Sloman who also stars in the film
 * Filibus – (Italy)
 * A Fool There Was, starring Theda Bara
 * Four Feathers
 * The Fox Woman, directed by Lloyd Ingraham, starring Seena Owen and Elmer Clifton
 * A Gentleman of Leisure, directed by George Melford, starring Wallace Eddinger
 * The Ghost Fakirs, a "Heinie and Louie" comedy short involving a haunted house
 * The Ghost of Twisted Oaks, voodoo film directed by Sidney Olcott for Lubin Films, starring Olcott's wife Valentine Grant
 * The Golden Chance, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Cleo Ridgely and Wallace Reid
 * The Golem, aka Der Golem und Wie auf de Welt Kam (German/ Deutsche-Bioscop), directed by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen, starring Paul Wegener and Lyda Salmonova (Germany)
 * The Gray Horror, a haunted house film directed by Joseph W. Smiley, who also starred in it
 * The Greater Will, directed by Harley Knowles, starring Montagu Love, Cyril Maude and Lois Meredith
 * The Hand of the Skeleton, French special effects film directed by Danish director George Schneevoight
 * The Haunting of Silas P. Gould (British) directed by Elwin Neame, starring (his wife) Ivy Close
 * Haunting Winds, directed by Carl M. Leviness for Universal, starring Frank MacQuarrie and Sydney Ayres
 * His Egyptian Affinity, reincarnated mummy film directed by Al Christie for Nestor Films, starring Victoria Ford
 * His Phantom Sweetheart, short horror/comedy produced and directed by Ralph W. Ince; the writer Earle Williams was also the star
 * Horrible Hyde, a 5-minute comedy version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", directed by and starring Howell Hansel, filmed in Florida
 * The Hound of the Baskervilles Parts 3 and 4 (German film) directed by Richard Oswald, starring Alwin Neuss as Sherlock Holmes; Part 3 was called "The Uncanny Room" and Part 4 was "Legend of the Hound"(see 1914 for first two parts)
 * The Hound of the Baskervilles: The Dark Castle (German) Vitascope made their own conclusion to their earlier 1914 two-parter with this entry, directed by Willy Zeyn, starring Eugen Burg as Sherlock Holmes
 * The House of a Thousand Candles, haunted house film based on the novel by Meredith Nicholson, directed by Thomas N. Heffron, starring Harry Mestayer and Edgar Nelson
 * The House With Nobody In It, a haunted house film based on the poem by Joyce Kilmer as well as a story by Clarence J. Harris; directed by Richard Garrick
 * The Immigrant
 * The Inner Brute, starring Warren Waite, Warda Howard and John Lorenz
 * An Innocent Sinner, directed by Kenean Buel, starring Katherine LaSalle and Guy Coombs
 * Inspiration
 * The Italian
 * Jane Eyre, based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte, directed by Travers Vale, starring Franklyn Ritchie, Louise Vale and Gretchen Hartman
 * The Japanese Mask, an obscure French/U.S. co-production made by Pathe/Aetna Films
 * The Lamb, starring Douglas Fairbanks
 * Legend of the Lone Tree, a "weird western" film directed by Ulysses Davis for Vitagraph, starring Myrtle Gnzalez and Alfred Vosburgh
 * Life Without Soul, first full-length adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein (running 70 minutes); directed by Joseph W. Smiley, starring William A. Cohill as the scientist; the film was somewhat re-edited and re-released in 1916 also
 * The Live Mummy (British) a 13-minute comedy short
 * London's Yellow Peril (British) directed by Maurice Elvey, written by Eliot Stannard; Elvey later went on to make a series of silent Fu Manchu movies
 * Lord John in New York, first in a Universal Pictures series of five silent detective films, starring William Garwood as Lord John, directed by Edward LeSaint
 * Madame Butterfly, directed by Sidney Olcott, starring Mary Pickford
 * The Magic Skin, directed by Richard Ridgely for Thomas Edison's film company; this was the third film adaptation of Honore de Balzac's novel Le Peau de Chagrin
 * The Man Who Couldn't Beat God, directed by Maurice Costello and Robert Gaillard, both of whom starred also
 * The Man Who Stayed at Home – (GB)
 * Martyrs of the Alamo
 * The Mesmerist (British) directed by Percy Nash, starring Douglas Payne
 * Miss Jekyll and Madame Hyde, directed by Charles L. Gaskill and starring Helen Gardner; strangely this was more of an adaptation of Faust than the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
 * The Missing Mummy, silent comedy directed by William Beaudine, starring Bud Duncan and Charles Inslee
 * The Monkey's Paw (British) this first film adaptation of the 1902 novel seems to have been based more on the 1907 play instead of the novel; directed by Sidney Northcote, starring John Lawson (who also starred in the play)
 * The Moonstone, directed by Frank Hall Crane, starring Eugene O'Brien and Elaine Hammerstein, based on the 1868 novel by Wilkie Collins; this was the best known of the silent film versions
 * Mortmain, directed by Theodore Marston for Vitagraph, starring Robert Edeson; this surgical horror film's plot eerily foreshadowed that of the later Conrad Veidt film The Hands of Orlac (1924).
 * Peer Gynt, directed by Raoul Walsh and Oscar Apfel
 * The Picture of Dorian Gray (Russian) - third film adaptation of the 1890 Oscar Wilde novel, wherein Dorian Gray is oddly played by a female actress (Varvara Yanova); directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Mikhail Doronin (both of whom also co-starred in the film)
 * The Picture of Dorian Gray, directed by Eugene Moore for Thanhouser Films (U.S.), starring Harris Gordon (as Dorian) and Helen Fulton; this was the fourth film adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel
 * The Portrait (Russian) 8-minute fantasy film written and directed by Wladyslaw Starewicz, who later went on to direct The Viy that same year
 * The Prisoner of Zenda, starring Henry Ainley and Gerald Ames (GB)
 * The Raven, directed by Charles Brabin, starring Henry B. Walthall and Wanda Howard, this was the third biopic to cover the life story of Edgar Allan Poe
 * Regeneration, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Rockliffe Fellowes and Anna Q. Nilsson
 * The Return of Maurice Donnelly, directed by William Humphrey, starring Leo Delaney and Anders Randolph, conceived as a social fable against capital punishment
 * The Return of Richard Neal, mesmerism film directed by Edward T. Lowe Jr., starring Francis X. Bushman, Neil Craig and Ernest Maupin
 * Sagebrush Tom, starring Tom Mix
 * Satanic Rhapsody (Italian) directed by Nino Oxilia (who died in WWI), starring Lyda Borelli and Ugo Bazzini as Mephistopheles; film featured some tinted and hand-stenciled color scenes
 * The Scorpion's Sting (British) aka The Devil's Bondman, directed by Percy Nash, starring George Bellamy
 * The Secret Room, directed by Tom Moore for Kalem Films (he also starred in the film)
 * The Senator, directed by Joseph A. Golden
 * Shunen no hebi (translation: The Vengeful Snake) Japanese film directed by Uichiro Tamura
 * The Silent Command, directed by Robert Z. Leonard for Universal, starring Leonard and Ella Hall
 * The Soul of Broadway
 * The Soul of Phyra, directed by Charles Swickard, starring Enid Markey
 * The Spectre of the Vault (Italian) haunted tomb film directed by Ubaldo Maria Del Colle
 * The Strange Unknown, directed by Wilbe Melville, starring Helen Eddy and Dorothy Barrett; plot was influenced by Jane Eyre and The Woman in White
 * The Three Wishes, (French) obscure 8-minute fantasy film similar to The Monkey's Paw
 * Togakushi-yama no kijo (Japanese) short ghost film directed by Shozo Makino for Nikkatsu Films, starring Matsunosuke Onoe
 * The Tramp, directed by and starring Charles Chaplin
 * Le traquenard, starring Irène Bordoni – (France)
 * Trilby, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Clara Kimball Young as Trilby and Wilton Lackaye as Svengali; the film was slightly edited and re-released in 1917 and again in 1920
 * The Two Orphans, starring Theda Bara
 * The Unfaithful Wife, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, starring Genevieve Hamper and Warner Oland in one of his earliest roles
 * The Vivisectionist, directed by James W. Horne, starring Marin Sais and William H. West
 * The Warning (aka The Eternal Penalty), directed by Edmund Lawrence starring Henry Kolker; this moral diatribe against alcohol abuse involves a dream trip to Hell
 * The Wheels of Justice, directed by Theodore Marston
 * When the Spirits Moved, directed by Al Christie for Universal Pictures, starring Lee Moran and Eddie Lyons
 * Which is Witch? (British) 6-minute short directed by Edwin J. Collins
 * A Witch of Salem Town, directed by Lucius Henderson, starring Mary Fuller and Curtis Benton
 * Work, directed by & starring Charles Chaplin
 * The Wraith of Haddon Towers, directed by Arthur Maude, starring Constance Crawley and Arthur Maude
 * Yurei Yashiki (Japanese) translation The Haunted House, directed by Kyomatsu Hosomaya for Nikksatsu

Short film series

 * Broncho Billy Anderson (1910–1916)
 * Harold Lloyd (1913–1921)
 * Charlie Chaplin (1914–1923)

Births

 * January 1 – Maxine Doyle, actress (died 1973)
 * January 9
 * Anita Louise, actress (died 1970)
 * Fernando Lamas, actor (died 1982)
 * January 11 – Veda Ann Borg, actress (died 1973)
 * January 18 – Catherine Craig, actress (died 2004)
 * January 26 – William Hopper, actor; son of Hedda Hopper (died 1970)
 * January 29 – Bill Peet, Disney author and illustrator (died 2002)
 * January 30 – Dorothy Dell, actress (died 1934)
 * February 7 – Eddie Bracken, actor (died 2002)
 * February 12 – Lorne Greene, actor (died 1987)
 * February 18 – Phyllis Calvert, actress (died 2002)
 * February 20 – Philip Friend, actor (died 1987)
 * February 21 – Ann Sheridan, actress (died 1967)
 * February 23 – Jon Hall, actor (died 1979)
 * February 28 – Zero Mostel, actor (died 1977)
 * March 2 – Lona Andre, actress (died 1992)
 * March 17 – Henry Bumstead, art director (died 2006)
 * March 19 – Patricia Morison, actress (died 2018)
 * April 10 – Harry Morgan, American actor (died 2011)
 * April 21 – Anthony Quinn, actor (died 2001)
 * May 5
 * Alice Faye, actress, (died 1998)
 * Ben Wright (English actor), (died 1989)
 * May 6 – Orson Welles, actor, director (died 1985)
 * May 8 – John Archer, American actor (died 1999)
 * May 15 – Bill Williams, actor, (died 1992)
 * May 19 – Renée Asherson, actress, (died 2014)
 * May 31 – Barbara Pepper, actress, (died 1969)
 * June 1 - John Randolph (actor), American actor (died 2004)
 * June 12 – Priscilla Lane, singer, actress (died 1995)
 * June 16 - Anthony Sharp, English actor (died 1984)
 * June 20 - Terence Young (director), Irish director and screenwriter (died 1994)
 * July 18 – Phyllis Brooks, American actress, model (died 1995)
 * August 2 – Gary Merrill, actor (died 1990)
 * August 11 – Jean Parker, American actress (died 2005)
 * August 15 – Signe Hasso, Swedish actress (died 2002)
 * August 29 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish-born actress (died 1982)
 * September 5 – Jack Buetel, actor (died 1989)
 * September 10 – Edmond O'Brien, actor (died 1985)
 * September 14 – Douglas Kennedy, actor (died 1973)
 * September 25 – Betty Box, English producer (died 1999)
 * September 29
 * Brenda Marshall, American actress (died 1992)
 * Anne Nagel, American actress (died 1966)
 * October 29 – Evi Rauer, Estonian actress (died 2004)
 * December 7 – Eli Wallach, actor (died 2014)
 * December 12 – Frank Sinatra, singer, actor (died 1998)
 * December 13 – Curd Jürgens, actor (died 1982)
 * December 14 – Dan Dailey, actor (died 1978)
 * December 17 – Joan Woodbury, actress (died 1989)
 * December 22 – Barbara Billingsley, actress (died 2010)
 * December 29 – Jo Van Fleet, actress (died 1996)

Deaths

 * January 10 – Marshall Pinckney Wilder, 55, American diminutive stage and screen actor
 * April 26 – John Bunny, 51, American silent film comedian, A Strand of Blond Hair, Bunny's Little Brother, Bunny Backslides
 * June 5 – John C. Rice, 58, stage and film actor, The Kiss
 * June 16 – Elmer Booth, 32, American silent screen actor, brother of film editor Margaret Booth, The Musketeers of Pig Alley, The Narrow Road, An Unseen Enemy
 * October 31 – Blanche Walsh, 42, American stage actress appeared in Zukor's 3 reel feature "Resurrection" 1912

Film debuts

 * Mary Boland – The Edge of the Abyss
 * Alice Brady – The Boss
 * Donald Brian – The Voice in the Fog
 * Marie Cahill – Judy Forgot
 * Yakima Canutt – Foreman of Bar Z Ranch (uncredited)
 * Laura Hope Crews – The Fighting Hope
 * Reginald Denny – Niobe
 * Elliott Dexter – Heléne of the North
 * Marie Doro – The Morals of Marcus
 * Douglas Fairbanks – The Lamb
 * Geraldine Farrar – Carmen
 * W. C. Fields – Pool Sharks
 * Pauline Frederick – The Eternal City
 * John Gilbert – Aloha Oe (uncredited)
 * Charlotte Greenwood – Jane
 * Otto Kruger – A Mother's Confession
 * Edmund Lowe – The Wild Olive
 * Victor Moore – Snobs
 * Edna Purviance – A Night Out (short) (uncredited)
 * Esther Ralston – The Deep Purple (uncredited)
 * Valeska Suratt – The Soul of Broadway
 * Erich Von Stroheim – actor, assistant director, The Birth of a Nation (uncredited); costume designer, wardrobe assistant, Ghosts
 * Charlotte Walker – Kindling
 * Fannie Ward – The Marriage of Kitty

title: 1915 in film