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:| Rank | Title | Studio | Domestic rentals |
| 1 | Old Wives for New | Paramount | $286,504 |
| 2 | The Squaw Man | Paramount | $283,556 |
| 3 | The Whispering Chorus | Paramount | $242,109 |
| 4 | We Can't Have Everything | Paramount | $207,890 |
| 5 | Till I Come Back to You | Paramount | $183,834 |
Notable films
Films produced in the United States unless stated otherwiseA
- All Night, comedy drama directed by Paul Powell for Bluebird Photoplays, starring Carmel Myers and Rudolph Valentino
- Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley, romantic comedy directed by Marshall Neilan for Famous Players–Lasky, starring Mary Pickford
- Arizona, melodrama directed by Albert Parker for Famous Players–Lasky, starring Douglas Fairbanks; based on the 1899 play by Augustus Thomas
B
- The Bell Boy, comedy short directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle for Paramount, with Buster Keaton
- The Birth of a Race, drama directed by John W. Noble
- The Blue Bird, fantasy directed by Maurice Tourneur for Paramount
- 'Blue Blazes' Rawden, drama directed by and starring William S. Hart for Paramount
- The Bond, propaganda short film directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin for First National Pictures, with Edna Purviance
C
- Carmen, drama directed by Ernst Lubitsch for UFA, starring Pola Negri –
- The Cook, comedy short directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle for Paramount, with Buster Keaton
- The Craving, drama directed by Francis Ford and John Ford for Universal
D
- A Dog's Life, comedy drama short directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin for First National Pictures, with Edna Purviance
E
- The Eyes of the Mummy, horror directed by Ernst Lubitsch for UFA, starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings –
F
- Father Sergius, drama directed by Yakov Protazanov and Alexandre Volkoff, starring Ivan Mosjoukine; based on the [Father Sergius|1911 short film|short story] by Leo Tolstoy –
G
- The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, stop-motion fantasy directed by Willis H. O'Brien for the World Film Company
- Good Night, Nurse!, comedy short directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle for Paramount, with Buster Keaton
H
- The Heart of Humanity, war propaganda film directed by Allen Holubar for Universal, starring Dorothy Phillips and Erich von Stroheim
- Hearts of the World, melodramatic propaganda film directed by D. W. Griffith for Paramount, starring Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish
- Hell Bent, western directed by John Ford for Universal, starring Harry Carey
I
- I Don't Want to Be a Man, romantic comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch for UFA, starring Ossi Oswalda –
J
- Johanna Enlists, comedy drama directed by William Desmond Taylor for Paramount, starring Mary Pickford
L
- Little Orphant Annie, drama directed by Colin Campbell for the World Film Company, starring Colleen Moore; based on the 1885 poem by James Whitcomb Riley
M
- The Married Virgin, drama directed by Joe Maxwell for the General Film Company, starring Rudolph Valentino
- Mickey, comedy drama directed by F. Richard Jones and James Young for FBO, starring Mabel Normand
- M'Liss, comedy drama directed by Marshall Neilan for Paramount, starring Mary Pickford and Thomas Meighan
- Moonshine, comedy short directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle for Paramount, with Buster Keaton
- My Four Years in Germany, war drama directed by William Nigh for First National Pictures; first film produced by Warner Bros.
O
- Old Wives for New, drama directed by Cecil B. DeMille for Paramount
- Out West, comedy short directed by and starring Fatty Arbuckle for Paramount, with Buster Keaton
- The Outlaw and His Wife, drama directed by and starring Victor Sjöström –
R
- Riddle Gawne, western directed by William S. Hart and Lambert Hillyer for Paramount, starring Hart and Lon Chaney
- The Romance of Tarzan, action adventure directed by Wilfred Lucas for First National Pictures, starring Elmo Lincoln and Enid Markey; based on the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
S
- Salomé, drama directed by J. Gordon Edwards for Fox Film, starring Theda Bara
- Shoulder Arms, comedy directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin for First National Pictures, with Edna Purviance
- The Sinking of the Lusitania, animated short propaganda film by Winsor McCay for Universal
- Stella Maris, drama directed by Marshall Neilan for Famous Players–Lasky, starring Mary Pickford
T
- Tarzan of the Apes, action adventure directed by Scott Sidney for First National Pictures, starring Elmo Lincoln and Enid Markey; based on the 1812 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs
- A Trip to Mars, sci-fi adventure directed by Holger-Madsen –
- Triple Trouble, comedy short directed by Charlie Chaplin and Leo White for Essanay Studios, starring Chaplin and Edna Purviance
W
- The Whispering Chorus, psychological drama directed by Cecil B. DeMille for Famous Players–Lasky, starring Raymond Hatton and Kathlyn Williams
Comedy film series
Only the films of the series released in 1918 are collectedBuster 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.
- 14 April: A Dog's Life
- 29 September: The Bond
- 20 October: Shoulder Arms
- How to Make Movies: Never assembled, although parts were used in The Chaplin Revue
- Untitled film: A charity film co-starring Harry Lauder.
Harold Lloyd (1913–1938)
Glasses character :- 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
- February 4 – Ida Lupino, actress, director
- February 15 - Allan Arbus, actor
- February 16 – Patty Andrews, singer, actress, member of The Andrews Sisters
- February 19 - Fay McKenzie, American actress and singer
- March 1 – Roger Delgado, actor
- March 9
- *Marguerite Chapman, actress
- *Mickey Spillane, writer, actor
- March 14 –Dennis Patrick, actor
- April 14 – Mary Healy, actress, singer
- April 17
- *William Holden, actor
- *Anne Shirley, actress
- April 18 – Shinobu Hashimoto, screenwriter
- May 14 – June Duprez, actress
- May 15 – Joseph Wiseman, Canadian-American actor
- May 20 - Patricia Ellis, American actress
- May 21 - Jeanne Bates, American actress
- May 26 – John Dall, actor
- June 8 – Robert Preston, actor, singer
- June 10 - Barry Morse, actor
- June 11 – Jane Bryan, actress
- June 13 - Ben Johnson, actor
- June 15 - Elisabeth Waldo, American former musician and actress
- June 21 - Adriana Sivieri, Italian actress
- June 26 – Ellen Liiger, actress
- July 6 – Sebastian Cabot, actor
- July 8 – Craig Stevens, American actor
- July 14 – Ingmar Bergman, Swedish actor, writer, director
- July 16 – William Bishop, actor
- July 18 – Jane Frazee, singer, actress
- July 25 - Nan Grey, actress
- July 26 – Marjorie Lord, actress
- August 1 – Cheryl Walker, model, actress
- August 9 – Robert Aldrich, director
- August 17 – Evelyn Ankers, actress
- August 25 – Richard Greene, actor
- September 10 – Rin Tin Tin, canine actor
- September 13 – Dick Haymes, Argentine actor, singer
- September 16 - Branka Veselinović, Serbian actress
- September 21 – Rand Brooks, American actor
- September 24 - Audra Lindley, American actress
- September 28 – Arnold Stang, American actor and comedian
- October 9 – Lila Kedrova, Russian-born actress
- October 13
- *Yvette Thuot, Canadian actress
- *Robert Walker, actor
- October 17 – Rita Hayworth, actress
- October 23 - Peggy Moran, actress
- October 25 - Milton Selzer, actor
- October 27 – Teresa Wright, actress
- October 29 – Diana Serra Cary, born Peggy-Jean Montgomery, child silent film actress
- November 4
- *Art Carney, actor
- *Cameron Mitchell, actor
- November 27 - Stephen Elliott, actor
- November 30 – Efrem Zimbalist Jr., actor
- December 10 – Anne Gwynne, actress, model
- December 15 – Jeff Chandler, actor
- December 23 - Kumar Pallana, Indian-American character actress
Deaths
- January 8 – Johannes Pääsuke, 25, Estonian photographer and director
- 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