1919 in film

The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.

Fandom movies:1919

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

The top six 1919 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Rank	Title	Studio	Domestic rentals
1	Male and Female	Paramount	$1,256,267
2	Daddy-Long-Legs	First National	$1,250,000
3	The Miracle Man	Paramount	$1,000,000
4	Broken Blossoms	United Artists	$600,000
5	Don't Change Your Husband	Paramount	$292,394
6	For Better, for Worse	Paramount	$256,072

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 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, and Joseph Massole; however, the era of sound films is over 6 years away.

Notable films released in 1919 around the world

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, directed by Raimondo Scotti, starring Mario Guaita-Ausonia and Elsa Zara, features a masked superhero/ wrestler character

J

The Jack of Hearts, starring Hoot Gibson
J'accuse, written and directed by Abel Gance for Pathe Films – starring Romuald Joubé, Severin-Mars, and Maryse Dauvray; this was Gance's most acclaimed film and he remade it with sound in 1938
Juan Sin Ropa, Argentine film directed by Georges Benoît, starring Camila Quiroga and Héctor G. Quiroga, and produced by Quiroga-Benoît Film, a company made up of the three of them. It was one of the great successes of Argentina's silent film boom of the mid-to-late 1910s and continues to be celebrated retrospectively.

K

The Knickerbocker Buckaroo, starring Douglas Fairbanks

L

The Life Line, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Wallace Beery
Lilith and Ly 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 directed by Augusto Genina, starring Diana Karenne

M

Madame Dubarry, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings –
Madness / Wahnsinn 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,, starring Harry Houdini
The Miracle Man, starring Thomas Meighan, Lon Chaney and Betty Compson
The Mistress of the World, directed by Joe May
The Monkey's Paw, 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

N

Nabeshima Neko Sodo a ghost-cat film produced by Nikkatsu Films, starring Matsunosuke Onoe, based on the Kabuki play by Joko Segawa III
Okazaki Kaibyo-den starring Matsunosuke Onoe, another ghost-cat movie based on an early 1820s Japanese novel

O

The Oyster Princess –

P

The Phantom Honeymoon, written and directed by J. Searle Dawley, starring Leon Dadmun and Marguerite Marsh
The Plague of Florence / Die Pest in Florenz 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 – 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 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 –
Sir Arne's Treasure, directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Richard Lund –
A Society Exile directed by George Fitzmaurice starring Elsie Ferguson
Sons of Ingmar, directed by Victor Sjöström –
South, filmed by Frank Hurley –

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 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 written and directed by Leonce Perret, starring Mae Murray 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 –
Victory, directed by Maurice Tourneur, starring Lon Chaney, Seena Owen, Wallace Beery, Jack Holt

W

Weird Tales/ Unheimliche Geschichten/ Uncanny Tales 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:

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"

Score composed for 1973 re-release

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

Harold Lloyd (1913–1921)

Glasses character :

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''

Animated short film series

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:

Births

January 1 – Sheila Mercier, British actress
January 5 – Douglas Henderson, American actor
January 7 – Huang Feng, Hong Kong film director
January 10 – Amzie Strickland, American character actress
January 11 – Mort Mills, American actor
January 13 – Robert Stack, American actor
January 14 – Joe Seneca, American actor and singer
January 21 – Jinx Falkenburg, American model, actress
January 23 – Ernie Kovacs, American comedian, actor
January 24 – Coleman Francis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
February 4 – Janet Waldo, American actress
February 5
*Red Buttons, American actor
*Tim Holt, American actor
February 11 – Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress
February 12 – Forrest Tucker, American actor
February 18 – Jack Palance, American actor
March 2 – Jennifer Jones, American actress and mental-health advocate
March 12 – Frank Campanella, American actor
March 15 - Lawrence Tierney, American actor
March 25 – Jeanne Cagney, American actress
March 26 – Strother Martin, American actor
March 29 – Eileen Heckart, American actress
April 2 – Maxwell Reed, Northern Irish actor
April 6 – Caren Marsh Doll, American former actress
April 12 – Ivor Barry, Welsh actor
April 13 – Howard Keel, American actor
April 18 – Vondell Darr, American child actress
April 18 – Virginia O'Brien, American actress
May 1 – Dan O'Herlihy, Irish actor
May 8 – Lex Barker, American actor
May 22 – Raoul Retzer, Austrian actor
May 23 – Betty Garrett, American actress
June 11 – Richard Todd, Irish actor
June 12 – Uta Hagen, German actress
June 14
*Gene Barry, American actor and singer
*June Spencer, British actress
*Sam Wanamaker, American actor and director
June 17 – Patrick Cranshaw, American character actor
June 19 – Pauline Kael, American film critic
June 24 – Al Molinaro, American actor
June 29 – Slim Pickens, American actor
July 7 – Jon Pertwee, British actor
July 8 - Eileen Bennett, British actress
July 12 – Vera Ralston, Czech figure skater, actress
July 14 – Lino Ventura, Italian-born actor and philanthropist
July 19 – Patricia Medina, American actress
July 26 – Virginia Gilmore, American actress
August 2 – Nehemiah Persoff, American actor
August 7 – Bertha Moss, Argentine-Mexican actress
August 8 – Dino De Laurentiis, Italian producer
August 16 – Lorna Thayer, American actress
August 22 – Alma Beltran, Mexican-American actress
September 2 – Marge Champion, American dancer and actress
September 6 – John Mitchum, American actor
September 7 – Howard Morris, American actor, comedian and director
September 9 – Jacques Marin, French actor
September 17 – Helmut Ashley, Austrian cinematographer and director
September 18 – Diana Lewis, American actress
September 21 – Nigel Stock, British actor
September 24 – Rick Vallin, Russian-born actor
October 5 – Donald Pleasence, British actor
October 8 – Gabriel Dell, American actor
October 18 – Orlando Drummond, Brazilian actor, voice artist and comedian
October 20 – Lia Origoni, Italian actress and singer
October 25 – Rico Alaniz, Mexican-American actor
October 28 – Ezz El-Dine Zulficar, Egyptian director and producer
November 2 – Warren Stevens, American actor
November 3 – Bert Freed, American actor
November 4
*Shirley Mitchell, American actress
*Martin Balsam, American actor
November 7 – Aline Towne, American actress
November 13 – Mary Beth Hughes, American actress
November 15 – Nova Pilbeam, British actress
November 19
*Lynn Merrick, American actress
*Alan Young, British actor
November 20 – Phyllis Thaxter, American actress
November 21 – Steve Brodie, American actor
November 24 – David Kossoff, British actor
December 5 – Guido Gorgatti, Italian-born Argentine actor
December 7 – Lis Løwert, Danish actress
December 11 – Marie Windsor, American actress
December 12 – Adriana Benetti, Italian actress
December 18 – Lynn Bari, American actress
December 21
*Ove Sprogøe, Danish actor
*Doug Young, American voice actor

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
Renée Björling – The Downy Girl
Jeanne Carpenter – Daddy-Long-Legs
Ronald Colman – The Toilers
Bebe Daniels – Male and Female
Miss DuPont – Lombardi, Ltd.
Ruth Dwyer – The Lurking Peril
Mary Forbes – Women Who Win
Gladys George – Red Hot Dollars
Ella Gombaszögi – Átok Vára
Sascha Gura – The Dance of Death
Boris Karloff – The Lightning Raider
Roscoe Karns – Poor Relations
Fritz Lang – Halbblut
Laura La Plante – The Great Gamble
Helen Lowell – The Virtuous Model
Sybill Morel – Opium
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
Guinn "Big Boy" Williams – Almost a Husband
Claire Windsor – The Pest
Carl-Gunnar Wingård – The Downy Girl
Anna May Wong – ''The Red Lantern''