Overview of the events of 1919 in film
The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.
Top-grossing films (U.S.)[ edit ]
The top six 1919 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:
Highest-grossing films of 1919
Rank
Title
Studio
Domestic rentals
1
Male and Female
Paramount
$1,256,267[ 1]
2
Daddy-Long-Legs
First National
$1,250,000[ 2]
3
The Miracle Man
Paramount
$1,000,000[ 2]
4
Broken Blossoms
United Artists
$600,000[ 3]
5
Don't Change Your Husband
Paramount
$292,394[ 1]
6
For Better, for Worse
$256,072[ 1]
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 .[ 4] [ 5]
September 25 – Dalagang Bukid (The Country Maiden), the first Filipino feature-length film made in the Philippines, released.[ 6]
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 .[ 7]
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.
Notable films released in 1919 around the world [ edit ]
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 [ 10]
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
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[ 11]
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
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)
Nabeshima Neko Sodo (Japanese) a ghost-cat film produced by Nikkatsu Films, starring Matsunosuke Onoe , based on the Kabuki play by Joko Segawa III[ 12]
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)[ 12]
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 [ 13]
To Let (British) short ghost film directed by James Reardon , starring Reardon and Peggy Patterson[ 14]
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[ 14]
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 [ 14]
Only the films of the series released in 1919 are collected.
Buster Keaton (1917–1941)[ edit ]
Films starring Roscoe Arbuckle , featuring Buster Keaton released in 1919:
Charlie Chaplin (1914–1923)[ edit ]
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
Uncompleted and unreleased films
The Professor as Professor Bosco, Slated as a two-reeler, but never issued
Harold Lloyd (1913–1921)[ edit ]
Glasses character ("The Boy"):
Animated short film series [ edit ]
Out of the Inkwell .
Koko the Clown (1919–1934)[ edit ]
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)[ edit ]
Felix the cat in his first cartoon Feline Follies .
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
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
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
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
November 13
November 15 – Nova Pilbeam , actress (died 2015 )
November 19
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
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
^ a b c Birchard, Robert S. (2004). Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood . University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813123240 .
^ a b Quigley Publishing Company "The All Time Best Sellers", International Motion Picture Almanac 1937–38 (1938) p 942 accessed January 28, 2017
^ Balio, Tino (2009). United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars . University of Wisconsin Press . ISBN 978-0-299-23004-3 . p30-31
^ Kreimeier, Klaus (1996). The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918–1945 . University of California Press. p. 56 . premiere of Passion.
^ Silberman, Marc (1995). German Cinema: Texts in Context . Detroit: Wayne State University. p. 3. ISBN 978-0814325605 .
^ "Dalagang Bukid (1919)" . imdb.com .
^ "Brief Descriptions and Expanded Essays of National Film Registry Titles" . Library of Congress . Retrieved May 27, 2018 .
^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 222. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ a b Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ a b Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 210. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ a b c d Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.