This article is about films in the year 1921. For the Indian film about the Mappila Uprising, see 1921 (1988 film). For the Indian horror film, see 1921 (2018 film). For the Chinese film about the Chinese Communist Party, see 1921 (2021 film).
January 21 – The silentcomedy dramaThe Kid, written by, produced by, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin (in his Tramp character) – his first full-length film as a director – and featuring Jackie Coogan, is released in the United States. It is the year's second-highest-grossing film.
July 1 – The silent crime docudramaYan Ruisheng is the first full-length feature film made in China to be released; although commercially successful it is banned within 2 years and believed lost.[4]
August 29 – Broadway's first $1 million theatre, Loew's State opens.
September 5 – Popular comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle attends a party at the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, during which actress Virginia Rappe is fatally injured; although he is eventually acquitted of rape and manslaughter, the scandal derails his career.
October 21 – George Melford's silent film The Sheik, which enhances leading actor Rudolph Valentino's international reputation as a Latin lover, is premiered in Los Angeles. Within the first year of its release, it exceeds $1 million in ticket sales.
October 26 – The Chicago Theatre, which will be the oldest surviving French-style Baroque Revival grand movie palace, opens.
The Phantom Carriage (aka Korkarlen/ The Wagoner), directed by Victor Sjostrom, starring Sjostrom, Hilda Borgstrom and Tore Svennberg, based on the 1912 novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! by Selma Lagerlof; this film influenced the later works of Ingmar Bergman[15] – (Sweden)
^ abcBirchard, Robert S. (2004). Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. p. 120. ISBN0-813-12324-0.
^ abWarner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1–31 p. 1 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
^ abWorkman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 232. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ abWorkman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 241. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ abWorkman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 233. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^Kinnard, Roy (1995). "Horror in Silent Films". McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN0-7864-0036-6. Page 124.
^ abWorkman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^Kinnard, Roy (1995). "Horror in Silent Films". McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN0-7864-0036-6. Page 125.
^Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ abKinnard, Roy (1995). "Horror in Silent Films". McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN0-7864-0036-6. Page 126.
^Kinnard, Roy (1995). "Horror in Silent Films". McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0036-6. Page 118.
^ abWorkman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 242. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 243. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^Kinnard, Roy (1995). "Horror in Silent Films". McFarland and Company Inc. ISBN0-7864-0036-6. Page 128.
^Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 244. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^
"Mrs George Formby's Own Story". The Sunday Post. Dundee. February 13, 1921. p. 16.