1921 In Film

The year 1921 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• October 21 – The Sheik, which will propel its leading actor Rudolph Valentino to international stardom, is premiered in Los Angeles.
• October 26 – The Chicago Theatre, which will be the oldest surviving French-style Baroque Revival grand movie palace, opens.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Notable films released in 1921

U.S.A. unless stated

• The Ace of Hearts, directed by Wallace Worsley, starring Lon Chaney and Leatrice Joy
• Action, directed by John Ford;, starring Hoot Gibson
• The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick, directed by Thomas Bentley, starring Frederick Volpe – (GB)
• The Adventures of Tarzan, directed by Robert F. Hill and Scott Sidney, starring Elmo Lincoln
• The Affairs of Anatol, directed by Cecil B. DeMille; starring Gloria Swanson and Wallace Reid
• After Midnight, directed by Ralph Ince
• Tom Mix
• Among Those Present, starring Harold Lloyd
• L'Atlantide (Missing Husbands), directed by Jacques Feyder – (France)
• Die Bergkatze (The Wild Cat), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Victor Janson – (Germany)
• The Bigamist, starring Guy Newall, Ivy Duke – (GB)
• The Blot, directed by Lois Weber; starring Claire Windsor
• The Boat, a Buster Keaton short
• The Bonnie Brier Bush, directed by and starring Donald Crisp – (GB)
• Brewster's Millions, directed by Joseph Henabery, starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
• Brownie's Little Venus, starring Baby Peggy
• Bullets or Ballots, the film debut of Mary Astor
• The Call of Youth, starring Mary Glynne
• Camille, starring Alla Nazimova, Rudolph Valentino, Rex Cherryman and Patsy Ruth Miller
• The Conquering Power, directed by Rex Ingram; starring Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry
• Desire (Sehnsucht), directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Conrad Veidt – (Germany)
• Destiny (Der müde Tod), directed by Fritz Lang, starring Lil Dagover and Walter Janssen – (Germany)
• George Arliss
• Dracula's Death (Drakula halála), directed by Károly Lajthay – (Hungary)
• El Dorado, directed by Marcel L'Herbier, starring Ève Francis and Jaque Catelain – (France)
• Richard Barthelmess and Lilyan Tashman
• The Fire Eater, directed by B. Reeves Eason, starring Hoot Gibson
• Fool's Paradise, directed by Cecil B. DeMille; starring Conrad Nagel, Mildred Harris, Theodore Kosloff and Baby Peggy
• Wallace Reid and Elsie Ferguson
• The Four Feathers, directed by René Plaissetty – (GB)
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, directed by Rex Ingram; starring Rudolph Valentino
• Get-Rich-Quick Peggy, starring Baby Peggy
• The Goat, a Buster Keaton short
• Golfing, starring Baby Peggy
• The Gunsaulus Mystery, directed by Oscar Micheaux, starring Evelyn Preer
• Hail the Woman, directed by John Griffith Wray, starring Florence Vidor
• The Haunted Castle (Schloss Vogeloed), directed by F. W. Murnau – (Germany)
• The Haunted House, a Buster Keaton short
• The High Sign, directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
• Humor Risk, the Marx Brothers debut, never released
• The Idle Class, a Charles Chaplin short
• The Indian Tomb (Das Indische Grabmal), starring Conrad Veidt – (Germany)
• Jánošík, starring Theodor Pištěk – (Czechoslovakia)
• Jim the Penman, directed by Kenneth Webb, starring Lionel Barrymore
• Journey into the Night (Der Gang in die Nacht), directed by F.W. Murnau – (Germany)
• The Kid, directed by & starring Charlie Chaplin with Edna Purviance and Jackie Coogan
• Land of My Fathers directed by Fred Rains and starring John Stuart and Yvonne Thomas – (GB)
• Leaves from Satan's Book (Blade af Satans bog), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer – (Denmark)
• Little Lord Fauntleroy, directed by Alfred E. Green and Jack Pickford, starring Mary Pickford
• Lucky Carson, directed by Wilfrid North, starring Earle Williams and Betty Ross Clarke
• The Lotus Eater, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring John Barrymore and Colleen Moore
• The Love Light, directed by Frances Marion, starring Mary Pickford
• The Lucky Dog, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• The Mechanical Man (L'uomo meccanico), directed by Andre Deed – (Italy)
• Miss Lulu Bett, directed by William C. deMille, starring Lois Wilson and Milton Sills
• A Muddy Bride, starring Baby Peggy
• Never Weaken, a Harold Lloyd short
• The Nut, directed by Theodore Reed, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Marguerite De La Motte
• The Offenders, directed by Fenwick L. Holmes, starring Margery Wilson
• On with the Show, starring Baby Peggy
• Orphans of the Storm, directed by D.W. Griffith; starring Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish
• Passion Flower, starring Norma Talmadge
• Peck's Bad Boy, directed by Sam Wood, starring Jackie Coogan
• The Phantom Carriage (Korkarlen), directed by & starring Victor Sjöström – (Sweden)
• The Playhouse, a Buster Keaton short
• The Queen of Sheba, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, starring Betty Blythe
• A Sailor-Made Man, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, starring Harold Lloyd
• Gareth Hughes
• Seven Years Bad Luck, directed by and starring Max Linder
• Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres
• The Silver Lining, directed by Roland West, starring Coit Albertson and Jewel Carmen
• The Sky Pilot, directed by King Vidor
• Betty Balfour – (GB)
• Sybil directed by Jack Denton, starring Evelyn Brent – (GB)
• Third Class Male, starring Baby Peggy
• The Three Musketeers, directed by Fred Niblo, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• Through the Back Door, directed by Alfred E. Green and Jack Pickford, starring Mary Pickford
• Tol'able David directed by Henry King; starring Richard Barthelmess
• Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers), directed by Henri Diamant-Berger – (France)
• White and Unmarried
• Woman's Place, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Constance Talmadge
• The Wonderful Thing, starring Norma Talmadge

Comedy film series

• Harold Lloyd (1913–1938)
• Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)
• Lupino Lane (1915–1939)
• Buster Keaton (1917–1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921–1945)

Animated short film series

• Aesop's Film Fables (1921–1934)
• Felix the Cat (1919–1936)
• Koko the Clown (1919–1963)

Births

• January 3 – John Russell, actor (died 1991)
• January 27 – Donna Reed, actress (died 1986)
• January 31
  • Carol Channing, actress
  • Mario Lanza, singer, actor (died 1959)
• February 8 – Lana Turner, actress (died 1995)
• February 16 – Vera-Ellen, actress, dancer (died 1981)
• February 22 – Giulietta Masina, actress (died 1994)
• February 24 – Abe Vigoda, actor
• February 26 – Betty Hutton, actress (died 2007)
• March 3 – Diana Barrymore, actress (died 1960)
• March 4 – Joan Greenwood, actress (died 1987)
• March 8 – Cyd Charisse, actress, dancer (died 2008)
• March 12 – Gordon MacRae, actor, singer (died 1986)
• March 25 – Simone Signoret, actress (died 1985)
• March 26 – Julie Harris, costume designer (died 2015)
• March 28 – Dirk Bogarde, actor (died 1999)
• April 10 – Chuck Connors, actor (died 1992)
• April 16 – Peter Ustinov, actor (died 2004)
• April 23 – Janet Blair, actress (died 2007)
• May 2 – Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (died 1992)
• May 23 – Grigori Chukhrai, Ukrainian film director (died 2001)
• May 31 – Alida Valli, actress (died 2006)
• June 8 – Alexis Smith, actress (died 1993)
• June 19 – Louis Jourdan, actor (died 2015)
• June 21
  • Jane Russell, actress (died 2011)
  • Judy Holliday, actress (died 1965)
• July 3 – Susan Peters, actress (died 1952)
• July 23 – Robert Brown, actor (died 2003)
• August 3 – Marilyn Maxwell, actress (died 1972)
• August 8 – Esther Williams, actress, swimmer (died 2013)
• August 19 - Gene Roddenberry, American screenwriter and producer (died 1991)
• September 8 – Harry Secombe, actor, singer (died 2001)
• September 27 – Miklós Jancsó, Hungarian director (died 2014)
• September 30 – Deborah Kerr, actress (died 2007)
• October 13 – Yves Montand, singer, actor (died 1991)
• November 3 – Charles Bronson, actor (died 2003)
• November 5 – Moritz Yomtov, screenwriter (died 1992)
• November 22 – Rodney Dangerfield, actor, comedian (died 2004)
• November 23 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian actor and singer (died 1960)
• December 4 – Deanna Durbin, actress (died 2013)
• December 26 – Steve Allen, actor, composer, comedian, author (died 2000)

Deaths

• May 17 – Karl Mantzius, Danish actor, theatre director, writer
• June 20 – George Loane Tucker, American actor, screenwriter and director
• September 9 – Virginia Rappe, American actress
• September 17 – Van Dyke Brooke, American actor, screenwriter and film director

Film debuts

• George Arliss
• Basil Rathbone
• Carole Lombard in A Perfect Crime (1921)
• Fredric March

See also

• List of American films of 1921