1921 in film

Years in film
1870s
1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s 2020

The year 1921 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• January 21 – The silent comedy-drama The 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.
• March 6 – The silent epic war film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, adapted for the screen by June Mathis, is released in the United States. It is the year's highest-grossing film (and the sixth-best-grossing silent film of all time), propels Rudolph Valentino to stardom and inspires a tango craze and a fashion for gaucho pants.
• 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.

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
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
• 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
• After Your Own Heart, directed by George Marshall, starring 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)
• Disraeli directed by Henry Kolker, starring 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)
• Experience, directed by George Fitzmaurice; starring 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
• Forever, directed by George Fitzmaurice, starring 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
• Sentimental Tommy, directed by George Fitzmaurice; starring Gareth Hughes
• Seven Years Bad Luck, directed by and starring Max Linder
• The Sheik, directed by George Melford, starring 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
• Squibs directed by George Pearson and starring 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 (died 2016)
• 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 29 - Clifton James, actor
• May 31 – Alida Valli, actress (died 2006)
• June 8 – Alexis Smith, actress (died 1993)
• June 19 – Louis Jourdan, actor (died 2015)
• June 21
  • Judy Holliday, born Judith Tuvim, actress (died 1965)
  • Jane Russell, actress (died 2011)
• July 3 – Susan Peters, actress (died 1952)
• July 6 – Nancy Reagan, born Anne Robbins, actress and First Lady of the United States (died 2016)
• 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

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