1916 in film: Difference between revisions

Overview of the events of 1916 in film

The year 1916 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• Charlie Chaplin signs for Mutual Film for a salary of $10,000 a week and a signing on fee of $150,000, making him one of the highest-paid people in the United States.
• June 24 – Mary Pickford signs a contract for $10,000 a week plus profit participation, guaranteeing her over $1 million per year.
• July 19 – Famous Players–Lasky is formed through a merger of Adolph Zukor‘s Famous Players Film Company and Jesse L. Lasky‘s Feature Play Company. Later in the year, they acquire distributor Paramount Pictures.
• August 10 – The official British documentary propaganda film The Battle of the Somme is premièred in London. In the first six weeks of general release (from 20 August) 20 million people view it.
• September 5 – Release of D. W. Griffith‘s epic film Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Through the Ages, starring Lillian Gish (as “The Eternal Motherhood”) and Constance Talmadge (in two roles), in the United States. It is estimated to have cost around $2.5 million to make but is initially a commercial failure.
• October 17 – Release of A Daughter of the Gods, the first US production with a million dollar budget, with the first nude scene by a major star (Annette Kellerman).
• November 19 – Samuel Goldfish (later renamed Samuel Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures, later to become one of the most successful independent filmmakers.
• The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded in the United States as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.
• 11 mm, an amateur film gauge, appears on the market.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

The top six 1916 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Notable films released in 1916

United States unless stated

#

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

• The Grasping Hand (French) 13-minute ghost film directed by Max Linder who also starred in it
• The Green-Eyed Monster, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, starring Robert B. Mantell and Stuart Holmes

H

• Habit of Happiness, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• Haunted, a haunted cabin film starring Lillian Leighton and Ralph McComas
• The Haunted Bell, directed by Henry Otto, starring King Baggot, based on a short story by Jacques Futrelle
• Haunts for Rent, directed by C. Allan Gilbert, this film featured mixed live action with animated effects
• Hell’s Hinges, directed by Charles Swickard and William S. Hart, starring William S. Hart
• Her Father’s Gold (aka The Water Devil) directed by Eugene Moore for Thanhouser Films, based on a story by Crittenden Marriott^[4]
• Homunculus (German) 6-chapter serial about a scientist who creates an artificial human, directed by Otto Rippert, starring Olaf Foenss as the Monster; plot similar to Frankenstein, Alraune and The Golem^[5]
• Hoodoo Ann, starring Mae Marsh and Robert Harron
• Hulda from Holland, starring Mary Pickford

I

J

L

M

• A Maori Maid’s Love, directed by Raymond Longford – (Australia/New Zealand)
• Mingling Spirits, short film directed by Al Christie for Universal Pictures, starring Betty Compson
• Mr. Tvardovski (Russian) a Faustian-type film directed by Ladislas Starevitch, starring Nicolai Saltykov, based on a novel by J. I. Kraszevski; part of the film featured animation
• The Mutiny of the Bounty, directed by Raymond Longford – (Australia/New Zealand)
• The Mysteries of Myra, 15-chapter serial directed by Theodore and Leopold Wharton, starring Jean Sothern, Howard Estabrook and Warner Oland^[8]
• The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, short directed by John Emerson, starring Douglas Fairbanks

N

• Night of Horror/ Nachte des Grauens (German) a lost film directed by Richard Oswald and Arthur Robison, starring Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss, cited in some references as being the first vampire film ^[9]

O

P

• The Pawnshop, a Charles Chaplin short
• The Phantom of the Opera (German) first film version of the Gaston Leroux novel, directed by Ernst Matray, starring Nils Olaf Chrisander and Aud Egede Nissen
• The Phantom Witness, directed by Frederick Sullivan for Thanhouser Films, starring Kathryn Adams and Edwin Stanley
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (British) directed by Fred W. Durant, starring Henry Victor and Pat O’Malley
• Police, a Charles Chaplin short with Edna Purviance and Wesley Ruggles

Q

• The Queen of Spades/ Pikovaya dama (Russian) directed by Yakov Protazanov, based on the short story by Alexander Pushkin, starring Tamara Duvan and Nikolai Panov^[10]

R

• The Real Thing at Last (British) directed by James m. Barrie and L.C. MacBean, starring Ernest Thesiger
• The Return of Draw Egan, directed by and starring William S. Hart
• The Rink, a Charles Chaplin short
• The Romantic Journey, directed by George Fitzmaurice, written by Ouida Bergere, starring William Courtenay

S

• Saint, Devil and Woman, directed by Frederick Sullivan for Thanhouser Films, starring Florence La Badie
• Sally Bishop directed by George Pearson – (GB)
• Sally in Our Alley directed by Larry Trimble, starring Hilda Trevelyan, Mary Dibley, Reginald Owen – (GB)
• Seven Keys to Baldpate (Australian) directed by Monte Luke, starring Dorothy Brunton and J. Plumpton Wilson; based on the 1913 novel by Earl Derr Biggers which was turned into a play by George M. Cohan^[11]
• She (British) directed by Horace Lisle Lucoque and William G.B. Barker, starring Alice Delysia and Henry Victor; the first British film adaptation of the H. Rider Haggard novel^[12]
• Sherlock Holmes (U.S.), directed by Arthur Berthelet, starring William Gillette as Holmes, based on the 1899 stage play which also starred William Gillette (Ernest Maupain played Moriarty)
• The Shielding Shadow (aka Ravengar) 15-chapter serial directed by Louis Gasnier (who later directed Reefer Madness in 1936) and Donald MacKenzie, starring Grace Darmond and Ralph Kellard^[13]
• The Silent Stranger (aka The Silent Man) 11-minute short starring, and directed by, King Baggot
• Snow White, starring Marguerite Clark
• Sold to Satan, starring and directed by Edward Sloman
• The Soul’s Cycle, directed by Ulysses Davis, starring Margaret Gibson and John Oaker, deals with reincarnation similar in plot to The Mummy (1932)

T

• Trilby Frilled, 10-minute short directed by Edwin McKim, starring Davy Don as Svengali and Patsy De Forest; spoof of George Du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby^[14]

U

• Under Two Flags, starring Theda Bara
• Ultus, the Man From the Dead (British) directed by George Pearson for Gaumont Films, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus, a superhero apparently influenced by France’s popular film character Fantomas; there were four Ultus films in the series, which were later re-edited into seven shorter films for overseas distribution
• Ultus and the Grey Lady (British) 2nd film in the “Ultus” series, directed by George Pearson, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus
• Ultus and the Secret of the Night (British) 3rd film in the “Ultus” series, directed by George Pearson, again starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus
• Ultus and the Three-Button Mystery (British) 4th and final film in the “Ultus” series, directed by George Pearson, starring Aurele Sydney as Ultus; this 4th film wasn’t theatrically released until 1917

V

• The Vagabond, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin
• The Valley of Fear (British) directed by Alexander Butler, based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, starring H.A. Saintsbury as Sherlock Holmes and Arthur M. Cullin as Dr. Watson (Booth Conway played Moriarty)
• The Vij (Russian) written and directed by Wadyslaw Starewicz, starring Ivan Mosjoukine and Olga Obolenskaya; the 2nd ever film adaptation of Nicolai Gogol’s short story; featured stop motion animation^[15]

W

• A Welsh Singer directed by Henry Edwards, starring Edwards, Florence Turner and Campbell Gullan – (GB)
• The Wheel of Death (British) directed by A.E. Coleby, starring Arthur Rooke and Joan Legge
• Where Are My Children?, directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber, starring Tyrone Power, Sr. and Juan de la Cruz
• Willard-Johnson Boxing Match
• The Wings (Swedish: Vingarne) Swedish silent film directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Nils Asther, Egil Eide, Lars Hanson, Lili Bech, and Julius Hälsig [sv]
• Witchcraft, directed by Frank Reicher, produced by Jesse L. Lasky, starring Fannie Ward and Jack Dean, based on a short story by Robert Ralston Reed
• The Witch of the Mountains, starring Mareguerite Nichols, Gordon Sackville and Richard Johnson; produced by Knickerbocker Star Features
• The Witching Hour, directed by George Irving, starring C. Aubrey Smith and Marie Shotwell; this was adapted from the 1907 stage play by Augustus Thomas

Short film series

Births

• January 4 – Robert Parrish, American director editor and former child actor (died 1995)
• January 5 – Alfred Ryder, American actor and director (died 1995)
• February 8 – Betty Field, American film and stage actress (died 1973)
• February 11 – Walter Newman, American radio, writer and screenwriter (died 1993)
• February 13 – James Griffith, American character actor, musician and screenwriter (died 1993)
• February 14
• February 16 – Alberto Sorrentino, Italian film actor (died 1994)
• February 17 – Raf Vallone, Italian actor and footballer (died 2002)
• February 21 – Jan Wiley, American film actress (died 1993)
• February 26 – Jackie Gleason, American comedian, actor, writer, and composer (died 1987)
• February 29 – Dinah Shore, American singer, actress, television personality (died 1994)
• March 6 – Virginia Gregg, American actress (died 1986)
• March 11 – Ferdy Mayne, German-British actor (died 1998)
• March 19 – Eric Christmas, English actor (died 2000)
• March 26 – Sterling Hayden, American actor, author, sailor, and Marine (died 1986)
• April 4 – David White, American actor (died 1990)
• April 5 – Gregory Peck, American actor (died 2003)
• April 6 – Phil Leeds, American character actor (died 1998)
• April 7 – Anthony Caruso, American character actor (died 2003)
• April 10
• April 26 – Vic Perrin, American radio, film and television actor (died 1989)
• April 30 – Phil Brown, American actor (died 2006)
• May 1 – Glenn Ford, Canadian-American actor (died 2006)
• May 6 – Adriana Caselotti, American actress and singer (died 1997)
• May 24 – Peter Whitney, American actor (died 1972)
• May 27 – Willie Best, American television and film actor (died 1962)
• May 29 – Sidney Glazier, American film producer (died 2002)
• June 6 – Dorothea Kent, American film actress (died 1990)
• June 12 – Irwin Allen, American film and television producer and director (died 1991)
• June 14 – Dorothy McGuire, American actress (died 2001)
• June 19 – Karin Booth, American film and television actress (died 2003)
• June 23 – Irene Worth, American stage and screen actress (died 2002)
• June 29 – Ruth Warrick, American singer, actress and political activist (died 2005)
• July 1 – Olivia de Havilland, British-American actress (died 2020)
• July 2 – Ken Curtis, American actor and singer (died 1991)
• July 23 – Sandra Gould, American actress (died 1999)
• July 27 – Keenan Wynn, American character actor (died 1986)
• July 31 – Sydney Tafler, English actor (died 1979)
• August 18 – Don Keefer, American actor (died 2014)
• August 21 – Geoffrey Keen, English actor (died 2005)
• August 24 – Hal Smith, American actor (died 1994)
• August 25 – Van Johnson, American actor and dancer (died 2008)
• August 27
• September 12 – Edward Binns, American actor (died 1990)
• September 15 – Margaret Lockwood, British actress (died 1990)
• September 18 – Rossano Brazzi, Italian actor, director and screenwriter (died 1994)
• September 28 – Peter Finch, English-Australian actor (died 1977)
• October 4 – George Sidney, American film director and producer (died 2002)
• October 10 – Benson Fong, American character actor (died 1987)
• October 20 – Anton Diffring, German actor (died 1989)
• November 5 – Willoughby Gray, English actor (died 1993)
• November 12 – Liam Dunn, American character actor (died 1976)
• November 16 – Daws Butler, American voice actor (died 1988)
• November 17 – Frank Maxwell, American actor (died 2004)
• November 20 – Evelyn Keyes, American film actress (died 2008)
• November 23 – Michael Gough, British actor (died 2011)
• November 29 – Fran Ryan, American character actress (died 2000)
• December 5 – Margaret Hayes, American film, stage, and television actress (died 1977)
• December 8 – Richard Fleischer, American film director (died 2006)
• December 9 – Kirk Douglas, American actor and filmmaker (died 2020)
• December 13 – Mark Stevens, American actor (died 1994)
• December 18 – Betty Grable, American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer (died 1973)

Deaths

• January 17, Arthur V. Johnson, 39, American screen actor and director, The Sealed Room, The Unchanging Sea, The Adventures of Dollie, The Voice of the Violin, tuberculosis
• June 22
  • Page Peters, 26, American screen actor, The Warrens of Virginia, The Purple Scar, An International Marriage, Davy Crockett, Pasquale, drowned swimming
  • Maurice Vinot, 27, French screen actor, airplane crash
• September 9 – Sydney Ayres, 37, American stage & screen actor and director, The Sting of Conscience, The Avenger, As in a Dream, multiple sclerosis
• September 17 – Arthur Hoops, 45, American stage & screen actor, The Secret of Eve, Bridges Burned, Extravagance, The Eternal Question, The Scarlet Woman, heart attack
• September 27 – Camille D’Arcy, 37, American actress, The Prince Chap, Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, A Daughter of the City, The White Sister, The Pacifist, infection from bathing
• October 6 – Henry Woodruff, 47, American stage & screen actor, A Beckoning Flame, A Man and His Mate, Bright’s disease
• November 30 – Dorrit Weixler, 23, German comic actress, Maria, Kammermusik, Heimgekehrt, Todesrauchen, suicide by hanging
• unknown – Jean, the Vitagraph Dog (born 1902), American Border Collie, Jean and the Calico Doll, Fraid Cat

Debuts

References

External links