1922 in film

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The following is an overview of 1922 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

The top ten films released in 1922 by U.S. gross are as follows:

Highest-grossing films of 1922

Rank	Title	Studio	Box office gross rental
1	Robin Hood	United Artists	$2,500,000
2	When Knighthood Was in Flower	Paramount Pictures/Cosmopolitan Productions	$1,500,000
3	Blood and Sand	Paramount Pictures	$1,250,000
4	Grandma's Boy	Pathé Exchange	$1,100,000
5	Smilin' Through	First National Pictures	$1,000,000
6	Rags to Riches	Warner Bros.	$418,000
7	Heroes of the Street		$366,000
8	The Beautiful and Damned		$327,000
9	Your Best Friend		$132,000
10	A Dangerous Adventure		$83,000

Events

• June 11 – United States première of Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North, the first commercially successful feature length documentary film.
• November 26 – The Toll of the Sea, starring Anna May Wong and Kenneth Harlan, debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor (The Gulf Between was the first film to do so but it was not widely distributed).

Notable films released in 1922

United States unless stated

A

• Arima No Neko/ The Ghost Cat of Arima (Japanese), directed by Jiro Yoshino for Shochiku Films, starring Shirogoro Sawamura
• Asajigahara Hitsotsuya/ The Horror House of Asajigahara (Japanese) directed by Kaname Mori for Shochiku Films
• At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern, directed by Lloyd Ingraham, starring Betty Ross Clarke, Earl Schenck and Victor Potel, based on the novel by Myrtle Reed

B

• The Bachelor Daddy, directed by Alfred E. Green, starring Thomas Meighan and Leatrice Joy
• Beauty's Worth, directed by Robert G. Vignola, starring Marion Davies and Forrest Stanley
• Beyond the Rocks, directed by Sam Wood; starring Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino
• A Bill of Divorcement, directed by Denison Clift, starring Constance Binney, Fay Compton – (Britain)
• The Blacksmith, a Buster Keaton short
• A Blind Bargain (aka The Octave of Claudius), a lost film directed by Wallace Worsley, starring Lon Chaney (who plays a dual role), Wallace Beery, Raymond McKee and Jacqueline Logan, based on a novel by Barry Pain; contained a party sequence filmed in "Prizmacolor"
• Blood and Sand, directed by Fred Niblo; starring Rudolph Valentino, Nita Naldi, and Lila Lee
• The Bohemian Girl, Starring Gladys Cooper and Ivor Novello – (GB)
• The Bride's Play, directed by George Terwilliger, starring Marion Davies and Carl Miller
• The Burning Soil (Der brennende Acker) – (Germany)

C

• The Card, directed by A.V. Bramble – (Britain)
• Charles Augustus Milverton (British) starring Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes
• Clarence, directed by William C. deMille, starring Wallace Reid
• Cocaine, directed by Graham Cutts – (GB)
• Cops, a Buster Keaton film
• Crainquebille (Coster Bill of Paris), directed by Jacques Feyder – (France)

D

• Danse Macabre, a short film directed by Dudley Murphy, written by (and starring) Russian-born dancer and choreographer Adolph Bolm, visualizing Camille Saint-Saen's musical composition of the same name
• Daydreams, a Buster Keaton short
• A Debt of Honour, starring Isobel Elsom and Clive Brook (Britain)
• The Dictator, directed by Jim Cruze; starring Wallace Reid and Lila Lee
• Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler/ Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (German), a two-part silent film directed by Fritz Lang, produced by Erich Pommer, written by Thea Von Harbou; starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge and Bernhard Goetzke, based on a novel by Norbert Jacques – (Germany)
• Dr. Jack, directed by Fred Newmeyer, produced by Hal Roach, starring Harold Lloyd
• Don Juan and Faust (French) directed by Marcel L'Herbier for Gaumont Pictures, starring Philippe Heriat and Vanni Marcoux, based on an 1829 play of the same name by Christian Dietrich Grabbe
• The Dungeon, written, produced and directed by African-American Oscar Micheaux, starring William E. Fountaine and Shingzie Howard, a blaxploitation adaptation of "Bluebeard" (a lost film)

E

• Estrellita del Cine, directed by Jose Nepomuceno - Philippines
• The Electric House, a Buster Keaton short
• Esmeralda, aka The Hunchback of Notre Dame (British) 13-minute short directed by Edwin J. Collins, starring Sybil Thorndike and Booth Conway, another adaptation of the 1831 Victor Hugo novel

F

• Fair Lady, directed by Kenneth Webb
• Faust (British) 14-minute short film directed by Challis Sanderson, starring Dick Webb (as Faust) and Sylvia Caine (as Marguerite), another film adaptation of the famous 1808 story by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Faust (French) directed by Gerard Bourgeois, starring Maurice Varney and Christine Kerf; another film adaptation of the famous 1808 story by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; this film was an early experiment in 3-D filmmaking, but it did not catch on
• La Femme de nulle part/ The Woman From Nowhere (French), directed by Louis Delluc – (France)
• Flames of Passion, starring Mae Marsh and C. Aubrey Smith – (GB)
• Flesh and Blood, starring Lon Chaney
• Foolish Wives, directed by & starring Erich von Stroheim
• The Frozen North, starring Buster Keaton

G

• The Ghost Breaker, directed by Alfred E. Green for Paramount/ Lasky; starring Wallace Reid, Lila Lee, Arthur Edmund Carewe and Snitz Edwards; adapted from the play by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard (filmed again in 1940 with Bob Hope)
• A Gipsy Cavalier, directed by J. Stuart Blackton ; starring Georges Carpentier and Flora le Breton – (GB)
• Grandma's Boy, starring Harold Lloyd
• The Grass Orphan, directed by Frank Hall Crane; starring Margaret Bannerman, Reginald Owen – (Britain)

H

• Hachisuka no neko/ The Cat of Hochisuka (Japanese) yet another Japanese "ghost-cat" film directed by Jiro Yoshino for Shochiku Films, starring Shirogoro Sawamura
• The Haunted House, 20-minute film directed by Erle C. Kenton, produced by William Fox; old dark house film featured white actors in blackface portraying servants
• Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Swedish, 104 minutes), directed by (and starring) Danish-born Benjamin Christensen; also starring Astrid Holm and Maren Pedersen; this film was re-released in an edited, 77-minute version in 1968, with added sound narration by William S. Burroughs – (Sweden/Denmark)
• The Headless Horseman, directed by Edward D. Venturini, starring Will Rogers, Lois Meredith and Mary Foy; a silent film adaptation of the famous 1820 story by Washington Irving

I

• In the Name of the Law, directed by Emory Johnson, starring Ralph Lewis and Claire McDowell
• It's Never Too Late to Mend (British) directed by George Wynn, starring Russell Thorndike and Ward McAllister, based on the 1856 Charles Reade novel (this film was remade in 1937 starring Tod Slaughter)

L

• Laborer's Love (Laogong zhi aiqing) – (China)
• Lorna Doone, directed by Maurice Tourneur
• The Loves of Pharaoh (Das Weib des Pharao), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Emil Jannings – (Germany)
• Lucrezia Borgia (German), written and directed by Richard Oswald, photographed by Karl Freund, starring Conrad Veidt, Liane Haid, William Dieterle and Paul Wegener; this film was remade in 1935 by Abel Gance

M

• The Man from Beyond, starring Harry Houdini
• Manslaughter, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Thomas Meighan
• Marizza (aka Marizza, called the Smuggler Madonna), directed by F.W. Murnau – (Germany)
• The Marriage Chance, murder mystery written and directed by Hampton Del Ruth, starring Alta Allen, Milton Sills, Henry B. Walthall and Tully Marshall
• Money To Burn, romantic comedy directed by Rowland V. Lee for Fox Pictures, starring William Russell and Sylvia Breamer (a lost film)
• Moran of the Lady Letty, directed by George Melford, starring Dorothy Dalton & Rudolph Valentino
• More to Be Pitied Than Scorned, directed by Edward LeSaint
• Mud and Sand, a parody of Blood and Sand, starring Stan Laurel and Mae Laurel
• My Boy, starring Jackie Coogan
• My Wife's Relations, starring Buster Keaton

N

• Nanook of the North, a documentary directed by Robert J. Flaherty
• Nathan the Wise, directed by Manfred Noa (Germany)
• Nice People, directed by William C. deMille; starring Wallace Reid and Bebe Daniels
• Nikuzuki no men/ translation: Mask Stuck on Face (Japanese) an 8-minute silent film directed by Shozo Makino for Makino Films; remade in 1964 as Onibaba
• Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens/ Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror (German), directed by F. W. Murnau, written by Henrik Galeen, photographed by Fritz Arno Wagner; starring Max Schreck and Greta Schroder; this was an unauthorized film adaptation of the 1987 Bram Stoker novel Dracula (film was remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog as Nosferatu The Vampyre) – (Germany)
• Number 13, directed by Alfred Hitchcock; starring Ernest Thesiger – (GB)

O

• Oliver Twist, starring Jackie Coogan
• One Exciting Night (aka The Haunted Grande), written and directed by D. W. Griffith; starring Carol Dempster and Henry Hull
• One Glorious Day, aka Souls Before Birth, directed by James Cruze; starring Will Rogers, Alan Hale and Lila Lee
• Osaka-jo tenshu no kai (Japanese) mystery film directed by Jiro Yoshino for Shochiku Films, starring Shirogoro Sawamura

P

• The Paleface, starring Buster Keaton
• Pay Day, a Charles Chaplin short
• Peg o' My Heart, directed by King Vidor
• Phantom, directed by F. W. Murnau; starring Alfred Abel, Lil Dagover and Lya De Putti – (Germany)
• Polikushka – (U.S.S.R.)
• The Primitive Lover, directed by Sidney Franklin; starring Constance Talmadge
• The Prisoner of Zenda, starring Lewis Stone

Q

• Queen of Spades (Hungarian), directed by Paul Fejos, starring Mara Jankovsky and Leona Karolyi, based on the 1833 short story "Pikovaya dama" by Alexander Pushkin

R

• Rent Free, directed by Howard Higgin; starring Wallace Reid and Lila Lee
• Robin Hood, directed by Allan Dwan; starring Douglas Fairbanks
• Rob Roy, directed by W.P. Kellino (GB)

S

• Saturday Night, starring Leatrice Joy and Conrad Nagel
• The Scarlet Letter, starring Sybil Thorndike – (GB)
• Shadows, directed by Tom Forman; starring Lon Chaney and Marguerite De La Motte
• Sherlock Holmes, starring John Barrymore and Roland Young
• Smilin' Through, starring Norma Talmadge
• Sodom and Gomorrah, directed by Michael Curtiz – (Austria)
• La Souriante Madame Beudet (The Smiling Madame Beudet) – (France)
• A Spectre Haunts Europe (Russian) directed by Vladimir R. Gardin, starring Zora Barantsevich and Oleg Frelikh, a silent film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story The Masque of the Red Death; photographed on location in Crimea by Boris Zavelev
• Spooks, produced and directed by Jack White about a haunted wax museum, starring Lige Conley
• Squibs Wins the Calcutta Sweep directed by George Pearson; starring Betty Balfour – (GB)
• The Suram Fortress (Suramis tsikhe) – (U.S.S.R.)

T

• Tess of the Storm Country, starring Mary Pickford
• The Three Must-Get-Theres directed by and starring Max Linder
• The Toll of the Sea, starring Anna May Wong
• Trilby (British) a 15-minute episode of a British series called Tense Moments with Great Authors, directed by Harry B. Parkinson, starring Phyllis Nelson-Terry, Hilda Moore and Charles Garry; an adaptation of the 1894 novel by George Du Maurier

V

• Vaskresenja ne biva bez smrti/ There's No Resurrection Without Death), the first Montenegrin movie

W

• What's Wrong with the Women?, directed by Roy William Neill; starring Constance Bennett & Hedda Hopper
• When Knighthood Was in Flower, starring Marion Davies
• Wildness of Youth, directed by Ivan Abramson

Y

• The Young Diana, directed by Robert G. Vignola, starring Marion Davies and Forrest Stanley
• The Young Rajah, starring Rudolph Valentino

Short film series

• Charlie Chaplin (1914–1923)
• Buster Keaton (1917–1941)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921–1943)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)

Animated short film series

Felix the Cat cartoon.

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

Births

• January 2 – Jason Evers, actor (died 2005)
• January 3 - Bill Travers, British actor, screenwriter and director (died 1994)
• January 10 – Hannelore Schroth, actress (died 1987)
• January 13 – Albert Lamorisse, director (died 1970)
• January 16 – Irene Vernon, actress (died 1998)
• January 17 – Betty White, American actress (died 2021)
• January 19 – Guy Madison, actor (died 1996)
• January 20 – Ray Anthony, bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor
• January 21
  • Telly Savalas, actor (died 1994)
  • Paul Scofield, actor (died 2008)
• January 31 – Joanne Dru, actress (died 1996)
• February 4 - Qin Yi, Chinese actress (died 2022)
• February 6 – Patrick Macnee, actor (died 2015)
• February 7 – Hattie Jacques, actress (died 1980)
• February 9 – Kathryn Grayson, singer, actress (died 2010)
• February 24 – Steven Hill, actor (died 2016)
• February 26 – Margaret Leighton, actress (died 1976)
• March 5 – Pier Paolo Pasolini, film director (died 1975)
• March 8 – Cyd Charisse, actress, dancer (died 2008)
• March 20 – Carl Reiner, comic actor, director and screenwriter (died 2020)
• March 21 – Russ Meyer, director, producer (died 2004)
• March 31 - Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (died 1999)
• April 3 – Doris Day, actress, singer (died 2019)
• April 4 - Elmer Bernstein, American composer and conductor (died 2004)
• April 5 – Gale Storm, singer, actress (died 2009)
• April 7 – Margia Dean, American former beauty queen and actress
• April 15 – Michael Ansara, American stage, screen, and voice actor (died 2013)
• April 18 – Barbara Hale, American actress (died 2017)
• April 24 – J. D. Cannon, American actor (died 2005)
• April 26 – Mike Kellin, American actor (died 1983)
• April 27 – Jack Klugman, American actor (died 2012)
• May 2 – Roscoe Lee Browne, American actor and director (died 2007)
• May 7
  • Rolands Kalniņš, Latvian director, screenwriter and producer (died 2022)
  • Darren McGavin, American actor (died 2006)
• May 10 – Nancy Walker, American actress (died 1992)
• May 13 - Truus Dekker, Dutch actress (died 2022)
• May 27 – Christopher Lee, English actor (died 2015)
• May 31 – Denholm Elliott, English-born actor (died 1992)
• June 1
  • Joan Caulfield, American actress (died 1991)
  • Joan Copeland, American actress (died 2022}
• June 9 – George Axelrod, American scriptwriter and director (died 2003)
• June 10 – Judy Garland, American singer, actress (died 1969)
• June 16 – Frances Rafferty, American actress (died 2004)
• June 22 – Mona Lisa, Filipina actress (died 2019)
• June 26 – Eleanor Parker, American actress (died 2013)
• July 6 – William Schallert, American actor (died 2016)
• July 21 – Demeter Bitenc, Slovenian actor (died 2018)
• July 26
  • Blake Edwards, American director (died 2010)
  • Jason Robards, American actor (died 2000)
• July 27
  • Adolfo Celi, Italian film actor and director (died 1986)
  • Norman Lear, American writer and producer
• August 1
  • Arthur Hill, Canadian actor (died 2006)
  • Paul Lambert, American actor (died 1997)
• August 8 – Rory Calhoun, American actor (died 1999)
• August 22 – Micheline Presle, French actress
• September 1
  • Vittorio Gassman, Italian actor, director (died 2000)
  • Yvonne De Carlo, American actress (died 2007)
• September 6 - Elizabeth Lawrence (actress), American actress (died 2000)
• September 8 – Sid Caesar, American comedian, actor (died 2014)
• September 10 - Barbara Chilcott, Canadian actress (died 2022)
• September 14 – Michel Auclair, European actor (died 1988)
• September 15 – Jackie Cooper, American actor, director (died 2011)
• September 16
  • Guy Hamilton, English director (died 2016)
  • Janis Paige, American actress
• September 23 – Louise Latham, American actress (died 2018)
• September 24 – Bert I. Gordon, American filmmaker and visual effects artist
• September 29 – Lizabeth Scott, American actress (died 2015)
• October 5 – Woodrow Parfrey, American actor (died 1984)
• October 7 – Martha Stewart, American actress (died 2021)
• October 8 - Eileen Essell, English actress (died 2015)
• October 20 – John Anderson, American actor (died 1992)
• October 23 – Coleen Gray, American actress (died 2015)
• October 27 – Ruby Dee, American actress (died 2014)
• October 31 – Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress (died 2005)
• November 9 – Dorothy Dandridge, American actress, singer (died 1965)
• November 12 – Kim Hunter, actress (died 2002)
• November 13
  • Madeleine Sherwood, actress (died 2016)
  • Oskar Werner, actor (died 1984)
• November 14 – Veronica Lake, American actress (died 1973)
• November 15 – Francesco Rosi, film director (died 2015)
• November 22 – Lynne Roberts, American actress (died 1978)
• November 26 – Adam Williams, American actor (died 2005)
• November 27 – Jacqueline White, American actress
• November 29 - Laurie Main, Australian actor (died 2012)
• December 2
  • Don Fellows, American actor (died 2007)
  • Leo Gordon, American actor and screenplay writer (died 2000)
• December 4 – Gérard Philipe, French actor (died 1959)
• December 11 – Dilip Kumar, Indian actor (died 2021)
• December 21 – Paul Winchell, American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, voice artist, humanitarian and inventor (died 2005)
• December 22 – Ruth Roman, actress (died 1999)
• December 24 – Ava Gardner, American actress (died 1990)
• December 26 - Alfred Dennis (actor), American actor (died 2016)
• December 28
  • Ivan Desny, Swiss actor (died 2002)
  • Stan Lee, American comic-book writer, producer and actor (died 2018)

Deaths

• February 1 – William Desmond Taylor, film director, victim of an unsolved and widely publicised murder which provoked a great scandal. (born 1872)
• February 4 – Florence Deshon, American actress (born 1893)
• March 4 – Bert Williams, American actor and singer (born 1874)
• May 21 – Sidney Ainsworth, actor (born 1872)
• May 26 – Walter Jones, American actor (b.1874)
• June 6 – Lillian Russell, stage and screen actress (born 1860/61)
• June 15 – Howard Crampton, actor (born 1865)
• July 5 – Bobby Connelly, child star (born 1909)
• September 23 – W. Chrystie Miller, veteran stage & screen actor (born 1843)
• November 30 – René Cresté, actor and director (born 1881)

Film debuts

• Clara Bow
• Walt Disney – director, producer
• Louise Dresser
• William Haines
• Will Hay
• Edward Everett Horton
• Gene Lockhart
• Anita Louise
• George O'Brien
• William Powell
• Anne Shirley
• Darryl F. Zanuck – director, producer
• Rin Tin Tin

External links

Media related to 1922 in film at Wikimedia Commons