The year 1920 in film involved some significant events.
Blue Streak McCoy is a lost 1920 American silent Western film starring Harry Carey.
Three Live Ghosts is a 1922 British comedy film directed by George Fitzmaurice. Alfred Hitchcock is credited as a title designer. The film is based on a 1920 Broadway play, Three Live Ghosts, by Frederic S. Isham and Max Marcin. Actor Cyril Chadwick is the only performer from the play to appear in the film. A copy of the film, thought to be lost, was found in a Russian archive and shown publicly in 2015. This version had however been radically re-edited by Soviet censors in the 1920s, making the film a searing critique of post-war Britain, including its relations with Ireland, which achieved Dominion status in the year the film was first shown.
The Flaming Disc is a 1920 American silent adventure film serial directed by Robert F. Hill. The first episode of the series, "Rails of Death", opened on November 21, 1920. A total of 18 film episodes were produced. The Flaming Disc is now presumed to be a lost film.
The Golden Web is a lost 1926 American silent mystery film directed by Walter Lang and starring Lillian Rich, Huntley Gordon and Lawford Davidson. The cast also features Boris Karloff before he established himself as a horror star. It is based on the 1910 novel The Golden Web by the British writer E. Phillips Oppenheim. A previous British film adaptation of the novel was produced in 1920.
The Revenge of Tarzan (1920) is a silent adventure film, originally advertised as The Return of Tarzan, and the third Tarzan film produced. The film was produced by the Great Western Film Producing Company, a subsidiary of the Numa Pictures Corporation. The film was sold to Goldwyn Pictures for distribution.
At the Villa Rose is a 1920 British silent detective film based on the 1910 novel At the Villa Rose by British politician and author A.E.W. Mason. The feature was directed by Maurice Elvey and stars Manora Thew and Langhorn Burton. A print of the film survives at the British Film Institute archives.
The Centaur Film Company was an American motion picture production company founded in 1907 in Bayonne, New Jersey, by William and David Horsley. It was the first independent motion picture production company in the United States. In 1909 the company added a West Coast production unit, the Nestor Film Company, which established the first permanent film studio in Hollywood, California, in 1911. The company was absorbed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in 1912.
Anthony Slide is an English writer who has produced more than seventy books and edited a further 150 on the history of popular entertainment. He wrote a "letter from Hollywood" for the British Film Review magazine from 1979 to 1994, and he wrote a monthly book review column for Classic Images from 1989 to 2001. He is a member of the editorial board of the American Film Institute Catalog.
Hobson's Choice is a 1931 British comedy drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring James Harcourt, Viola Lyel, Frank Pettingell and Herbert Lomas. Based on the 1916 play Hobson's Choice by Harold Brighouse, it follows the tale of a coarse bootshop owner who becomes outraged when his eldest daughter decides to marry a meek cobbler. It was produced by the leading British company of the time, British International Pictures, at their studios in Elstree.
Wuthering Heights is a 1920 British silent drama film directed by A. V. Bramble and starring Milton Rosmer, Colette Brettel and Warwick Ward. It is the first film adaptation made of the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, and was primarily filmed in and around her home village of Haworth. It is not known whether the film currently survives, and it is considered to be a lost film.
Harry Agar Lyons was an Irish-born British actor. He was born in Cork, Ireland in 1878 and died in Wandsworth, London, England in 1944 at age 72.
Bleak House is a 1920 British silent drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Constance Collier, Berta Gellardi, and Helen Haye. An adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1853 novel of the same name, it was one of many silent-film versions of Dickens' stories.
The Ideal Film Company was a British film production and distribution company that operated between 1911 and 1934.
Stranded is a 1916 American silent drama film produced by Fine Arts Film Company and distributed by Triangle Film Corporation. The film stars DeWolf Hopper with newcomer Bessie Love in a supporting role. The film is considered lost.
Paddy the Next Best Thing is a 1923 British silent romance film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Mae Marsh, Darby Foster and Lilian Douglas. It was based on the 1908 novel of the same title by Gertrude Page and a 1920 stage adaptation, which was later adapted into a 1933 American film. It was made at the Gainsborough Studios in Islington. American star Mae Marsh had been brought over from Hollywood to star in the company's previous film Flames of Passion and stayed on to make this film.
The Amateur Gentleman is a 1926 American silent drama film produced by Inspiration Pictures and distributed through First National Pictures. It was directed by Sidney Olcott as a vehicle for star Richard Barthelmess.
John W. Boyle, was an American cinematographer whose career spanned from the silent era through the 1950s. Over his career he would photograph more than 150 films, including features, shorts and documentaries. He would also work on several British films over the course of his career.
Milestones is a 1920 American silent historical drama film directed by Paul Scardon and starring Lewis Stone, Alice Hollister, and Gertrude Robinson. It is an adaptation of the 1912 West End play Milestones by Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock. It is a saga of a British upper-class family from the 1860s to the present.
