The following is an overview of 1921 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Mary Astor was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941).
May Irene McAvoy was an American actress who worked mainly during the silent-film era. Some of her major roles are Laura Pennington in The Enchanted Cottage, Esther in Ben-Hur, and Mary Dale in The Jazz Singer.
Greta Nissen was a Norwegian-American film and stage actress.
Mabel Taliaferro was an American stage and silent-screen actress, known as "the Sweetheart of American Movies."
Gareth Hughes was a Welsh stage and silent screen actor. Usually cast as a callow, sensitive hero in Hollywood silent films, Hughes got his start on stage during childhood and continued to play youthful leads on Broadway.
Virginia Valli was an American stage and film actress whose motion picture career started in the silent film era and lasted until the beginning of the sound film era of the 1930s.
John Stuart Robertson was a Canadian born actor and later film director perhaps best known for his 1920 screen adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring John Barrymore.
William Beatman Davidson was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1915 and 1947.
Enchantment is a 1948 American romantic drama film directed by Irving Reis and starring David Niven, Teresa Wright and Evelyn Keyes. It was produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and based on the 1945 novel A Fugue in Time by Rumer Godden.
A Lost Lady is a 1934 American drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring by Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Morgan, and Ricardo Cortez. Based on the 1923 novel A Lost Lady by Willa Cather, with a screenplay by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola, the film is about a woman whose fiancé is murdered by his mistress' husband two days before their wedding. Her uncle sends her away to the mountains, where she meets a man who looks after her and eventually proposes. She accepts even though she does not love him.
Under Two Flags (1867) was a best-selling novel by Ouida. The most famous of her books, it tells the story of an English aristocrat, apparently in disgrace, who disappears and joins a French battalion in Algeria, loosely based on the Foreign Legion.
The Blue Mountains Mystery is a lost 1921 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford and co-directed by Lottie Lyell.
The Christian (1923) is a silent film drama, released by Goldwyn Pictures, directed by Maurice Tourneur, his first production for Goldwyn, and starring Richard Dix and Mae Busch. The film is based on the novel The Christian by Hall Caine, published in 1897, the first British novel to reach the record of one million copies sold. The novel was adapted for the stage, opening on Broadway at the Knickerbocker Theatre October 10, 1898. This was the fourth film of the story; the first, The Christian (1911) was made in Australia.
The Enchanted Cottage is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by John S. Robertson based upon a 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero.
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch is a 1919 silent American comedy-drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky Corporation and distributed through Paramount Pictures. Directed by Hugh Ford, the film stars Marguerite Clark and is based on the 1904 Broadway play by Anne Crawford Flexner, which itself is taken from the novel of the same name by Alice Hegan Rice.
Forget Me Not, also known as Forget-Me-Not, is a 1922 American silent melodrama film directed by W. S. Van Dyke and distributed by Metro Pictures. The film starred Bessie Love and Gareth Hughes. It is considered a lost film.
Wild Honey is a 1922 American silent romantic adventure film directed by Wesley Ruggles. Produced and distributed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, the film is based on a book of the same title by Cynthia Stockley and stars Priscilla Dean, and features Noah Beery, Sr. and Wallace Beery in supporting roles. It is notable for the first use of a traveling matte special effect.
The Woman Under Oath is a 1919 American silent mystery film directed by John M. Stahl and starring stage star Florence Reed. As with the previous Stahl and Reed film, Her Code of Honor, it was produced by Tribune Productions and released by United Picture Theatres of America Incorporated.
Frances Raymond (1869–1961) was an American stage and film actress. An established character actress, she played in a number of supporting roles during the silent era. Later, during the sound era, she primarily played much smaller, uncredited parts.
