A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound. Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of title cards.
The following is an overview of 1923 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. This year saw the establishments of both Warner Bros. Pictures and Walt Disney Productions.
The year 1916 in film involved some significant events.
The year 1915 in film involved some significant events.
1913 was a particularly fruitful year for film as an art form, and is often cited one of the years in the decade which contributed to the medium the most, along with 1917. The year was one where filmmakers of several countries made great artistic advancements, producing notable pioneering masterpieces such as The Student of Prague, Suspense, Atlantis, Raja Harischandra, Juve contre Fantomas, Quo Vadis?, Ingeborg Holm, The Mothering Heart, Ma l’amor mio non muore!, L’enfant de Paris and Twilight of a Woman's Soul.
The year 1912 in film involved some significant events.
Phyllis Virginia "Bebe" Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer, and producer.
Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard. Based on the 1928 play of the same name by Charles Bennett, the film is about a London woman who is blackmailed after killing a man who tries to rape her.
Al St. John was an early American motion-picture comedian. He was a nephew of silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, with whom he often performed on screen. St. John was employed by Mack Sennett and also worked with many other leading players such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Mabel Normand. His film career successfully transitioned from the silent era into sound, and by the late 1930s and 1940s he was working predominantly in Westerns, often portraying the scruffy comedy-relief character "Fuzzy Q. Jones". Among his notable performances in that role are in the "Billy the Kid" series of films released by the Producers Releasing Corporation from 1940 to 1946 and in that company's "Lone Rider" series from 1941 to 1943.
Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s.
Harry Brodribb Irving, was a British stage actor and actor-manager; the eldest son of Sir Henry Irving and his wife Florence, and father of designer Laurence Irving and actress Elizabeth Irving.
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.
The Lyons Mail is a 1931 British mystery film directed by Arthur Maude and starring John Martin Harvey, Norah Baring, and Ben Webster. It was based on the 1877 play The Lyons Mail by Charles Reade which in turn was based on his 1854 play The Courier of Lyons. The film was also released under the alternative title Courrier de Lyon. The story is based on the Courrier de Lyon case. Filmed in 1930, it was to be leading actor John Martin-Harvey's only sound film.
The "Courrier de Lyon" case is a famous French criminal case. It occurred during the French Revolution. During the night of 27 and 28 April 1796, a mail coach was ambushed outside Paris by several men who stole a large sum of money. The stage coach was supposed to go to Lyon from Paris, carrying money for the Army of Italy. Both the driver and the armed guard were brutally killed. A third man on board, travelling under an assumed name, participated in the killing and later vanished.
The Courier of Lyons is a play by the English writer Charles Reade, which was first performed in 1854. He based it on the 1796 Courrier de Lyon case in Revolutionary France, drawing inspiration from a previous play based on the case by the French writers Paul Siraudin and Louis-Mathurin Moreau.
Benedict James (1871–1957) was a British writer and screenwriter. He worked on a number of screenplays for the Ideal Film Company, a leading British studio, during the Silent era. His birth name was Bertram James.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1929 German silent mystery film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Carlyle Blackwell, Alexander Murski, Livio Pavanelli. The film is an adaptation of the 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was the last Sherlock Holmes adaptation in the silent film era. The film boasted an unusually international cast, including American actor Carlyle Blackwell, German actor Fritz Rasp, Russian actor Alexander Murski and Italian actor Livio Pavanelli.
Charles Vane was a British stage and film actor. Vane appeared in more than fifty films during the silent era including the lead in When It Was Dark (1919).
The Courier of Lyon is a 1937 French historical drama film directed by Claude Autant-Lara and Maurice Lehmann and starring Pierre Blanchar, Dita Parlo and Jacques Copeau. It is based on the Courrier de Lyon case of 1796. A previous silent film inspired by the story, was released in 1923.
The Lyons Mail is an 1877 drama by Charles Reade based on his play The Courier of Lyons (1854). The new version was written for Henry Irving for performance at the Lyceum Theatre.
