The following is an overview of 1926 in film, including significant events, a list of films released, and notable births and deaths.
1917 in film was a particularly fruitful year for the art form, and is often cited as one of the years in the decade which contributed to the medium the most, along with 1913. Secondarily the year saw a limited global embrace of narrative film-making and featured innovative techniques such as continuity cutting. Primarily, the year is an American landmark, as 1917 is the first year where the narrative and visual style is typified as "Classical Hollywood".
The year 1914 in film involved some significant events, including the debut of Cecil B. DeMille as a director.
Mary Mackay, also called Minnie Mackey and known by her pseudonym Marie Corelli, was an English novelist.
Lya de Putti was a Hungarian film actress during the silent era. She was noted for her portrayals of vamp characters.
A Little Princess is a 1917 American silent film directed by Marshall Neilan based upon the 1905 novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This version is notable for having been adapted by famed screenwriter Frances Marion.
The Devil, appears frequently as a character in literature and various other media. In Abrahamic religions, the figure of the Devil, Satan personifies evil.
Carol Dempster was an American film actress of the silent film era. She appeared in films from 1916 to 1926, working with D. W. Griffith extensively.
The Volga Boatman is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, who reportedly said the film was, "his greatest achievement in picture making". The film's budget was $479,000 and it grossed $1.27 million. The film was highly successful, turning William Boyd into matinee idol overnight.
Mavis is a feminine given name, derived from a name for the common Old World song thrush. Its first modern usage was in Marie Corelli's 1895 novel The Sorrows of Satan, which featured a character named Mavis Clare. The name was long obsolete by the 19th century, but known from its poetic use, as in Robert Burns's 1794 poem Ca' the Yowes ; and in the popular love song "Mary of Argyle" (c.1850), where lyricist Charles Jefferys wrote, "I have heard the mavis singing its love-song to the morn."
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 horror film directed and written by J. Charles Haydon, starring Sheldon Lewis, based on the 1886 novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The Sheldon Lewis version was somewhat overshadowed by the 1920 Paramount Pictures version starring John Barrymore, which had been released just the month before.
The Sorrows of Satan is an 1895 Faustian novel by Marie Corelli. It is widely regarded as one of the world's first best-sellers – partly due to an upheaval in the system British libraries used to purchase their books, and partly due to its popular appeal. Roundly condemned by contemporary literary critics for Corelli's moralistic and prosaic style, it nonetheless had strong supporters, including Oscar Wilde and various members of royalty.
Frederick J. Jackson, also known professionally as Fred Jackson and Frederick Jackson and under the pseudonym Victor Thorne, was an American author, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and producer for both stage and film. A prolific writer of short stories and serialized novels, most of his non-theatre works were published in pulp magazines such as Detective Story Magazine and Argosy. Many of these stories were adapted into films by other writers.
That Royle Girl is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith and released by Paramount Pictures. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Edwin Balmer, and starred Carol Dempster, W. C. Fields and Harrison Ford. It is now considered lost.
Leaves from Satan's Book, also known as Leaves Out of the Book of Satan, is a 1920 Danish fantasy film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Helge Nissen as Satan. This was only the third film directed by Dreyer, who later went on to create such classics as Vampyr (1932) and The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). The film is structured much like D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916) with its episodic nature while evoking F. W. Murnau's Satan (1920). The film ran 157 minutes, but sources list the DVD's running time at 121 minutes.
She is a 1925 British-German fantasy adventure film made by Reciprocity Films, co-directed by Leander de Cordova and G. B. Samuelson, and starring Betty Blythe, Carlyle Blackwell, and Mary Odette. It was filmed in Berlin by a British film company as a co-production, and based on H. Rider Haggard's 1887 novel of the same name. According to the opening credits, the intertitles were specially written for the film by Haggard himself; he died in 1925, the year the film was made, and never got to see the finished film. The film still exists in its complete form today.
God Gave Me Twenty Cents is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Herbert Brenon and written by Elizabeth Meehan and John Russell. The film stars Lois Moran, Lya De Putti, Jack Mulhall, William Collier, Jr., Adrienne D'Ambricourt, Leo Feodoroff, and Rosa Rosanova. The film was released on November 20, 1926, by Paramount Pictures, following a gala premiere on November 19 that opened the Paramount Theatre in Manhattan. It is based on the novel God Gave Me Twenty Cents by Dixie Willson, subsequently remade by Paramount British as a sound film Ebb Tide in 1932.
Something Always Happens is a 1928 American silent horror film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Esther Ralston. The plot was the work of director Frank Tuttle, from which the screenplay was written by Florence Ryerson and Raymond Cannon, and the subtitles were provided by Herman J. Mankiewicz. The supporting cast features Neil Hamilton, Sôjin Kamiyama, Charles Sellon, Roscoe Karns, Lawrence Grant, and Mischa Auer. The picture was released on March 24, 1928, by Paramount Pictures. It is not known whether the film survives, or who holds the rights.
The Sorrows of Satan is a 1917 British silent fantasy film directed by Alexander Butler and starring Gladys Cooper, Owen Nares and Cecil Humphreys. Made at Isleworth Studios, and based on the novel of the same name, the plot involves a poverty-stricken author so depressed that he agrees to sell his soul to the Devil.
The Devil is a surviving 1921 silent drama film directed by James Young and starring stage actor George Arliss in a film version of his 1908 Broadway success of Ferenc Molnár's play, The Devil [1]. Long thought to be a lost film, a print was discovered in the 1990s and restored by the Library of Congress.
