1917 In Film

The year 1917 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• February - Buster Keaton first meets Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in New York and is hired as a co-star and gag man.
• April 23 - Release in the United States of the short The Butcher Boy, the first of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's series of films with the Comique Film Corporation, and Buster Keaton's film debut.
• April 25 - Thomas Lincoln Tally, in a meeting in New York, co-founds the First National Exhibitors Circuit.^[1][2]
• September 13 - Release in the United States of The Gulf Between, the first film made in Technicolor System 1, a two-color process.
• November 9 - World's first feature-length animated film is made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani (El Apóstol)
• December 18 - Foundation of Universum Film AG (UƒA), as a propaganda film company, in Berlin.
• Movette, another revision of the 17.5 mm film format, is made available.

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Notable films released in 1917

U.S.A. unless stated

• The Adventurer, a Charlie Chaplin short.
• All Aboard, a Harold Lloyd short
• The Bad Boy, starring Robert Harron, Mildred Harris, Colleen Moore
• Bestia (aka The Polish Dancer), starring Pola Negri - (Poland)
• Big Timber
• Bucking Broadway, directed by John Ford, starring Harry Carey
• The Butcher Boy, starring "Fatty" Arbuckle with Buster Keaton
• Camille, starring Theda Bara

Theda Bara as Cleopatra

• Cleopatra, starring Theda Bara
• The Colonel (Az Ezredes), directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Bela Lugosi - (Hungary)
• Coney Island, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
• The Cure, a Charlie Chaplin short.
• Dombey and Son directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Hayford Hobbs - (GB)
• The Dying Swan (Umirayushchii Lebed) - (U.S.S.R.)
• Easy Street, starring Charlie Chaplin, Edna Purviance
• El Apóstol (The Apostle), animated by Quirino Cristiani - (Argentina)
• Fear directed by Robert Wiene and starring Conrad Veidt - (Germany)
• Frank Hansen's Fortune directed by Viggo Larsen - (Germany)
• The Gay Lord Quex directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Ben Webster and Irene Vanbrugh - (GB)
• Golden Rule Kate, a drama western starring Louise Glaum
• Great Expectations, starring Jack Pickford
• The Gulf Between, All color movie.
• Harrison and Barrison, directed by Alexander Korda, starring Márton Rátkai - (Hungary)
• Her Right to Live, directed by Paul Scardon, starring Peggy Hyland, Antonio Moreno, Mae Costello, John S. Robertson
• His Wedding Night, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
• The Immigrant, starring Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance
• A Kentucky Cinderella, starring Ruth Clifford
• The Labour Leader, directed by Thomas Bentley, starring Owen Nares, Fay Compton - (GB)
• The Little American, starring Mary Pickford; directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
• A Little Princess, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Mary Pickford, Norman Kerry, ZaSu Pitts
• Der Magische Gürtel ("The Magic Girdle") (Germany)
• A Man There Was (Terje Vigen), directed by Victor Sjöström - (Sweden)
• The Man Without a Country, starring Florence La Badie
• The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach, directed by Rudolf Biebrach, starring Henny Porten, Emil Jannings - (Germany)
• Oh Doctor!, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
• One Law for Both directed by Ivan Abramson
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray) - (Germany)
• The Poor Little Rich Girl, starring Mary Pickford
• Raffles the Amateur Cracksman, starring John Barrymore

Advertisement, August 1917

• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, starring Mary Pickford
• A Reckless Romeo, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle short.
• A Romance of the Redwoods, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Mary Pickford
• The Rough House, a 'Fatty' Arbuckle / Buster Keaton short.
• Satan Triumphant (Satana likuyushchiy) - (U.S.S.R.)
• Souls Triumphant, starring Lillian Gish
• Straight Shooting, directed by John Ford
• The Sultan's Wife, starring Gloria Swanson
• Teddy at the Throttle, a Keystone comedy starring Gloria Swanson
• Thaïs - (Italy)
• Tom Sawyer, starring Jack Pickford
• The Tornado, directed by John Ford (his debut)
• The Torture of Silence (Mater Dolorosa), directed by Abel Gance - (France)
• U-Boote Heraus! ("U-Boat Release") (Germany)
• Wild and Woolly, starring Douglas Fairbanks

Comedy film series

• Harold Lloyd (1913–1938)
• Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)
• Lupino Lane (1915–1939)
• Buster Keaton (1917–1944)

Births

• January 2 - Vera Zorina, dancer, actress (died 2003)
• January 5 - Jane Wyman, actress (died 2007)
• January 10 - Hilde Krahl, actress (died 1999)
• January 21 - Lally Bowers, English actress and singer (died 1984)
• January 24 - 2012)
• February 6 - Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress
• February 21 - Lucille Bremer, actress (died 1996)
• March 2 - Desi Arnaz, actor (died 1986)
• March 12 - Googie Withers, actress (died 2011)
• March 22 - Virginia Grey, actress (died 2004)
• April 14 - Valerie Hobson, actress (died 1998)
• April 29
  • Celeste Holm, actress (died 2012)
  • Maya Deren, experimental filmmaker (died 1961)
• May 1 - Danielle Darrieux, actress
• May 10 - Margo, actress (died 1985)
• May 16 - George Gaynes, actor
• May 21 - Raymond Burr, actor (died 1993)
• May 25 - Steve Cochran, actor (died 1965)
• June 7 - Dean Martin, singer, actor (died 1995)
• June 30
  • Lena Horne, singer, actress (died 2010)
  • Susan Hayward, actress (died 1975)
• July 8 - Faye Emerson, actress (died 1983)
• July 17 - Phyllis Diller, comedian, actress (died 2012)
• July 26 - Lorna Gray, actress
• August 6 - Robert Mitchum, actor (died 1997)
• August 8 - Earl Cameron, actor
• August 25 - Mel Ferrer, actor (died 2008)
• September 9 - Rolf Wenkhaus, actor (died 1942)
• September 11 - Herbert Lom, actor (died 2012)
• October 7
  • Helmut Dantine, actor (died 1982)
  • June Allyson, actress (died 2006)
• October 16 - Alice Pearce, actress (died 1966)
• October 17 - Marsha Hunt, U.S. actress
• October 22 - Joan Fontaine, actress (died 2013)
• November 2 - Ann Rutherford, actress (died 2012)
• November 4 - Virginia Field, actress (died 1992)
• December 7 - Hurd Hatfield, actor (died 1998)
• December 22 - Frankie Darro, actor (died 1976)

Deaths

• February 21 - Fred Mace, 38, American actor & comedian, What Happened to Jones, His Last Scent(short), A Lover's Might(short), The Love Comet(short)
• March 6 - Valdemar Psilander, 32, Danish actor, Rytterstatuen, Lykken, Lydia, Klovnen, Favoriten, In Defense of a Nation, John Redmond, the Evangelist
• July 2 - Herbert Beerbohm Tree, 64, English stage & screen actor, Beerbohm Tree, The Great English Actor; Henry VIII; Macbeth; Trilby; The Old Folks at Home
• October 13 - Florence La Badie, 29, American actress, The Man Without a Country, War and the Woman, The Woman in White, When Love was Blind
• October 25 - Jack Standing, 31, English actor, With Hoops of Steel, The Curse of Eve, The Innocent Sinner, The Price of Her Soul, One Touch of Sin
• November 5 - Howell Hansel, 46, American actor and director
• December 20 - Eric Campbell, 38, Scottish actor, The Immigrant, Behind the Screen, The Count, Easy Street, The Adventurer(short), The Cure(short)

Film debuts

• Marion Davies - Runaway, Romany
• Vittorio De Sica - The Clemenceau Affair
• Richard Dix - One of Many
• Elsie Ferguson - Barbary Sheep
• John Ford - director, The Tornado (short) (as Jack Ford)
• Mary Garden - Thais
• Buster Keaton - actor, The Butcher Boy (short); writer, director, The Rough House (short)
• Stan Laurel - Nuts in May (short) (as Stan Jefferson)
• Bela Lugosi - Az ezredes (as Arisztid Olt)
• ZaSu Pitts - Uneasy Money (short)
• Marjorie Rambeau - The Greater Woman
• Loretta Young - The Primrose Ring (uncredited)

References

1. ^ Films of the Golden Age.
2. ^ First National filmography.