1925 in film

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The following is an overview of 1925 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

The top ten 1925 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:

Highest-grossing films of 1925

Rank	Title	Studio	Box office gross rental
1	The Big Parade	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	$4,990,000
2	The Freshman	Pathé Exchange	$2,600,000
3	The Gold Rush	United Artists	$2,500,000
4	The Phantom of the Opera	Universal Pictures	$1,550,000
5	Stella Dallas	United Artists	$1,500,000
6	The Lost World Don Q, Son of Zorro	First National Pictures United Artists	$1,300,000
7	Little Annie Rooney	United Artists	$1,200,000
8	The Merry Widow East Lynne Madame Sans-Gêne	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Fox Film Corporation Universal Pictures	$1,100,000
9	The Unholy Three	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	$704,000
10	The Great Divide		$674,000

Events

• June 26: Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush premieres. It is voted the best film of the year by critics in The Film Daily annual poll
• September 25: Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin rebuilt as Germany's largest cinema reopens.
• November 5: MGM's war drama film The Big Parade is released. It is a massive commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing picture of the 1920s in the United States.
• December 30: MGM's biblical epic Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ premieres in New York City. It is the most expensive silent film ever made, costing $4 million (around $68 million when adjusted for inflation)
• Hong Shen publishes the film script Mrs. Shentu in the Shanghai magazine Eastern Miscellany. It is never filmed, but is considered a milestone in film history for being the first published film script in China. Hong also directs his first film, Young Master Feng, at Mingxing (Star) Film Company in this year.

Notable films released in 1925

For the complete list of US film releases for the year, see United States films of 1925

A

• Ang Pagtitipid, directed by Jose Nepomuceno, starring Armando Crisostomo - Philippines
• Are Parents People?, starring Florence Vidor
• The Battleship Potemkin (Bronyenosyets Potyomkin), directed by Sergei Eisenstein – (U.S.S.R.)

B

• Ben-Hur, directed by Fred Niblo, starring Ramón Novarro, Francis X. Bushman and May McAvoy
• The Big Parade, directed by King Vidor; starring John Gilbert and Renée Adorée
• The Blackguard (Die Prinzessin und der Geiger), directed by Graham Cutts – (GB/Germany)
• Braveheart, starring Rod La Rocque
• Bulldog Drummond's Third Round, starring Jack Buchanan – (GB)

C

• Chess Fever (Shakhmatnaya goryachka) – (U.S.S.R.)
• Chronicles of the Gray House, directed by Arthur von Gerlach and starring Lil Dagover (Germany)
• The Circle, directed by Frank Borzage; starring Eleanor Boardman
• Cobra, starring Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi
• Corazón Aymara, directed by Pedro Sambarino; first Bolivian fiction feature film
• Curses!, starring Fatty Arbuckle

D

• The Dark Angel, directed by George Fitzmaurice; starring Vilma Bánky and Ronald Colman
• Don Q, Son of Zorro starring Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Astor and Donald Crisp

E

• The Eagle, starring Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky
• Le fantôme du Moulin-Rouge (The Phantom of the Moulin-Rouge), directed by René Clair – (France)

F

• The Farmer from Texas, directed by Joe May, starring Lillian Hall-Davis (Germany)
• Feu Mathias Pascal (The Late Mathias Pascal), directed by Marcel L'Herbier – (France)
• Fifty-Fifty, starring Hope Hampton, Lionel Barrymore and Louise Glaum
• The Freshman, starring Harold Lloyd

G

• Go West, starring Buster Keaton
• The Gold Rush, a Charlie Chaplin film
• The Goose Woman, directed by Clarence Brown; starring Louise Dresser
• Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life, directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

H

• The Heart Breaker
• His People, starring Rudolph Schildkraut
• His Supreme Moment directed by Marshall Neilan; starring his wife Blanche Sweet with Ronald Colman
• El Húsar de la muerte (Hussar of the Dead), starring and directed by Pedro Sienna – (Chile)

I

• Isn't Life Terrible, directed by Leo McCarey

J

• Joyless Street (Die freudlose Gasse), directed by G.W. Pabst, starring Greta Garbo – (Germany)

K

• The King on Main Street, directed by Monta Bell; starring Bessie Love & Adolphe Menjou
• A Kiss For Cinderella, starring Esther Ralston and Dorothy Cumming

L

• The Lady, starring Norma Talmadge
• Lady of the Night, directed by Monta Bell and starring Norma Shearer
• Lazybones, directed by Frank Borzage
• Lady Windermere's Fan, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Ronald Colman and May McAvoy
• Lights of Old Broadway, directed by Monta Bell; starring Marion Davies and Conrad Nagel
• Little Annie Rooney, starring Mary Pickford
• The Lost World, starring Bessie Love and Wallace Beery
• Lovers in Quarantine, directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Bebe Daniels and Harrison Ford
• The Lucky Horseshoe, starring Tom Mix and Billie Dove

M

• Madame Behave, starring Julian Eltinge and Ann Pennington
• Madame Sans-Gene, starring Gloria Swanson
• Master of the House (Du skal ære din hustru) (aka Thou Shalt Honour Thy Wife), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer – (Denmark)
• Men and Women, starring Richard Dix
• The Merry Widow, directed by Erich von Stroheim, starring Mae Murray and John Gilbert
• Miracles of Love, directed by Vicente Salumbides, starring Juanita Angeles, Jose Carvajal, Dimples Cooper - Philippines
• Les Misérables – (France)
• The Monster, starring Lon Chaney
• The Mystic, directed by Tod Browning; starring Aileen Pringle

O

• Old Clothes
• Orochi – (Japan)

P

• Pampered Youth, directed by David Smith
• The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry
• The Plastic Age – directed by Wesley Ruggles, starring Clara Bow and Gilbert Roland; Clark Gable was also in this film
• The Pleasure Garden, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Virginia Valli and Carmelita Geraghty – (GB)
• Prem Sanyas (Die Leuchte Asiens | The Light of Asia) – (Germany/India)
• Pretty Ladies, directed by Monta Bell
• Proud Flesh, directed by King Vidor

R

• The Rag Man, directed by Edward F. Cline, starring Jackie Coogan
• The Rat, starring Ivor Novello, Mae Marsh and Isabel Jeans – (GB)
• The Red Head (Poil de carotte), directed by Julien Duvivier, starring Henry Krauss (France)
• The Road to Yesterday, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Joseph Schildkraut

S

• Red Heels (Das Spielzeug von Paris), directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Lili Damita – (Austria)
• Sally, Irene and Mary directed by Edmund Goulding; starring Constance Bennett, Joan Crawford & Sally O'Neil
• Sally of the Sawdust, directed by D.W. Griffith; starring Carol Dempster and W. C. Fields
• Seven Chances, a Buster Keaton film
• She, starring Betty Blythe – (GB/Germany)
• Smouldering Fires directed by Clarence Brown; starring Pauline Frederick and Laura La Plante
• Stella Dallas, starring Ronald Colman and Belle Bennett
• The Street of Forgotten Men
• Strike (Stachka), directed by Sergei Eisenstein – (U.S.S.R.)
• The Swan directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki; starring Frances Howard, Adolphe Menjou and Ricardo Cortez

T

• The Tailor from Torzhok (Zakroyshchik iz Torzhka) – (U.S.S.R.)
• Three Weeks in Paris, starring Matt Moore
• Too Many Kisses, directed by Paul Sloane
• Tumbleweeds, starring William S. Hart
• Under the Crimson Sunset (Akai yuhi ni terasarete) – (Japan)

U

• The Unholy Three, starring Lon Chaney

V

• Visages d'enfants (Faces of Children), directed by Jacques Feyder – (France)
• The Whirlpool of Fate (La Fille de l'eau), directed by Jean Renoir – (France)
• The White Lily Laments (Shirayuri wa nageku) – (Japan)
• Variety (Variete) (Jealousy), directed by Karl Grune, starring Emil Jannings – (Germany)

W

• Wizard of Oz, starring Dorothy Dwan
• Wolf Blood
• Womanhandled, starring Richard Dix and Esther Ralston
• A Woman of the World, starring Pola Negri

Z

• Zander the Great, directed by George W. Hill; starring Marion Davies and Harrison Edward Ford

Comedy film series

• Charlie Chaplin (1914–1940)
• Harold Lloyd (1913–1938)
• Lupino Lane (1915–1939)
• Buster Keaton (1917–1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921–1943)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)
• Harry Langdon (1924–1936)

Animated short film series

• Felix the Cat (1919–1936)
• Koko the Clown (1919–1963)
• Aesop's Film Fables (1921–1934)
• Alice Comedies
  • Alice Cans the Cannibals
  • Alice the Toreador
  • Alice Gets Stung
  • Alice Solves the Puzzle
  • Alice's Egg Plant
  • Alice Loses Out
  • Alice is Stage Struck
  • Alice Wins the Derby
  • Alice Picks the Champ
  • Alice's Tin Pony
  • Alice Chops the Suey
  • Alice the Jail Bird
  • Alice Plays Cupid
  • Alice Rattled by Rats
  • Alice in the Jungle
• Koko's Song Car Tunes (1924–1927)
• Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
• Un-Natural History (1925–1927)

Births

• January 6 – Enrique Carreras, Peruvian-born director and producer (died 1995)
• January 9 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (died 1989)
• January 13 – Gwen Verdon, American actress and dancer (died 2000)
• January 21 - Charles Aidman, American actor (died 1993)
• January 26
  • Joan Leslie, American actress (died 2015)
  • Paul Newman, American actor (died 2008)
• January 30 – Dorothy Malone, American actress (died 2018)
• February 2 – Elaine Stritch, American actress (died 2014)
• February 3 - John Fiedler, American actor and voice actor (died 2005)
• February 8 – Jack Lemmon, American actor (died 2001)
• February 11 – Kim Stanley, American actress (died 2001)
• February 17
  • Ron Goodwin, English film composer (died 2003)
  • Hal Holbrook, American actor (died 2021)
• February 18 – George Kennedy, American actor (died 2016)
• February 20 – Robert Altman, American director (died 2006)
• February 21 – Sam Peckinpah, American director (died 1984)
• February 25 – Aino Seep, Estonian singer and actress (died 1982)
• April 14 – Rod Steiger, American actor (died 2002)
• April 18 – Bob Hastings, American actor (died 2014)
• April 19 – Hugh O'Brian, American actor (died 2016)
• May 2 – John Neville, English-Canadian actor (died 2011)
• May 25 – Jeanne Crain, American actress (died 2003)
• May 26 – Alec McCowen, English actor (died 2017)
• June 3 – Tony Curtis, American actor (died 2010)
• June 7 – John Biddle, American yachting cinematographer (died 2008)
• June 8 – Charles Tyner, American actor (died 2017)
• June 16 – Otto Muehl, Austrian experimental director (died 2013)
• June 21 – Maureen Stapleton, American actress (died 2006)
• June 25 – June Lockhart, American actress
• June 29 – Cara Williams, American actress
• July 1 – Farley Granger, American actor (died 2011)
• July 6 – Ruth Cracknell, Australian actress (died 2002)
• July 13 – Huang Zongying, Chinese actress and scriptwriter (died 2020)
• July 15 – D. A. Pennebaker, American documentary filmmaker (died 2019)
• July 23 – Gloria DeHaven, American actress (died 2016)
• August 11 – Arlene Dahl, American actress
• August 15 – Mike Connors, American actor (died 2017)
• August 22 – Honor Blackman, English actress (died 2020)
• August 23 – Robert Mulligan, American director (died 2008)
• September 8 – Peter Sellers, English comedian and actor (died 1980)
• September 12 – Dickie Moore, American actor (died 2015)
• October 3 – Gore Vidal, American writer and actor (died 2012)
• October 5 – Gail Davis, American actress (died 1997)
• October 11 – Nancy Guild, American actress (died 1999)
• October 16
  • Angela Lansbury, English-American actress
  • Lenka Peterson, American actress
• October 29 – Robert Hardy, English actor (died 2017)
• November 4 – Doris Roberts, American actress (died 2016)
• November 10 – Richard Burton, Welsh actor (died 1984)
• November 11 - Jonathan Winters, American comedian, actor, author, television host and artist (died 2013)
• November 17 – Rock Hudson, American actor (died 1985)
• November 25 – June Whitfield, English comic actress (died 2018)
• December 2 – Julie Harris, American Broadway and film actress (died 2013)
• December 3 – Kaljo Kiisk, Estonian actor and director (died 2007)
• December 8 – Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, musician and actor (died 1990)
• December 12 – Anne V. Coates, English film editor (died 2018)
• December 13 – Dick Van Dyke, American actor
• December 18 – Peggy Cummins, Welsh-born Irish actress (died 2017)
• December 23 - Harry Guardino, American actor (died 1995)
• December 28 – Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer and writer (died 2002)

Deaths

• January 24 - Wilton Taylor, American actor, (born 1869)
• February 7 – Edward Jobson, American actor (born 1860)
• February 25 – Louis Feuillade, French director (born 1873)
• March 13 – Lucille Ricksen, American actress (born 1910)
• April 8 – Thecla Åhlander, Swedish actress (born 1855)
• April 13 – Frederik Buch, Danish actor (born 1875)
• April 16 – David Powell, Scottish actor (born 1883)
• July 29 – Mark Fenton, American actor (born 1866)
• September 28 – Paul Vermoyal, French actor (born 1888)
• October 21 – Orme Caldara, American stage and film actor (born 1875)
• October 31 – Max Linder, French actor (born 1883)
• November 1 – Lester Cuneo American actor (born 1888)
• November 3 – Lucile McVey, American actress (born 1890)
• December 8 – Marguerite Marsh, American actress (born 1888)
• December 9 – Harry Rattenberry, American actor (born 1857)
• December 21 – Lottie Lyell, Australian director/producer (born 1890)
• December 22 – Mary Thurman, American actress (born 1895)
• December 24 - James O. Barrows, American stage and screen actor, (born 1855)
• December 31 – J. Gordon Edwards American director (born 1867)

Film debuts

• Walter Brennan – Webs of Steel
• Gary Cooper – Dick Turpin
• Joan Crawford – Lady of the Night
• Stepin Fetchit – The Mysterious Stranger
• Phillips Holmes – Her Market Value
• Myrna Loy – What Price Beauty?
• Tim McCoy – The Thundering Herd
• Anita Page – A Kiss for Cinderella
• Dolores del Río – Joanna
• Gilbert Roland – The Plastic Age

Sources

• Block, Alex Ben; Wilson, Lucy Autrey, eds. (2010). George Lucas's Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-177889-6.