1912

Film Decades: 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

• 1812 – directed by Vasili Goncharov – Russian Empire
• Algie, the Miner – directed by Harry Schenck, Edward Warren, & Alice Guy-Blanché, starring Billy Quirk
• All for a Girl, directed by Frederick A. Thompson
• Andalusian Superstition (French/Pathe) written and directed by Segundo de Chomon; filmed in hand-tinted color
• At the Foot of the Ladder, produced by the Thanhouser Company
• Aurora Floyd, directed by Theodore Marston
• Baby Hands – starring James Cruze, Jean Darnell, & Helen Badgley
• The Bandit of Tropico – starring Harry von Meter & Vivian Rich
• A Battle of Wits – starring Tom Moore, Alice Joyce, & Earle Foxe
• The Beautiful Leukanida – directed by by Władysław Starewicz – aka Прекрасная Люканида, или Война усачей с рогачами – Russian Empire
• Bebe and Spiritualism (French/ Gaumont) directed by Louis Feuillade, starring child star Rene Dary and Paul Manson; this was one of a series of 64 films that featured the popular Bebe (“Baby”) film character
• The Belle of Bar-Z Ranch, directed by Thomas Ricketts
• Bertie’s Book of Magic (British/ Hepworth) directed by Frank Wilson
• Billy’s Seance (Universal/ IMP) starring John R. Cumpson and Charles Arling; a spoof on “seance films”.[6]
• The Brute (Champion Films) directed by Ulysses Davis, produced by Mark M. Dintenfass
• A Business Buccaneer – starring Tom Moore, Alice Joyce, Earle Foxe, Cleo Madison, & Stuart Holmes
• The Cameraman’s Revenge
• Cleopatra, directed by Charles L. Gaskill and starring Helen Gardner; one of the earliest American feature films
• Conductor 786, produced by the Thanhouser Company
• Conscience (Vitagraph), aka The Chamber of Horrors, produced by Albert E. Smith, directed by Maurice Costello, starring Rose Tapely and Robert Gaillard
• Convicted by Hypnotism (French/ Eclair) aka A Double Life, directed by Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, starring Cecile Guyon and Charles Krauss
• The Copper Beeches, starring Georges Treville as Sherlock Holmes
• The County Fair – starring Earle Foxe & Alice Joyce
• The Conquest of the Pole, aka A la conquete du Pole, directed by Georges Méliès (his last film)
• Curse of the Hindoo Pearl (American Standard Films) based on the 1868 Wilkie Collins novel The Moonstone
• Curse of the Lake (Vitagraph)
• Custer’s Last Fight, directed by Francis Ford
• Dante and Beatrice (Italian/ Ambrosio Prods)
• A Dash Through the Clouds, directed by Mack Sennett, starring Mabel Normand and American aviation pioneer Philip Parmelee
• The Deserter, directed by Thomas H. Ince
• The Diabolical Box (British/ Urbanora Films)
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Thanhouser) directed by Lucius Henderson, starring James Cruze and Marguerite Snow
• A Drama of the Castle; or, Do the Dead Return? (French) written and directed by Abel Gance
• Falling Leaves – by Alice Guy-Blaché, starring Mace Greenleaf, Blanche Cromwell, Marian Swayne, Magda Foy, & Darwin Karr
• The Fatal Pact (French/ Pathe) features a magic genie
• The Fatal Pearl (Italian/ Aquila)
• Faust (British) produced by Charles Urban, filmed in Kinemacolor; (a lost film today)
• Feathertop (French/ U.S. co-production) produced by Eclair/ American Standard; starring Muriel Ostriche and Julia Stuart; based on the 1852 short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Female of the Species, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Mary Pickford
• The Fickle Spaniard, directed by Mack Sennett, starring Mabel Normand
• A Fool and His Money – directed by Alice Guy-Blaché – either the first or one of the earliest films with an all African American cast
• For His Son – directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Blanche Sweet
• For the Cause of the South, directed by Bannister Merwin, starring Laura Sawyer, Ben F. Wilson, Charles Ogle
• Frankfurters and Quail
• Friends – directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore
• From the Manger to the Cross, directed by Sidney Olcott (One of the earliest American feature film.)
• Gavroche and the Ghosts, aka Gavroche and the Spirits (French/ Eclair) directed by Romeo Bosetti, starring Paul Bertho; one of a series of 40 short French silent films all featuring the comic character “Gavroche”
• Geronimo’s Last Raid
• The Ghost of Sulphur Mountain (Star Film) directed by Gaston Melies and Robert Goodman, starring Francis Ford
• Ghosts (Essanay Films) starred Norman MacDonald and Joseph Allen Sr.
• Ghosts (British/ Hepworth) directed by Hay Plumb, starring Harry Buss and Ivy Close
• The Girl in the Armchair – directed by Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Girl and Her Trust – directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Dorothy Bernard and Wilfred Lucas
• The Half-Breed’s Way
• The Haunted House (French/ Pathe)
• The Herncrake Witch (British/ Heron Films) written and directed by Mark Melford, starring Jakidawdra Melford and produced by Andrew Heron
• The Hindoo Charm (Lubin Films) directed by Maurice Costello (also star), also starring Clara Kimball Young and James Young
• The Honor of the Family
• Hop o’ My Thumb (French/ Gaumont) Based on the Perrault fairy tale
• Hot Stuff, starring Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand, and Dell Henderson
• How a Mosquito Operates
• An Indian Legend (Broncho/ Mutual Films) produced by Thomas H. Ince, directed by Francis Ford[33][34]
• Indian Romeo and Juliet
• In Nacht und Eis
• The Independence of Romania The first Romanian feature film to run for two hours.
• In the Grip of the Vampire (French/ Gaumont Films) written by Leonce Perret
• The Invaders
• It Happened Thus
• Jack and the Beanstalk (produced by Thomas Edison)
• Keystone Comedy
• The Knight of the Snows (French/ Pathe & Star Films) written and directed by George Melies
• The Lady of Shallot (British/ Hepworth) written and directed by Elwin Neame, based on the Lord Tennyson poem; starring Ivy Close
• The Land Beyond the Sunset
• The Last Bohemian – directed by Michael Curtiz
• The Legend of Cagliostro (Gaumont Films)
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (French/ Eclair & American Standard Films) directed by Etienne Arnaud, starring Alec B. Francis and Muriel Ostriche, based on the story by Washington Irving
• Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (released in the US as Queen Elizabeth), first film released by Famous Players Film Company, starring Sarah Bernhardt
• The Lesser Evil, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Blanche Sweet
• The Lion Tonic (Italian/ Cines)
• The Little Girl Next Door
• The Live Man’s Tomb (Italian/ Itala Films)
• Lucrezia Borgia (Italian/ Film d’Arte Films) directed by Gerolamo Lo Savio, written by Ugo Falena, starring Vittorio Lepanto as Lucrezia and Achille Vitti as Cesare
• Mabel’s Lovers, directed by Mack Sennett, starring Mabel Normand
• Magical Matches (Urbanora Films)
• A Magnetic Influence (British/ Urbanora Films) produced by Charles Urban; yet another adaptation of the novel Trilby
• Making An American Citizen – directed by Alice Guy-Blaché, starring Blanche Cromwell
• Man’s Genesis (Biograph) written and directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Robert Harron, Mae Marsh and Wilfred Lucas; this film was expanded in 1913 and re-released as The Primitive Man.
• The Mask of Horror (French/ Film Francais) written and directed by Abel Gance, starring Edouard de Max, Charles de Rochefort and Mathilde Thizeau (Gance’s wife)
• The Massacre – directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Blanche Sweet and Lionel Barrymore
• Maud Muller
• The Mender Of Nets, directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Mabel Normand and Mary Pickford
• Mephisto (British/ Charles Urban Prods.) filmed in Kinemacolor (a lost film today)
• The Miracle, the first full-color, full-length feature film (5,500 feet)
• Das Mirakel
• The Mummy and the Cowpuncher (Kalem Films) a 5-minute Western-Comedy starring Ruth Roland and John E. Brennan
• The Musketeers of Pig Alley – directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish
• The Mystery of Souls (Italian/ Itala Films) directed by Vincenzo Denizot, starring Alessandro Bernard and Lydia Quaranta; seems to have been inspired by the novel “Trilby”
• Mystery of the Glass Coffin (Eclair/ Tyler Films)
• The Mystical Maid of Jamasha Pass, directed by Allan Dwan (his first film), starring J. Warren Kerrigan and Jack Richardson
• Nan in Fairyland (British/ C&M Films)
• A New Cure for Divorce
• The New York Hat – directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore
• Nursie and Knight (Thanhouser) dream sequence involves a dragon
• The Old Actor
• The Old Doctor’s Humanity
• Oliver Twist (British/ Hepworth) directed by Thomas Bentley; based on the novel by Charles Dickens
• Onesime, Clock-maker, directed by Jean Durand
• One Too Exciting Night (British/ Hepworth Films) produced by Cecil Hepworth
• Paradise (Italian/ Psiche Film) based on the third act of Dante’s Divine Comedy (sort of a sequel to Dante’s Inferno)
• Parsifal (Italian/ Ambrosio) based on the opera by Wagner
• The Passer-By, directed by Oscar Apfel. Not the first moving camera shot, but it may be the first long-shot-to-close-up dolly moving camera shot. May also be the first dolly moving camera shot.
• Petticoat Camp
• Pilgrim’s Progress
• The Plague-Stricken City (French/ Gaumont) the filmmakers tried to emulate the 1912 Italian silent film Masque of the Red Death herein, which in turn was based on the famous story by Edgar Allan Poe
• Please Help the Pore
• Polidor at the Death Club (Italian/ Pasquali Films) one of dozens of silent films featuring the “Polidor” character all starring Ferdinando Guillaume; this film was a spoof on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel The Suicide Club
• The Power of Melody
• A Primitive Man’s Career to Civilization
• Put Yourself in His Place
• The Queen of Spades (French/ Eclipse) This film was actually an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1878 novel The Suicide Club, but the film also draws from the 1833 Alexander Pushkin novel Pikovaya dama as well
• The Raven (Eclair/ American Standard) a French-American co-production purporting to be the “true story” of Edgar Allan Poe’s life, starring Guy Oliver and Muriel Ostriche; inspired by the poem by Edgar Allan Poe and incorporating images from eight of Poe’s short stories (filmed in Fort Lee, Texas)
• The Reincarnation of Karma (Vitagraph Films) directed by Van Dyke Brooke, starring Courtenay Foote and Rosemary Theby
• Resurrection
• Richard III (Second oldest American feature film – Currently the oldest completely intact American feature film
• Robin Hood
• St. George and the Dragon (Italian/ Milano Films) this film was hand-colored
• Satan, aka Satana, aka Satan, the Destroyer of Humanity (Italian/ Ambrosio Films) directed by Luigi Maggi, written by Guido Volante, starring Rina Alby, Antonio Grisanti and Mario Bonnard (as Satan); photography by Giovanni Vitrotti; inspired by John Milton’s Paradise Lost
• Saved From the Titanic
• The Sea’s Shadow/ Der Schatten des Meeres, aka In the Shadow of the Sea (German) directed by Curt A. Stark (also star), also starring Lizzy Krueger, Henry Porten and Fran Retzlag
• The Secrets of House Number Five (Russian-French co-production/ Pathe Films) said to be one of the first films to feature vampires
• The Serpents (Vitagraph) starring Ralph Ince and Edith Storey
• The Silent Castle (French/ Gaumont) based on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty
• Simple Simon and the Devil, aka Onesime and the Devil (French/ Gaumont) directed by Jean Durand, starring Ernest Bourbon and Gaston Modot; one of a series of 60 “Onesime” films made in France (the character’s name was changed to “Simple Simon” in the U.S.)
• A Six Cylinder Elopement
• The Skivvy’s Ghost (French/ Lux Film)
• Sleeping Beauty (British/ Hepworth Films) directed by Elwin Neame, starring Ivy Close; based on the Charles Perrault fairy tale
• A Son-in-Law’s Nightmare (French/ Pathe)
• A Spanish Dilemma, directed by Mack Sennett, starring Mabel Normand
• The Speckled Band (a French-British co-production filmed in England) directed by Georges Treville (who also played Sherlock Holmes in the film); based on the famous mystery story by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Spectre of Jago (Italian/ Aquila Films) starring Alberto Carlo Lolli
• The Speed Demon, directed by Mack Sennett, starring Fred Mace
• The Spell of the Hypnotist (Italian/ Helios Film)
• A Spider in the Brain (Italian/ Itala Films)
• A Spiritualistic Convert (French/ Pathe)
• Spooks (French/ Pathe) a horror-comedy
• Standing Room Only
• The Star of Bethlehem
• The Street Singer
• Supernatural Power (French/ Pathe) features a seance with spirits
• The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, aka The Lunatics (French/ Eclair) directed by [[Maurice Tourneur, written by Andre de Lord, starring Henri Gouget and Henri Roussell; based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story
• The Tell-Tale Message
• Les terreurs de Rigadin (French/Pathe) directed by George Monca, starring Charles Prince as “Rigadin”; this film was one in a series of over 100 “Rigadin” comedies made in France.
• The Thief and the Porter’s Head (Italian/ Milano Films)
• The Thunderbolt
• Today and Tomorrow – directed by Michael Curtiz
• Tomboy Bessie, directed by Mack Sennett, starring Mabel Normand
• Trilby (Austrian-Hungarian co-production) directed by Luise and Anton Kolm (with Jakob Fleck), starring Frau Galafres Hubermann and Paul Askonas, based on the 1894 novel by Daphne Du Maurier
• Trilby (British/ Standard Films) based on the 1894 novel by Daphne Du Maurier
• An Unseen Enemy, directed by D.W. Griffith, debuts of Lillian and Dorothy Gish
• The Vengeance of Edgar Poe (French/ Lux Film) directed by Gerard Bourgeois, written by Abel Gance and Bourgeois, starring Edouard de Max and Jean Worms; biopic that deals with Poe’s real-life drug addiction
• The Vengeance of Egypt (French/ Gaumont)
• The Voice of Conscience
• The Water Nymph, starring Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett. First Keystone comedy.
• What Happened to Mary? – starring Mary Fuller.
• When Soul Meets Soul (Essanay Films) directed by Farrell MacDonald, starring Francis X. Bushman (features a reincarnated mummy)
• When the Fire Bells Rang
• When the Heart Calls, starring Lee Moran, Russell Bassett and Louise Glaum
• Whiffle’s Nightmare, aka Le cauchemar de Rigadin (French/ Pathe) directed by George Monca, starring Charles Prince as Rigadin
• With Our King and Queen Through India
• With the Mounted Police
• The Woman in White (Universal Pictures) starring Janet Salzberg, Charles Perley and Alexander F. Frank; based on the famous 1859 Wilkie Collins novel of the same name
• The Woman in White (Thanhouser Films) written by Lloyd Lonergan, starring Marguerite Snow and James Cruze; based on the famous 1859 Wilkie Collins novel of the same name
• Yotsuya Kaidan (translation: The Ghost of Yotsuya) (Japanese/ Nikkatsu Films) directed by Shozo Makino, starring Matsunosuke Onoe; based on the famous 1825 kabuki play of the same name.
• The Young Millionaire