1921 in film

Events

• February 20 - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino, premieres.
• September 5 - Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle holds a party in a San Francisco hotel to celebrate his new $3,000,000 three-year contract with Paramount. A young actress, Virginia Rappe, becomes ill at the party and dies on September 9, of peritonitis secondary to a ruptured bladder. Arbuckle is accused of mortally injuring Rappe during an attempted rape, and is charged with murder. Rumours fly that Arbuckle raped Rappe with a bottle. The doctors who conducted the autopsy on Rappe found no evidence supporting a charge of rape, but were unable to rule out external force as the cause of Rappe's injury. The murder charge was later reduced to one of manslaughter at the preliminary hearing.
• December 4 - The first Virginia Rappe manslaughter trial against actor and film director Roscoe Arbuckle ends in a hung jury voting 9-2 for acquittal. A second later trail deadlocked 8-4 for conviction. The jury acquitted him after six minutes' deliberation and added a special statement to the verdict stating that acquittal was not enough to demonstrate the baselessness of the charges against Arbuckle.

Top grossing films

1. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
2. The Kid
3. The Three Musketeers
4. The Sheik
5. Little Lord Fauntleroy
6. The Love Light
7. Every Woman's Problem
8. Brewster's Millions
9. White and Unmarried
10. The Passion Flower
11. The Wonderful Thing
12. The Idle Class

Films released in 1921

• $10,000 Under a Pillow, silent film directed by Frank Moser
• 'High Sign', The, directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
• 'Orace, silent film directed by Bannister Merwin
• The Ace of Hearts, silent film directed by Wallace Worsley
• Across the Divide, silent film directed by John Holloway
• Action (film), silent film directed by John Ford
• Adopting a Bear Cub, silent film directed by John Randolph Bray
• The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick, directed by Thomas Bentley
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, directed by Maurice Elvey
• The Adventures of Tarzan, directed by Robert F. Hill and Scott Sidney
• The Advisor, directed by Jack White
• Afraid of His Wife, directed by Scott Sidney
• After Midnight, directed by Ralph Ince
• After the Dough, directed by Herman C. Raymaker
• After the Show, directed by William C. de Mille
• After Your Own Heart, directed by George Marshall
• The Alarm, directed by Robert F. Hill
• Alfalfa Love, directed by Fred Hibbard
• The Blot
• Brewster's Millions, starring Fatty Arbuckle
• Brownie's Baby Doll, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Brownie's Little Venus, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Bullets or Ballots, the film debut of Mary Astor
• Camille, starring Alla Nazimova, Rudolph Valentino, Rex Cherryman and Patsy Ruth Miller
• The Clean Up, starring Diana Serra Cary
• The Conquering Power
• Danton
• Dracula's Death
• Disraeli
• Every Woman's Problem
• Fool's Paradise, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Conrad Nagel, Mildred Harris, Theodore Kosloff and Diana Serra Cary
• Forever
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino
• Get-Rich-Quick Peggy, starring Diana Serra Cary
• The Goat
• God's Crucible
• Golfing, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Hail the Woman
• The Haunted Castle
• The Haunted House
• Her Circus Man, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Humor Risk
• The Idle Class
• Jánošík, starring Theodor Pištěk
• The Kid, starring Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan
• The Kid's Pal, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Little Lord Fauntleroy, starring Mary Pickford
• The Love Light, starring Mary Pickford
• A Lucky Dog, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• The Man Who Laughs
• The Mechanical Man, directed by Andre Deed
• A Muddy Bride, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Der müde Tod (Destiny)
• Never Weaken
• The Offenders
• On Account, starring Diana Serra Cary
• On with the Show, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Orphans of the Storm, starring Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish; directed by D.W. Griffith
• Pals, starring Diana Serra Cary
• The Passion Flower, starring Norma Talmadge
• The Playhouse
• Playmates, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Siciliana − Princess Kanningsten's Necklace, dir.: Imrich Darányi
• The Queen of Sheba
• Sea Shore Shapes, starring Diana Serra Cary
• The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino
• The Silver Lining
• Teddy's Goat, starring Diana Serra Cary
• The Three Musketeers, starring Douglas Fairbanks
• Third Class Male, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Tol'able David directed by Henry King and starring Richard Barthelmess
• A Week Off, starring Diana Serra Cary
• Woman's Place
• The Wonderful Thing, starring Norma Talmadge
• White and Unmarried

Short film series

• Harold Lloyd (1913-1921)
• Charlie Chaplin (1914-1923)
• Buster Keaton (1917-1941)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921-1943)

Animated short film series

• Aesop's Film Fables (1921-1934)
• Felix the Cat (1919-1930)
• Koko the Clown (1919-1963)

Births

• January 3 - John Russell, actor (d. 1991)
• January 27 - Donna Reed, actress (d. 1986)
• January 31 - Carol Channing, actress
• January 31 - Mario Lanza, singer, actor (d. 1959)
• February 8 - Lana Turner, actress (d. 1995)
• February 11 - Eva Gabor, actress (d. 1995)
• February 16 - Vera-Ellen, actress, dancer (d. 1981)
• February 22 - Giulietta Masina, actress (d. 1994)
• February 26 - Betty Hutton, actress (d. 2007)
• March 3 - Diana Barrymore, actress (d. 1960)
• March 4 - Joan Greenwood, actress (d. 1987)
• March 8 - Cyd Charisse, actress, dancer
• March 12 - Gordon MacRae, actor, singer (d. 1986)
• March 25 - Simone Signoret, actress (d. 1985)
• March 28 - Dirk Bogarde, actor (d. 1999)
• April 10 - Chuck Connors, actor (d. 1992)
• April 16 - Peter Ustinov, actor (d. 2004)
• May 2 - Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (d. 1992)
• May 23 - Grigori Chukhrai, Ukrainian film director (d. 2001)
• May 31 - Alida Valli, actress (d. 2006)
• June 8 - Alexis Smith, actress (d. 1993)
• June 21 - Jane Russell, actress
• June 21 - Judy Holliday, actress (d. 1965)
• July 3 - Susan Peters, actress (d. 1952)
• July 23 - Robert Brown, actor (d. 2003)
• August 3 - Marilyn Maxwell, actress (d. 1972)
• September 8 - Harry Secombe, actor, singer (d. 2001)
• September 30 - Deborah Kerr, actress (d. 2007)
• October 13 - Yves Montand, singer, actor (d. 1991)
• November 3 - Charles Bronson, actor (d. 2003)
• November 20 - Phyllis Thaxter, actress
• November 22 - Rodney Dangerfield, actor, comedian (d. 2004)
• November 23 - Fred Buscaglione, Italian actor and singer
• December 4 - Deanna Durbin, actress
• December 26 - Steve Allen, actor, composer, comedian, author (d. 2000)

Film Debuts

• Mary Astor
• Carole Lombard

Deaths

• June 20 - George Loane Tucker, silent film actor & director
• September 9 - Virginia Rappe, film actress
• September 17 - Van Dyke Brooke, veteran film actor