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1914 |
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Austria-Hungary |
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| 16/8 - |
The government bans all films made by enemy countries, and decrees that only patriotic films are to be shown. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 30/9 - |
Film companies compete for the sale of newsreel footage of the Great War. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Belgium |
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| 1/5 - |
Alfred Machin’s Maudit soit la guerre is released in Belgium after being held back by Pathe because of fears over public reaction to its pacifist message. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 14/11 - |
German director Stellan Rye dies in a French hospital in Flanders after being wounded during the fighting at Ypres. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| Canada | ||||
| 2/2 - |
The country’s first feature film, Evangeline, directed by William Cavanaugh and Edward P. Sullivan, is released by the Canadian Bioscope Company. [MORE] [ADD] |
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China |
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– Chinese cinema declines due to a shortage of film stock as a result of the Great War. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Denmark |
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| 23/3 - |
Benjamin Christensen's first production is released. He stars in the leading role of The Mysterious X after giving up stage acting due to extreme stage fright. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 24/4 - |
Forest Holger-Madsen’s Opiumsdrommen (Opium Dreams) is released. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Nordisk’s output increases to over 140 fiction films and almost 50 non-fiction films during the year. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Estonia |
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| 26/2 - |
Estonia's first fiction film, Karujaht Parnumaal, is released. It is filmed by Johannes Paasuke. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Finland |
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| Spring - |
Lyyra Filmi produce the country’s first cinema newsreels. [MORE] [ADD] |
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France |
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| 2/1 - |
Le Systeme du Dr Goudron et du Professeur Plume, former actor Maurice Tourneur’s directorial debut, is released. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 27/2 - |
The first issue of Andre Herze and Georges Quellien’s Le Film is published. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 29/3 - |
Sarah Bernhardt turns down the opportunity to appear in Abel Gance’s La Victoire de Samothrace. Gance never makes the film and Bernhardt stars in Adrienne Lecouvrer instead. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 18/4 - |
Various cinema organisations publish leaflets protesting against the cinema tax approved by the Chamber of Deputies on the 23rd March. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 3/6 - |
A commemorative monument to Etienne-Jules Marey, a pioneer of cinematography, is unveiled in Paris by Raymond Poincare. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 1/7 - |
The director Andre Antoine signs for Pathe. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 25/8 - |
Abel Gance acts as stretcher-bearer after being exempted from military service due to poor health. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Germany |
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| Oct - |
Oskar Messter’s weekly newsreel, Messter-Woche, begins. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Emil Jannings makes his film debut in Im Schutzengraben (In the Trenches). [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Erich Pommer founds Decla (Deutsche Eclair) after the outbreak of war in Europe means he can no longer continue as Eclair’s Central European representative. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Great Britain |
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| Jan - |
Newly-founded Neptune Films builds a studio in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. It is the most technologically advanced studio in the UK to date, boasting the first purpose-built dark stage in Europe at over 70ft long. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 4/2 - |
The World, the Flesh and the Devil, starring Frank Esmond and Rupert Harvey, is released in Kinemacolor and trade shown on this date. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 9/4 - |
The World, the Flesh and the Devil premieres at the Holborn Empire, London. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 8/6 - |
25-year-old GB “Bertie” Samuelson founds Worton Hall Studios in Islesworth, west London. The studio’s first production is A Study in Scarlet featuring James Bragington in the screen’s first depiction of Conan Doyle’s legendary sleuth. The official opening date of the studio is 1st July. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| Aug - |
Eugene Lauste’s Ł25,000 contract with two English backers to develop the Phonocinematophone is scuppered by the outbreak of war in Europe. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Marquis Serra founds the Windsor Film Company and opens a studio in Windsor Road, Catford, South London. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Tower Halls Studio is taken over by Pyramid Films. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– The Union film studio at Alexandra Palace is used to house Belgian refugees, followed later by prisoners of war. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Gaumont begins construction of a new glass-roofed studio in Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush, west London. It reaches 30ft at its highest point and its floor space measures 90ft x 40ft. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Charles Urban moves into Bushey Lodge, Teddington and purchases nearby Weir house for his Kinemacolor company. However, his rights to Kinemacolor soon expire and he moves to the Boathouse Inn Studio at Kew Bridge. [MORE] [ADD] |
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India |
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– Dadasaheb Phalke releases Satyavan Savtri, his third film. By now, his films are so popular that distributors require 20 prints of each film instead of just one. All three of Phalke’s films are exhibited in London. Phalke also attempted to explain the film-making process in a short, How Films are Made, and later in a series of essays for the Marathi journal, Navyug. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Abulally Essoofally acquires the Alexandri Theatre in Bombay (Mumbai) in partnership with Ardeshir Irani [MORE] [ADD] |
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– R. Venkalah and R. S. Prakash build Madras’s first permanent cinema, The Gaiety. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Italy |
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| 24/1 - |
Histoire d’un Pierrot, directed by Count Baldassarre Negroni and starring Francesca Bertini, is distributed with music. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 18/4 - |
Giovanni Pastrone’s Cabiria is released in Turin. The film took six months to shoot and runs for nearly three hours. Making use of technical accomplishments such as overhead cranes, special effects, lighting and cameras mounted on trolleys, the film resembles nothing that has come before. The intertitles are written by celebrated writer Gabriele d’Annunzio. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Japan |
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| Mar - |
The Tenkatsu film company is formed in Japan. It builds studios in Tokyo and Osaka and produces 15 films per month. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Nippon Kinetophone makes a number of short sound films before going out of business. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Turkey |
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| Mar - |
Cevat Boyer and Murat Bey open the country's first cinema hall. [MORE] [ADD] |
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- Film-making begins in Turkey with a 150-metre documentary film, Ayastefanos'taki Rus Abidesinin Yikilisi (The Demolition of the Russian Monument at St. Stephen) filmed by reserve army officer Fuat Uzkinay shortly after the Ottoman empire's entry into the Great War. A General Enver's establishes a film centre and several more scenes are shot during the war. [MORE] [ADD] |
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USA |
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| 2/2 - |
Making a Living, Charles Chaplin’s film debut, is released. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 7/2 - |
Vitagraph enters into distribution – the first American company to do so – when it leases the Criterion Theatre on Broadway in New York and renames it the Vitagraph Theatre. The first film shown there is Vitagraph’s first five-reel feature, A Million Dollar Bid. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 10/2 - |
Famous Players Co. release the first of their films made in California. It is Hearts Adrift, starring Mary Pickford and directed by Edwin S. Porter. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 15/2 - |
Cecil B. DeMille’s The Squaw Man, is the first feature film made in Hollywood. Local residents were not happy about the film being made there and once opened fire on DeMille as he was on his way to his office one morning. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| Feb - |
The Merchant of Venice is released. Directed by Lois Weber, it is the first American film to be helmed by a woman. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 8/3 - |
D. W. Griffith’s four-reel $36,000 epic Judith of Bethulia premieres at Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York. Trimmed down from an initial six reels, it stars Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall, Robert Harron, Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 23/3 - |
The first episode of The Perils of Pauline, starring Pearl White, is premiered at Loew’s Broadway Theatre in New York. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 11/4 - |
William Selig’s The Spoilers, directed by Colin Campbell, is premiered in the newly-built Strand Theatre in New York. Owned by Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothapfel, it is the first purpose-built theatre for new releases, and seats 2,900 people. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 4/5 - |
Charlie Chaplin’s Caught in the Rain is released. It is the first film written and directed by him. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 4/5 - |
Lillian and Dorothy Gish star in D. W. Griffith’s Home Sweet Home for Reliance-Majestic. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| May - |
Maurice Tourneur arrives in Fort Lee, New Jersey to become director of Eclair’s US operation. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| May - |
Vitagraph leases their second – and last, following representations from other exhibitors – New York theatre, the Harris Theatre on 42nd Street. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 8/6 - |
Ebbets Field Theatre, the world’s first drive-in movie theatre opens in New York. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 4/7 - |
After raising $40,000, D. W. Griffith begins filming The Clansman. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 15/7 - |
Paramount Pictures is created as a nationwide distribution network operating out of New York in direct competition with established operations such as Mutual and Universal. The brainchild of W. W. Hodgkinson, its partners include independent filmmakers such as Jesse Lasky, Famous Players, Oliver Morosco, Bosworth and Pallas. The new organisation’s intention is to replace the current State Rights arrangement. Through a series of mergers it will eventually come under sole control of Adolph Zukor. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 5/9 - |
D. W. Griffith temporarily suspends shooting of The Clansman after running over budget. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 15/9 - |
Winsor McCay's animated creation Gertie the Dinosaur is released to wide acclaim. The 10-minute film makes use of 10,000 individual drawings. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 31/10 - |
Pathe America changes its name to Pathe Exchange, to reflect its new status as a production and distribution company. Founder Charles Pathe travelled from France to reorganize the branch personally after it was put in financial difficulty by the Edison Trust. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 31/10 - |
D. W. Griffith finally brings in The Clansman more than $60,000 over budget at over $100,000. Although the film was financed by Harry E. Aitkin’s Mutual Film Corporation, Griffith had to rely on loans from friends to complete filming. Shooting took a total of nine weeks, requiring around 500 extras, and was often filmed at the scene of the actual battles depicted. Griffith made use of Matthew Brady’s Civil War photographs for authenticity, and a young Raoul Walsh played the role of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. The film is due to be premiered on the 8th February 1915 under its new title of Birth of a Nation. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 30/11 - |
25-year-old Charlie Chaplin leaves Keystone for a new contract with Gilbert M. Anderson and George K. Spoor’s Essanay company following wage disputes with head of Keystone, Mack Sennett. Chaplin’s starting salary is $1,250 per week plus a $10,000 bonus. He is also promised complete artistic control of his films. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 19/12 - |
Cartoonist Earl Hurd registers his new animation technique of superimposing figures drawn on ‘cellulos’ onto a static background. [MORE] [ADD] |
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| 21/12 - |
Tillie’s Punctured Romance, the world’s first feature-length comedy premieres. It stars Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler and runs to six reels. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– William Fox’s Fox Entertainment begins producing films in a rented studio with two glass-roofed stages at Fort Lee, New Jersey. The company’s first production, released in 1915, is A Fool There Was, starring Theda "The Vamp" Bara. [MORE] [ADD] |
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– Siegmund Lubin suffers a fire at his Lubinville studio. [MORE] [ADD] |
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Other Films of Note |
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Bulgaria |
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Chile |
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The Life of General Rafael Uribe (Di Domenico Brothers) [MORE] [ADD] |
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France |
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Bout-de-Zan series (Louis Feuillade) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Le Calvaire (Louis Feuillade) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Ceux de chez nous (Sacha Guitry) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Les Quatre-vingt-treize (Albert Capellani) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Napoleon: du sacre a Saint-Helene (Alfred Machin) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Germany |
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| Great Britain | ||||
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The German Spy Peril (Will Barker) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Hungary |
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Bank Ban (Mihaly Kertesz) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Japan |
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Katusha (Kiyumatsu Hosoyama) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Russia |
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Anna Karenina (Vladimir Gardin) [MORE] [ADD] |
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A Child of the Big City (Evgeni Bauer) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Chrysanthemums (Pyotr Chardynin) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Cold Souls (Evgeni Bauer) [MORE] [ADD] |
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The Kreutzer Sonata (Vladimir Gardin) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Life in Death (Evgeni Bauer) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Silent Witnesses (Evgeni Bauer) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Sweden |
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The Girl from Marsh Croft (Victor Sjostrom) [MORE] [ADD] |
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USA |
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The Avenging Conscience (D. W. Griffith) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Dough and Dynamite (Charles Chaplin) [MORE] [ADD] |
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The Escape (D. W. Griffith) [MORE] [ADD] |
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The Girl of the Golden West (Cecil B. DeMille) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Home Sweet Home (D. W. Griffith) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Hypocrites (Lois Weber) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Making a Living (Henry Lehrman) [MORE] [ADD] |
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Neptune’s Daughter (Herbert Brenon) [MORE] [ADD] |
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The Virginian (Cecil B. DeMille) [MORE] [ADD] |
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The Wishing Ring (Maurice Tourneur) [MORE] [ADD] |
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