1 January, China: Supplies of unexposed film are once more available. The producer Zang Sichuan has founded the Huei Hsi production company. 1 January, Germany: The Deulig (Deutsche Lichtbild Gesellschaft) production company has set itself the following goal: to act whenever possible in defense of German economy and culture throughout the world. 5 January, Paris: A psychological drama Le Droit à la vie (The Right to Life), made by Abel Gance, the director of Les Gaz mortels and Le Périscope, with Paul Vermoyal, Léon Mathot and Andrée Brabant, is now screening. 6 January, New York: Joseph M. Schenck has released Panthea, with his wife Norma Talmadge playing the lead and directed by Allan Dwan. 8 January, Los Angeles: Maurice Tourneur has directed Mary Pickford in Pride of the Clan, produced by Artcraft. 28 January, New York: Douglas Fairbanks' last film for the Triangle Corporation, The Americano, directed by John Emerson, is now showing. 29 January, Stockholm: Director Victor Sjöström explores the hidden language of film in Terje Vigen (A Man There Was), a cinematographic adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's poem. This dramatic film captures the unleashed elements with superb lyricism. 1 February, Hollywood: Happy Douglas Fairbanks will keep on smiling for a long time. He has just signed a fabulous contract with Walter E. Greene, the president of the distributing company Artcraft, and his associate Al Lichtman. They have given total autonomy to the Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation, created precisely for this purpose. The acrobatic and romantic comedy star is going to be paid a weekly salary of $10,000 as well as a percentage of the company's profits. 1 February, New York: Release of The Other Girl, directed by Oliver "Babe" Hardy, with Hardy as Babe, Ethel Marie Burton as Ethel and Florence McLauglin as Florence. Louis Burstein produces this comedy short from Vim. 4 February, New York: Release of Luke's Trolley Troubles, the latest installment in Harold Lloyd's "Lonesome Luke" series. Hal Roach directs a cast that includes Bebe Daniels and "Snub" Pollard in this Pathé production. 6 February, New York: Release of The Honor System from Fox, directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Milton Sills, Cora Drew and James A. Marcus. 11 February, New Jersey: For Thomas Alva Edison, who is today celebrating his seventieth birthday, it is clear that his personal dream of the cinema will never be realized. This world-famous inventor and entrepreneur, whose company played so important a role in the early growth of the motion picture industry, particularly through the development and exploitation of the Kinetoscope, has finally called it a day. Edison is currently involved in winding up his film production company, while the trust he set up in 1908, the Motion Picture Patents Co. and its sister operation, the General Film Co., carry on business with little of their former power or influence. Without blaming Edison himself for the failure of his companies, it is obvious that he was instrumental in determining the overall shape of their policies. In various important respects he appears never to have recognized the artistic or commercial potential of the cinema. Rather than providing leadership for the industry as a whole, Edison will be best remembered as a conservative, even repressive, power, more concerned with enforcing his patent rights and controlling the shape of the industry than with encouraging innovative and enterprising new companies. 27 February, Italy: Gioacchino Mecheri, the director of Tiber Film and Celio Film has just bought out Itala Film. Giovanni Pastrone has decided to retire from the film business. 1 March, India: J. F. Madden has given a preview of the first Bengali fiction film, Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra. 3 March, California: Release of The Tornado directed by Jack Ford, a relative newcomer to the cinema, who wrote the script and also played a role in the film. 24 March, New York: The Edison Co. releases Willis O'Brien's second animated short, The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, a Prehistoric Tragedy. Using puppet animation to tell a story of prehistoric times, three suitors, named the Duke, Stonejaw Steve, and Theophilus Ivoryhead, compete for the hand of Miss Araminta Rockface. Ivoryhead, an unassuming weakling, wins her hand when the others mistakenly believe that he has killed a large ape which was actually felled by a dinosaur. Use this link to view this film from the US Library of Congress. 29 March, France: Emile Reynaud, the pioneer and inventor of cartoons, is without means and seriously ill. He has been confined to a hospice for the incurable at Ivry-sur-Seine. 30 March, St. Petersburg: The union of patriotic filmmakers has released The Great Days of the Russian Revolution, by Vyatcheslav Viskovsky and Boutch Tovmarchersky, a film about the events leading up to the Czar's abdication. Evgeni Bauer has already released an anti-czarist film, The Revolutionary. 31 March, London: The British film industry is currently going through one of its periodic crises, except that this time it appears to be more serious than usual. Many companies have been cutting back on production, including some of the largest established firms such as Hepworth and the London Film Co., the largest British studio. It is estimated that there are about 4,500 movie theaters in Britain, and they have recently been getting larger and more luxurious. Average weekly attendance numbers about 20 million people, reflecting the great popularity of the cinema, but, unfortunately, audiences seem to prefer American films to the home-grown product. The war has, of course, played a part in bringing on the current problems, but this is only part of the explanation. Most of these problems are not new and reflect trends that have been developing over many years. Consider, for example, the current popularity of the new feature-length pictures, many of which have been arriving from the US. Whereas the British film industry has functioned in the past like a kind of "cottage industry" -- with many small companies turning out one- or two-reelers releatively cheaply and quickly -- it is far more difficult, if not impossible, to produce feature films in this way. The major problem here is a lack of capital, a serious shortage of the kind of investment necessary for the construction of new and thoroughly equipped studios, for example, or for hiring top-quality writers, directors and actors, and for training technical personnel. Writers are especially badly paid here, so it is not too surprising to discover that the scripts are generally of poor quality. Comparatively few British films are made from original scripts, but are far more likely to be adapted from plays or novels. Similarly, British companies have been very slow to invest in acting talent and to make the effort to develop and promote new stars. Undoubtedly, one of the big attractions of American movies is the large number and variety of their stars. If the short-term outlook in Britain is bleak, it is to be hoped that once the war is over the situation will improve. 5 April, Paris: Creation of the French League for the Cinema, by Tristan Bernard, Edmond Benoît-Lévy and Léon Gaumont. Its aims are to develop the film industry and to define its interests before Parliament. 7 April, Paris: The hearts of hundreds of young girls are breaking on account of the mysterious and fragile René Cresté, the hero of Louis Feuillade's new film, Judex. Every young man, too, dreams of becoming Judex, able to throw that majestic cape over his shoulder in a noble gesture, and to free kidnapped women. Gaumont launched this 12-episode adventure with great ceremony: posters in the streets, advertisements in magazines, stamps for schoolchildren, and a serial written by the populist novelist Arthur Bernède. Le Pardon d'Amour (Love's Pardon), the twelfth and last episode of the film, has been released today. Throughout its long and thrilling adventures, Judex has been an enormous success, more so than Feuillade's astonishing The Vampires. What is the explanation for this? There are a number of reasons. Enlivening the screen is the seductive screen presence of René Cresté; the beautiful Musidora in a double role; little Bout-de-Zan, who plays the child Réglisse, and the irresistable Marcel Lévesque, with his large nose and bald head. Finally, after the Minister of the Interior had criticized The Vampires for its immoral heroes, the director has created the adventures of a handsome righter of wrongs. Judex is a wiser, healthier and more moral story than either Fantômas or The Vampires. And consequently, this time there has been no problem with the censors nor with the Catholic League. The scenario does not reek of sulphur, eroticism or anarchism. The hero Judex, a mysterious, cloaked crusader, battles against evil forces in order to destroy the empire of an arch criminal. Judex is more carefully structured and less frightening than Feuillade's previous serials, but it is highly entertaining and thrilling. Thanks to his latest film, Louis Feuillade can now be considered at the top of his profession. 12 April, Paris: A conference proudly reports significant progress in the field of censorship. In the last year, 198 films have been banned or cut by the Commission of Censors. M. Vendrin's approach to the problem has made it possible to levy a tax on crime films. Measures like this create resentment in the film industry. The banning of Bain du préfet (The Official's Bath), for example, where personal taste has overriden honorable intentions, seems excessive. 14 April, Los Angeles: Twenty-seven regional distributors, with over 2,000 movie theaters under their control, have grouped together in an attempt to rival Adolph Zukor's Famous Players-Lasky and Artcraft company. They have formed a new production company: First National Exhibitor's Circuit. 23 April, New York: The Butcher Boy is the first film Roscoe Arbuckle has made for his own Comique Film company. The film features a talented newcomer, Buster Keaton. 25 April, Los Angeles: Samuel Goldfish, who from now on wishes to be known as Goldwyn, and his partners have created the Goldwyn Distribution Corporation. 30 April, New York: Now that the United States has entered into the war, D. W. Griffith's film Intolerance has been withdrawn from distribution. It was already misunderstood by the public and is considered to be undesirable under the present circumstances. This move has resulted in enormous losses for the producer and distributor, Harry E. Aitken. 14 May, Los Angeles: Cecil B. De Mille has co-written, directed and edited A Romance of the Redwoods for Artcraft, with Mary Pickford. 15 June, Paris: The actor who created Fantômas, René Navarre, has now founded his own production company and has released The Adventures of Clémentine, a series of cartoons by Benjamin Rabier. 22 June, France: An article has been published recently in Le Cinéma criticizing the distracting background noises on sound tracks. 1 July, Indochina: The governor-general, Albert Sarraut, has brought back numerous films from his recent visit to France, in order to show locals the "genius of the French nation." 6 July, Paris: The first series of cartoons by Emile Cohl called Les Adventures des Pieds-Nickelés has been produced by the Éclair film company. 12 July, Los Angeles: Screening of The Little Amercan, by Cecil B. De Mille with Mary Pickford and two newcomers, Wallace Beery and Ramon Navarro. 26 July, France: Director Jacques Feyder has married actress Françoise Rosay. September, Los Angeles: The Chaplin-First National contract has been made public. The total amounts to the sum of $1,075,000. Chaplin is to be paid $125,000 for each of the eight films that he is contracted to supply to the company over a period of 18 months, from January 1918. 12 October, Paris: Abel Gance's new film La Zone de la mort (Death Zone), has just been released today. This year has been decisive for the director. He met with Charles Pathé in Nice on 21 January last. At a private screening, the great industrialist saw Mater Dolorosa, the film that Gance shot for Film d'Art. Pathé was very impressed by the direction and promised his moral and financial support. When it was released it aroused great enthusiasm. Gance and his cameraman Léonce Burel had taken an immense amount of care with the editing, lighting and interpretation, intensifying the tragedy of this social drama. Afterwards, he shot Death Zone and The Tenth Symphony, two very original works. During a second meeting on 8 July, Gance expounded his ideas to Pathé. He dreams of a film called The Scars and also a trilogy -- a hugh spectacle that would denounce the horrors of war and would be called J'accuse. Pathé is almost as enthusiastic as the young director and has agreed to finance the project. 16 October, New York: D. W. Griffith is back from Europe with his film crew and numerous scenes for his new film Hearts of the World, starring Lillian Gish. The sequences were shot in England and on the French Front. The remaining scenes will be shot in California. 17 October, Hollywood: The Fox Film Corporation, headed by former penny arcade owner William Fox, continues to grow and prosper. Its latest feature Cleopatra has just opened, the newest vehicle for the studio's most famous and glamorous female star Theda Bara, following her success in such roles as Carmen, The Eternal Sappho, The Vixen and The Tiger Woman. The titles say it all! In addition, the company has just signed up popular Western star Tom Mix, formerly at Selig and now added to the Fox roster of stars headed by William Farnum, Valeska Suratt and George Walsh. Fox has succeeded in consistently increasing the number of his feature releases every year since he first ventured into production late in 1914. Having produced almost 40 features during his first year, Fox has continued to sign up new stars and directors. In the early days his studio was located on Staten Island before moving to New York City, and many of the scripts were written by Fox's wife. Last year alone the company released 50 features and opened a larger and newly improved Hollywood studio at the corner of Western Avenue and Sunset Blvd. With the shift in production from the East Coast to the well-equipped West Coast facility, the company appears well on course to complete over 60 films during the current year, while the 1918 output will obviously be bolstered by a selection of Westerns starring Fox's new acquisition, Tom Mix. Fox is hardly short on directing talent either. Oscar Apfel, Frank Powell and British director Herbert Brenon have shared the directing honors during the early years with J. Gordon Edwards, who has himself handled most of the Theda Bara productions. There is also Raoul Walsh, older brother of George Walsh, whose creative output ranges from drama and social comment films to comedy and Westerns. 19 October, Prague: Lucarna has released Les Adamites de Prague, by Antonin Fencl, with the actor Josef Vosalik. 20 October, New York: Release of Chaplin's last film for Mutual The Adventurer, with Edna Purviance. 31 October, Shanghai: The publishers of The Commercial Press, run by Pao Ching-chia, have created a cinema section. 14 November, Paris: Marcel L'Herbier has made his debut as a scriptwriter with a film for Eclipse, Le Torrent, produced by Jean Mercanton and René Hervil. 16 November, Berlin: Ernst Lubitsch has written and directed a comedy Wenn Vier das selbe machen (When Four Do the Same Thing), with his faithful partner Ossi Oswalda. 30 November, Hollywood: Whether the company is now referred to as Famous Players-Lasky or Paramount Pictures, it is clear that this large and growing film corporation is setting the pace for the rest of the movie industry. And it is the new company president, the small and quiet-spoken Adolph Zukor, who masterminded it all. It was only 16 months ago that Zukor first arranged the key merger between the Famous Players Co. and Lasky, then organized Artcraft Pictures for the release of the prestigious Mary Pickford features, and finally succeeded in integrating the production and distribution sides of the business under the brand-new Paramount logo. With the departure of W. W. Hodgkinson and chairman Samuel Goldwyn not long after, Zukor's consolidation of power was complete, which left Jesse L. Lasky in place as vice-president in charge of production and Cecil B. De Mille as director-general. During the past year the company has taken advantage of the decline of a number of other studios, Triangle in particular, and has acquired several new stars to bolster its already strong lineup. Among the most notable recent arrivals are comedian Roscoe Arbuckle, cowboy William S. Hart, Charles Ray and Douglas Fairbanks. In addition, Zukor has succeeded in strengthening Paramount's position even further, at the expense of other, smaller companies, through his use of the practice of block booking, i.e. forcing exhibitors to commit themselves to the whole Paramount package -- in other words, requiring them to take the less desirable films in order to get the Mary Pickford or De Mille features that they most want. But perhaps the most important of all is the way in which Zukor has succeeded in opening up new sources of capital. By turning to Wall Street for help in financing his plans for the studio, which include a major increase in film production, he has recently convinced his bankers and especially Otto Kahn, head of the leading New York financial firm of Kahn, Loeb and Co., that Paramount, as Zukor has reorganized it and as the spearhead of a rapidly growing industry, is an excellent financial risk. The result is a stock issue of ten million dollars. 31 December, Budapest: Sándor Korda and Miklós Pásztoory have bought up the Corvin production company from Jeno Janovicz. The company is being tranferred to Budapest where a studio is already under construction.