Paris, 3 January: The chemist Berthon has demonstrated a new color film process. The negative is covered with thousands of microscopic flecks and is made sensitive by panchromatization, a screening process that filters the three primary colors. Hollywood, 18 January: Wallace Reid, the handsome and popular Paramount star who specialized in breezy all-American types, has died of drug addiction at the age of 32. No one typified the clean-cut collar-ad go-getter better than Wally, which makes the circumstances of his death all the more tragic. The genial Reid began his film career as a stuntman with the Selig company. Bit parts and directing assignments followed, and in 1912 he secured his first big role in His Only Son. In 1913 he married Dorothy Davenport, his co-star in many films. After playing the small but memorable part of a fighting blacksmith in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, he was signed by Lasky and starred in a string of action-packed comedy thrillers. The hectic pace of his working life helped to kill Reid. In 1919, while filming The Valley of the Giants in the High Sierra, he was given morphine to relieve the pain of a back injury sustained in a train crash. The treatment continued and Reid became an addict, a condition exacerbated by heavy drinking. For a while Wally was able to keep up appearances, but by the time he made Thirty Days (1922) he was wasting away and could hardly stand. He spent his last days in a sanitarium and died in agony in his wife's arms. Coming so soon after both the Arbuckle and Desmond Taylor scandals, Reid's death has given the press another field day. Paris, 20 January: The Chamber of Deputies has voted to adopt an amendment that reduces taxes on those movie theaters which devote at least 25 percent (in footage) of their total program to French films. Los Angeles, 22 January: Metro releases Technicolor Motion Picture Corp.'s Toll of the Sea, directed by Chester Franklin and starring Anna May Wong, Kenneth Harlan and Beatrice Bentley. Produced by Joseph M. Schenck, it is the first feature that uses the company's System 2, a process in which two half-thickness matrix prints (red and green) are sandwiched into one projectable print. Premiered in New York City last November, this is the first profitable venture for the Technicolor company since its founding in 1915. Paris, 26 January: Max Linder is presenting the first release of his latest American-made film at the movie theater named after him. The film is titled The Three Must-Get-Theres and is a parody of The Three Musketeers. Brussels, 31 January: Belgian authorities have banned Jacques Feyder's latest screen project Crainquebille on the grounds that it demonstrates a lack of respect for the country's laws. New York, 3 February: The production of Salome with Alla Nazimova has just been released. The costumes by Natasha Rambova were inspired by the drawings of English artist Aubrey Beardsley. Paris, 14 February: The Railway Union has demanded that certain scenes be cut from Abel Gance's La Roue (The Wheel) because they paint an unfavorable picture of railway workers. However, Gance has vigorously refused to comply. Paris, 17 February: The release of la Roue (The Wheel), directed by Abel Gance, is being given a warm reception by the publc at the Gaumont Palace. This modern tragedy in a prologue and six episodes, originally called The Rose of the Railway, runs for two-and-a-half hours, the preparation and shooting having taken nearly five years. Produced by Abel Gance Films and financed by Pathé, the film cost the colossal sum of 3 million francs. However, if La Roue has attracted attention, it is because of its numerous artistic qualities rather than its cost. While evoking Aeschylus and Sophocles, among others, the film recounts the drama of a railway employee called Sisif, in love with his adopted daughter, and a rival to his own son. Like Oedipus, he ends up blind and crushed by Destiny. The first part was shot in Nice, on the railway lines near Saint-Roch station. Filming was continued at Chamonix in order to use the scenic railway at Mont Blanc. Gance, a perfectionist, shot some scenes 20 times. The actor Séverin-Mars, remarkable in the role of Sisif, was already ill during the shooting and died in 1921, shortly thereafter. There is another excellent performer in La Rue: the locomotive. Gance filmed this as a real character and its presence serves as a leitmotif of the film. Gance uses a rapid cutting technique when Sisif drives the locomotive at full speed. Tokyo, 20 February: Kenji Mizoguchi's directorial debut Furutaso (Homeland) is now showing. The film deals with the differences between rural and urban life. Paris, 20 February: Paramount president Adolph Zukor has told the press that his company will no longer be making films with Fatty Arbuckle. Paris, 27 February: The committee against the danger of venereal disease has released the film Syphilis, A Social Disease: How To Make It Disappear, made by Gaumont, Pathé-Consortium and Dr. Comandon. San Francisco, 13 March: Erich von Stroheim has started filming Greed on location. Hollywood, 25 March: Up to now the Western has been regarded as one of the cheaper "bread-and-butter" genres of the American cinema, the films generally being shot quickly and on low budgets, and with an emphasis on rip-roaring action. This attitude is likely to change now that Paramount has released The Covered Wagon, a truly epic Western, produced and directed by James Cruze. Apparently, considerable historic research was undertaken to make this film look as authentic as possible, with Col. Tim McCoy serving as technical advisor. Most of the footage was filmed under difficult and hazardous conditions at locations that included Milford, UT, Snake Valley, NV, and Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake for the spectacular buffalo hunt. In fact, Karl Brown's photography is especially impressive, particularly the wagon encampment at night, the staging of the Indian attack, the fording of the river, and the vast panoramic vistas of the wagons winding across the barren plains. Telling the story of the perilous, 2000-mile journey of the early wagon trains around 1849 from Kansas City to Oregon, the film, unfortunately, is let down by a weak and unoriginal script, adapted from the novel by Emerson Hough. The stereotyped hero, played by J. Warren Kerrigan, is an ex-army officer with a troubled past, now leader of the wagon train. Lois Wilson is the girl who loves him and Alan Hale portrays the scheming villain. But best of all are a pair of tough Indian scouts, authentic and off-beat. Paris, 26 March: The great actress Sarah Bernhardt has died. She made a total of eight films, including The Clairvoyant, which remains unfinished. Switzerland, 30 March: Premiere of The Call of the Mountain, directed by the pioneer Arthur Porchet and starring Emile Crettex and Ernette Tamm. Moscow, 25 April: In the middle of his adaptation of Ostrovsky's play, The Wise Man, Sergei Eisenstein has inserted a film sequence of the Journal du Gloumov, a parody of detective films. Nice, 30 April: Max Linder lost control of his car at high speed on a bend of the promenade des Anglais and overturned. He was thrown clear of the vehicle and only suffered minor bruising. Paris, 30 April: Robert Florey's book Filmland has now been published in France. Paris, 1 June: The young writer Louis Aragon has written in the magazine Théâtre et Comædia illustré that he would like to see the creation of "real films without hypocrisy. The perfecting of techniques are of no interest to me." The ironic reply from filmmakers: "Let's get together to offer the youngster a magic lantern." Berlin, 12 June: The actress Marlene Dietrich is featured in Der Mensch am Wege (Man by the Roadside), written and directed by Wilhelm Dieterle, who also acts in it. Cairo, 12 June: Egyptian authorities have promulgated the first law on film censorship. Paris, 30 June: The Committee for the Protection of Entertainment is worried about the growing success of a new device, the wireless telegraph. The question they are asking their members to consider is this: does the arrival of radiotelephony pose a threat to the entertainment industry? Paris, 1 August: In the latest issue of Crapouillot, M. Lebedinsky has let his irritation show. Here he writes that "there are moments when one wishes one were deaf, so as to avoid hearing the orchestra relentlessly playing Do You Know the Country Where Orange Trees Blossom? while the dogs in Nanook are freezing to death in a snow storm!" Paris, 2 August: Forty-year-old Max Linder has wed for the first time. His young bride, the 20-year-old Hélène Peters, has known Linder since her childhood. Paris, 11 August: Gaumont has obtained the exclusive rights for the distribution of Buster Keaton's film projects throughout the French Territories. Japan, 1 September: All film studios, including that of Shochiku, have been destroyed in the earthquake that ravaged the Tokyo and Yokohama regions. Film companies have grouped together to make use of Nikkatsu's old studios in Kyoto. New York, 2 September: Harold Lloyd's second feature film of the year, Why Worry? has been released. Directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, it throws the bespectacled comedian and his leading lady, Jobyna Ralston, into the middle of a South American revolution. This follows hard on the heels of Safety Last!, in which Lloyd's brand of "thrill comedy" reached new heights, quite literally, as he dangled 12 stories up from the sagging hand of a clock. In Safety Last!, while working as a clerk in a department store, Lloyd talks the manager into offering $1000 to anyone willing to climb the face of the store building as a publicity stunt. He then arranges for a friend, a "human fly," to accept the challenge, but when the friend gets chased by a policeman, our hero must make the climb himself. At each ledge he encounters new difficulties, climaxing in the famous "clock scene." These films have confirmed the success of the actor's move from two-reelers to feature-length films, the first of which was the four-reel Sailor-Made Man (1921). The 184 short films he made between 1915 and 1919 enabled him to hone his comic technique, which has made a smooth transition to the different pace of the feature film. Lloyd also has effective collaborators in Taylor and Newmeyer. Taylor directs the comedy scenes and Newmeyer handles the hair-raising action sequences. New York, 2 September: That remarkable movie actor, Lon Chaney, has finally achieved the acclaim he deserves. It has come to him for his most recent performance as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Universal's most lavish production since Foolish Wives almost two years ago, the movie recreates medieval Paris, especially the central square dominated by the giant cathedral, in convincing sets accomplished by the studio's art department headed by Charles D. ("Danny") Hall. The cast includes Norman Kerry and Patsy Ruth Miller, but the film is totally dominated by Chaney, with his grotesque make-up and a remarkable use of his body with extraordinary, ape-like agility as the horribly ugly, but heart-breaking bell-ringer. New York, 3 September: Rosita is being premiered at the Lyric Theater. It is the first American film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and it has been produced by Mary Pickford. When the celebrated German director arrived in the America last December, Miss Pickford invited him to direct Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall. However, after much discussion, director and actress decided on Rosita as their final choice. Berlin, 11 September: The last film Ernst Lubitsch directed in Germany called Die Flamme (The Flame) with Pola Negri has been released here. Lubitsch is at present pursuing his career in Hollywood. New York, 30 September: There is enough room for two dashing "Latin Lovers" in Hollywood at the moment, if Ramon Novarro has anything to say about it. While Rudolph Valentino has not been seen since Blood and Sand last year, Novarro is now swashbuckling his way through Valentino director Rex Ingram's Scaramouche, following his appearance as Rupert of Hentzau in Ingram's The Prisoner of Zenda. New York, 1 October: Having discharged his contractual obligations to First National, Charlie Chaplin at last has directed his first film for United Artists. His new independence has given him the opportunity to make a serious dramatic film, A Woman of Paris, first conceived during his visit to the French capital in 1921. Premiered today in New York, the picture stars Edna Purviance as a country girl caught between love and money who becomes the mistress of sophisticated man-about-town Adolphe Menjou. Chaplin does not appear on the cast list, but keen-eyed filmgoers might catch a glimpse of him as a clumsy porter in a scene at a railway station. This movie took seven months to make, with Chaplin taking infinite pains over the smallest details. Ninety takes, spread over two days, were needed to capture exactly the effect Chaplin required in a small scene in which bored Purviance throws away a cigarette and refuses to go out. A Woman of Paris eventually ran to 3,862 takes, amounting to 130,115 feet of film. Chaplin has reduced this to 7,557 feet in the final version. In a special program note for the premiere, the director declares: "In my first serious drama... I've striven for realism, true to life. What you will see is life as I personally see it -- the beauty -- the sadness -- the touches -- the gaiety, all of which are necessary to make life interesting." Paris, 20 October: The Birth of a Nation, which has been showing at the Marivaux since 17 August, has been banned by the prefect of police due to its racist scenes. Police fear they might result in disturbances of the peace. Rome, 24 October: A new statutory order increases the Fascist government's powers of censorship. From now on they have the right to intervene both before filming and once the film is finished. Soviet Union, 25 October: The cinema section of the Georgian Education Board screened a film by Ivan Perestiani, Citele Esmakudeni (The Little Red Devils). Paris, 2 November: Passions have been stirred by the showing of Brasier Ardent, written, directed and produced by Ivan Mosjoukine. The picture has seduced the critics with its delirious romanticism and avant-garde style. However, confused by its episodic story, the public in general has not liked it. But everyone has praised the performance of Mosjoukine, the actor. He portrays several characters: an officer, a Don Juan, a bishop, a beggar, etc. This man of many faces, born in 1889 in Penza, Russia, is known for his extravagant personality and was one of the leading lights of the Russian cinema. After the 1917 Revolution, he and his wife, the actress Nathalie Kovanco, like a number of their compatriots, chose to live in France. mosjoukine has become popular here, thanks to his appearances in films like the 10-episode House of Mystery (1923). Los Angeles, 2 December: The popularity of stone-faced cowboy star William S. Hart is fading quickly. Audiences, tiring of Hart's austere style, are turning instead to the flamboyant, action-packed films made by Tom Mix for the Fox Corporation. Hart's latest film is Wild Bill Hickock, which is prefaced by a title in which he apologizes to the audience for looking more like Hart than Hickock. This film also covers the period during which Hickock had to conceal his growing blindness. New York, 24 December: Earlier this year, producer-director Cecil B. De Mille embarked on the most ambitious project he had ever attempted, an elaborate version of The Ten Commandments that combines two stories -- an extended "prologue" set in Biblical times, with Theodore Roberts in the role of Moses, and a modern story taking place in a contemporary American setting, starring Richard Dix, Rod La Rocque, Leatrice Joy and Nita Naldi. The completed film has just premiered at the George M. Cohan Theater in New York, and quite a spectacular achievement it turns out to be. Although amost certain to do well at the box office, judging from the enthusiastic audience response, the reaction from critics has been somewhat less favorable. According to the New York World, for example, "In its earlier episodes the film has moments of grandeur... (but) when the story hurtles the centuries and settles into a present day symbolization of what has gone before, it is ordinary movie melodrama of the commonest type..." The Biblical sequences, occupying the opening hour of this two-and-a-half hour epic, are certainly the most memorable, and in fact should be as they alone account for two-thirds of the final $1.5 million cost, a sum that far exceeded De Mille's original budget. Paris, 27 December: Alexandre Volkoff has released his latest film Kean, désordre et génie (Kean, Dissoluteness and Genius), an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's play produced by the company Albatros Films, which stars Ivan Mosjoukine, Nathalie Lissenko and Nicolas Koline. Paris, 28 December: Release of Légende de sœur Béatrix (The Legend of Sister Beatrix), with Sandra Milowanoff and Suzanne Bianchetti, directed by Jacques de Baroncelli with the assistance of René Clair, who joined him after giving up his project for Geneviève de Brabant. La Paz, 31 December: The first Bolivian fiction film to be made here was banned by the censors the day after its release due to the scandal caused by the plot. The scenario, which centers on a love affair between an important landowner and an Indian servant, was based on real events.