1909 in film

The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.

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Events

• Carl Laemmle founds the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP).
• Selig Polyscope Company establish the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles in Edendale, Los Angeles.
• The New York Motion Picture Company is founded and also open a film studio in Edendale. The studio is later used by Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and then Mascot Pictures, which become part of Republic Pictures.
• February 4 – The Paris Film Congress begins, an attempt by leading European producers to form a cartel similar to that of the Motion Picture Patents Company in the United States.
• May 12 – Mr. Flip is released and is the first film to feature someone being hit in the face with a pie.
• May 23 – The first news cinema, The Daily Bioscope, opens in London.
• June 17 – In the Sultan's Power is the first film ever completely made in Los Angeles, California. It is filmed by director Francis Boggs.
• October 25 – IMP release their first film, Hiawatha, based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
• November 5 - A Nature Movie by Arthur C. Pillsbury using film to explore the wonders of Yosemite. This first showing was for John Muir, a friend, and associate of Pillsbury's. Included was footage of the Hetch Hetchy. This film was then shown for the 1910 season at the Pillsbury Studio in Yosemite, advertised using postcards.
• December 2 – Matsunosuke Onoe, who will become the first superstar of Japanese cinema, appears in his first film, Goban Tadanobu.
• December 20 – James Joyce opens the Volta Cinematograph, the first cinema in Dublin.

Films released in 1909

J. Stuart Blackton

PLAY A Midsummer Night's Dream; runtime 00:11:07.

• Oliver Twist
• The Judgment of Solomon
• The Life of Moses
• The Life of Napoleon
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Charles Kent and J. Stuart Blackton
• Les Misérables, directed by J. Stuart Blackton. A proto-feature film, or many short-films (in this case 4) that when combined can be seen as one feature film.
• Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy

D. W. Griffith

PLAY The Curtain Pole; runtime 00:08:00.

PLAY Resurrection; runtime 00:12:11.

• At the Altar
• A Corner in Wheat
• The Country Doctor, starring Mary Pickford
• The Curtain Pole, directed by D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett (uncredited)
• The Death Disc: A Story of the Cromwellian Period
• The Drive for a Life
• A Drunkard's Reformation
• Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven
• Fools of Fate
• The Golden Louis
• The Hessian Renegades
• Lady Helen's Escapade
• The Lonely Villa
• The Red Man's View
• Resurrection
• The Sealed Room, starring Mary Pickford
• The Suicide Club, directed by D. W. Griffith (U.S.)
• Those Awful Hats
• A Trap for Santa Claus

Georges Méliès

• The Count's Wooing
• The Diabolical Tenant (aka The Diabolical Lodger), directed by George Melies (French)
• The Doctor's Secret, directed by George Melies (French)
• Fortune Favors the Brave, directed by George Melies (French)
• Le papillon fantastique

Others

PLAY The Airship Destroyer; runtime 00:06:41.

• The Adventures of Lieutenant Rose
• The Airship Destroyer (originally titled Der Luftkrieg Der Zukunft, also titled "The Aerial Torpedo", "The Battle of the Clouds" {UK} and "The Battle in the Clouds" {US}), directed by Walter R. Booth
• The Ancient Roman (made in Italy)
• Ballad of a Witch, directed by Luigi Maggi (made in Italy)
• The Bewitched Manor House (French/ Pathe)
• Bluebeard, directed by J. Searle Dawley for Thomas Edison, starred Charles Ogle
• The Bogey Woman (French/ Pathe)
• The Butcher's Dream (French)
• Capturing the North Pole, features Baron Munchausen (British/ Urban-Eclipse Films)
• The Cat That Was Changed Into a Woman, directed by Louis Feuillade (French)
• The Convict Guardian's Nightmare (French)
• The Cowboy Millionaire, directed by Francis Boggs and Otis Turner
• Dance of Fire (Pathe)
• Dante's Inferno, directed by Giuseppe de Liguoro, starring Salvatore Papa (Italian); ran 59 minutes
• The Defeat of Satan (French/ Pathe)
• The Devil (Edison Co.) adaptation of the play starring George Arliss
• Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, directed by August Blom, starring Alwin Neuss and Oda Alstrup; made in Denmark for Nordisk Films
• Don Juan Tenorio, directed by Enrique Rosas (made in Mexico)
• Doomed (French/ Pathe)
• The Egyptian Mystery (Edison)
• Electric Transformations, directed by Percy Stow (British/ Clarendon)
• Entrevista de los Presidentes Díaz-Taft (Mexico), a documentary directed by the Alva Brothers
• Faust, directed by J. Searle Dawley and Edwin S. Porter for Thomas Edison
• The Ferryman's Sweetheart (Gaumont)
• The Fitzsimmons-Bill Lang Fight
• The Forbidden Fruit (Pathe)
• Gertie the Dinosaur, animated cartoon by Winsor McKay
• Goddess of the Sea
• The Grey Lady (aka The Grey Dame), directed by Viggo Larsen, starring Viggo Larsen as Sherlock Holmes (Denmark)
• Hansel and Gretel
• The Haunted Hotel (French/ Pathe)
• The Haunted Man, introduced the "doppelganger" theme, similar to The Student of Prague (Germany/ Duskes Film)
• Her Dolly's Revenge (French/ Lux)
• Hiawatha, directed by William V. Ranous based on the 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the first film produced by Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures.
• The Hunchback, directed by Van Dyke Brooke for Vitagraph; unauthorized remake of the 1906 film Esmeralda
• The Imp of the Bottle (Thomas Edison), based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Invisible Thief, directed by Segundo de Chomon and Ferdinand Zecca (French); first adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel The Invisible Man
• Les Joyeux Microbes, directed by Émile Cohl
• The Last Look (Pathe)
• Lucrece Borgia (French)
• Lunatics in Power (Thomas Edison Co.), based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe called The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether
• Macbeth, directed by André Calmettes
• The Man Monkey (Pathe)
• The Man Who Laughs (French), based on the famous novel by Victor Hugo
• The Marvelous Pearl (made in Italy)
• Mephisto and the Maiden, directed by Frank Boggs
• The Mirror of Life (French/ Pathe)
• Miss Faust (French/ Pathe)
• Mr. Flip, directed by Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson
• A Modern Dr. Jekyll;;, produced by William Selig
• The Moonstone, produced by William Selig, based on the novel by Wilkie Collins
• Mother Goose (Edison Co.)
• The Mummy of the King Ramses directed by Gerard Bourgeois (French)
• Mystery of Edwin Drood, directed by Arthur Gilbert (British), based on Charles Dickens' novel
• Mystery of the Lama Convent, directed by Viggo Larsen (Denmark)
• Nerone, directed by Luigi Maggi
• The New Jonah (Pathe)
• The Nymphs' Bath (French/ Gaumont)
• The Old Shoemaker (French/ Gaumont), based on The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Oriental Mystic (Vitagraph, U.S.)
• Papa Gaspard; or, The Ghost of the Rocks
• Phaedra (French/ Pathe) featured a sea monster
• The Phantom Sirens
• The Pit and the Pendulum, directed by Henri Desfontaines (French/ Warwick), based on the famous story by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Princess and the Fisherman, directed by Louis Feuillade (French)
• Revenge of the Ghosts, animated cartoon directed by Emil Cohl (French)
• Satan's Smithy, directed by Segundo de Chomon (French)
• Shooting in the Haunted Woods, directed by Louis Feuillade (French)
• The Spirit of the Lake (fantasy film made in Italy); it was followed by a sequel called The Legend of the Lake in 1911
• The Suicide Club, directed by Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset (French)
• The Sword and the King (U.S./ Vitagraph)
• Talked to Death (Lubin)
• Teddy Roosevelt in Africa, directed by Cherry Kearton
• Tis Now the Very Witching Time of Night, produced by Thomas Edison
• The Ugliest Queen on Earth (French/ Gaumont)
• Viy (aka The Vij), directed by Vasilii Gonmcharov (Russian)
• The Wild Ass's Skin (French/ Pathe) based on the story by Balzac
• The Witch
• The Witch's Cavern (Selig Polyscope)

Births

• January 1 – Dana Andrews, actor (died 1992)
• January 3 – Victor Borge, musician, actor (died 2000)
• January 8 - Willy Millowitsch, actor (died 1999)
• January 15 – Gene Krupa, musician, actor (died 1973)
• January 22 – Ann Sothern, actress (died 2001)
• January 24 – Ann Todd, actress (died 1993)
• February 2 – Frank Albertson, actor (died 1964)
• February 6 – Aino Talvi, Estonian actress (d. 1992)
• February 9
  • Carmen Miranda, singer, actress (died 1955)
  • Heather Angel, actress (died 1986)
• February 11
  • Max Baer – boxer, actor (died 1959)
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz – director, screenwriter, producer (died 1993)
• February 16 – Jeffrey Lynn, actor (died 1995)
• March 19 – Louis Hayward, actor (died 1995)
• March 26 – Chips Rafferty, actor (died 1971)
• April 4 – Bobby Connelly, child actor (died 1922)
• April 29 – Tom Ewell, actor (died 1994)
• May 15 – James Mason, actor (died 1984)
• May 16 – Margaret Sullavan, actress (died 1960)
• May 30 – Benny Goodman, musician, actor (died 1986)
• June 7 – Jessica Tandy, actress (died 1994)
• June 8 – Robert Carson, actor (died 1979)
• June 14 – Burl Ives, actor (died 1995)
• June 20 – Errol Flynn, actor (died 1959)
• June 26- Wolfgang Reitherman, director, producer, animator (died 1985)
• July 1 – Madge Evans, actress (died 1981)
• July 12 – Curly Joe DeRita, actor (died 1993)
• July 23 – Helen Martin, American actress (died 2000)
• July 24 - Sydney Bromley, English character actor (died 1987)
• August 25
  • Ruby Keeler, singer, actress (died 1993)
  • Michael Rennie, actor (died 1971)
• September 7 – Elia Kazan, director (died 2003)
• October 6 – Robert Carson, screenwriter (died 1983)
• October 20 – Carla Laemmle, actress (died 2014)
• November 11 – Robert Ryan, actor (died 1973)
• November 26 – Frances Dee, actress (died 2004)
• December 9 – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., actor (died 2000)
• December 12 – Karen Morley, actress (died 2003)
• December 20 – Diane Ellis, actress (died 1930)
• December 22 - Patricia Hayes, English character actress (died 1998)

Deaths

• January 27 – Benoît-Constant Coquelin, actor, Cyrano de Bergerac (born 1841)
• September 4 – Clyde Fitch, author & playwright whose works have been adapted into films. (born 1865)

Film debuts

• Fatty Arbuckle – Ben's Kid (as Roscoe Arbuckle)
• Ethel Clayton – Justified (short)
• Dolores Costello (as a child) – A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Helene Costello (as a child) – Les Misérables (Part I) (short)
• Marie Dressler – Marie Dressler (short)
• Francis Ford – The Stolen Wireless
• Annette Kellerman – The Bride of Lammermoor: A Tragedy of Bonnie Scotland
• James Kirkwood – The Heart of an Outlaw (short)
• Florence La Badie – The Politician's Love Story
• Tom Mix – The Cowboy Millionaire
• Mary Pickford – Mrs. Jones Entertains
• Billy Quirk – The Heart of an Outlaw
• William A. Russell – Tag Day (short)
• William Stowell – The Cowboy Millionaire
• Blanche Sweet – A Man with Three Wives
• Rose Tapley – The Way of the Cross (short)
• Clara Kimball Young – Washington Under the American Flag (short)