Cecil B. DeMille

A Cecil B. DeMille western starring Mary Pickford. Jenny Lawrence travels to a California logging camp to find her uncle, unaware he has been killed and his identity assumed by a stagecoach robber (Elliott Dexter) hiding from the law; recognizing the truth, she accepts his protection rather than face the camp alone. Shot on location in the redwoods and at the Lasky studio, the film was one of Pickford's early features under her own production company. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Western · Drama · Silent

Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 adaptation of Prosper Merimee's 1845 novella, the source material for Bizet's famous opera. Metropolitan Opera soprano Geraldine Farrar made her film debut as the gypsy Carmen, a wilful seductress who lures a soldier away from duty and into ruin. DeMille had intended to film the opera itself but its libretto was under copyright, so he had his brother William base the scenario on the public domain novella, whose Carmen is more calculating than the operatic version. Wallace Reid plays Don Jose, the officer destroyed by his obsession. The film was a major hit and established Farrar as a screen star. Existing prints derive from a re-edited 1918 re-release. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

The first film adaptation of Maurine Dallas Watkins' 1926 play Chicago, produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Frank Urson. Phyllis Haver stars as Roxie Hart, a fame-obsessed housewife who kills her lover in cold blood and, after trying to coerce her husband into taking the blame, is put on trial for murder. Victor Varconi plays her long-suffering husband Amos, who has a much more sympathetic and active role than in later adaptations. The film was a box office disappointment upon release but modern viewers praise its sharp satire and acting. The story would be adapted twice more, most famously in the 2002 Oscar-winning musical version. The film is in the public domain.

Crime · Comedy · Drama · Silent

Cecil B. DeMille's first all-talking feature, made at MGM after he left Paramount. A pampered society girl will lose her trust fund if she is not married by a certain date, so she marries a condemned coal miner on death row, expecting him to be executed before the deadline. When he is pardoned at the last minute, the rough, honorable man arrives at her penthouse to claim his marital rights, upending her world. The film is packed with the class-conscious, never-quite-consummated scandal that was DeMille's specialty, complete with a polo-playing playboy, a penthouse, and a coal mine. Kay Johnson plays the socialite, Conrad Nagel her polo-playing beau, and Charles Bickford the miner. Mitchell Leisen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on the film. A silent version was released simultaneously for theatres not yet wired for sound. Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Romance

Cecil B. DeMille's first historical epic, with Metropolitan Opera soprano Geraldine Farrar as Joan of Arc, framed by a modern story in which a British officer on the eve of a dangerous mission is inspired by her vision. Wallace Reid, Theodore Roberts, and Hobart Bosworth support, and DeMille's early experiments with color effects light the burning-at-the-stake scenes. Produced through the Cardinal Film Corporation for Paramount, the film was among the first screen spectacles devoted to Joan of Arc. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · History · Silent

Cecil B. DeMille's social drama about Lydia Thorne (Leatrice Joy), a wealthy, reckless socialite whose careless driving kills a policeman and lands her in prison. There she encounters the district attorney who prosecuted her, Daniel O'Bannon (Thomas Meighan), a man who once loved her, and Evangelin (Lois Wilson), a selfless fellow inmate whose example forces Lydia to confront the moral emptiness of her privileged life. The film's parallels between Jazz Age excess and Roman decadence, conveyed through one of DeMille's trademark flashback sequences, gave it a moral weight that resonated with 1920s audiences. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Crime · Silent

The Affairs of Anatol is a 1921 silent comedy-drama directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Wallace Reid as Anatol, a wealthy man who repeatedly tries to "save" women from moral peril, often to the distress of his wife Vivian (Gloria Swanson). Based on the 1893 play by Arthur Schnitzler, the film features a lavish production design by Paul Iribe and showcases DeMille's growing taste for opulent sets and decadent subject matter. The all-star cast includes Bebe Daniels as the mysterious Satan Synne, Elliott Dexter, Wanda Hawley, and Monte Blue. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Comedy · Drama · Romance · Silent

A venal socialite embezzles from a charity and turns to a Burmese ivory trader to cover the loss, only to find he expects her body as payment. When she tries to renege, he brands her with a hot iron. Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 melodrama was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry for its significance and for Sessue Hayakawa's landmark performance, which made him one of the first Asian stars of American cinema and a genuine matinee idol. The film's treatment of race and sexuality was controversial even at the time: a Japanese-American newspaper in Los Angeles campaigned against it, and the 1918 re-release changed Hayakawa's character from Japanese to Burmese to avoid offending a wartime ally. Fannie Ward plays the spoiled wife whose recklessness sets the catastrophe in motion. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Crime · Silent

The King of Kings is Cecil B. DeMille's silent epic of the life of Jesus, from the healing of Mary Magdalene through the crucifixion and resurrection. H.B. Warner plays Jesus with a restrained dignity DeMille demanded of the cast and crew, who were asked to behave with reverence during filming. The film was a serious religious picture, not a spectacle, and it was seen by hundreds of millions of people over the decades, often in churches and schools. DeMille's sense of scale is here, but the heart of the film is intimate. It entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

Drama · History · Silent

Mary Pickford plays an American girl whose ship is torpedoed by a German U-boat on the way to France — a sequence Cecil B. DeMille staged as open propaganda while the United States was still deciding whether to join the war. Rescued and sheltered in a French chateau near the front, she is caught between a French officer and a German officer who both love her, and the film builds to the occupation of the chateau and an attempted assault that American audiences in 1917 read as Germany's crimes in miniature. Released months after the US entered the war, it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. A 1917 release, it is in the public domain.

Drama · War · Silent

Cecil B. DeMille's first pass at the story he would remake in 1956, and the most expensive American film up to that time. The picture is built in two halves: a biblical prologue telling the story of Moses, from the bulrushes to the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, and a modern parable about two brothers, one who keeps the commandments and one who breaks them. The prologue is the part everyone remembers, with the Exodus staged on a vast scale, the parting of the Red Sea done with a clever combination of miniatures and reversed footage, and Theodore Roberts playing Moses as a bearded patriarch. The modern story, starring Richard Dix and Leatrice Joy, is a morality play about a corrupt contractor who ignores his mother's teachings. DeMille built full-scale Egyptian sets in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in California and left the buried sphinxes there for archaeologists to dig up decades later. The film was a huge hit and saved Famous Players-Lasky from a slump. Its copyright expired at the end of its first term, and it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2019, along with the other 1923 works.

Drama · Religious · Silent · Epic

A respectable but dull husband divorces his prudish wife and marries a vivacious younger woman, only for his ex-wife to transform herself into a glamorous flapper to win him back. Cecil B. DeMille's social comedy starring Gloria Swanson. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Drama · Romance

Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 adaptation of Prosper Merimee's 1845 novella, the source material for Bizet's famous opera. Metropolitan Opera soprano Geraldine Farrar made her film debut as the gypsy Carmen, a wilful seductress who lures a soldier away from duty and into ruin. DeMille had intended to film the opera itself but its libretto was under copyright, so he had his brother William base the scenario on the public domain novella, whose Carmen is more calculating than the operatic version. Wallace Reid plays Don Jose, the officer destroyed by his obsession. The film was a major hit and established Farrar as a screen star. Existing prints derive from a re-edited 1918 re-release. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

The first film adaptation of Maurine Dallas Watkins' 1926 play Chicago, produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Frank Urson. Phyllis Haver stars as Roxie Hart, a fame-obsessed housewife who kills her lover in cold blood and, after trying to coerce her husband into taking the blame, is put on trial for murder. Victor Varconi plays her long-suffering husband Amos, who has a much more sympathetic and active role than in later adaptations. The film was a box office disappointment upon release but modern viewers praise its sharp satire and acting. The story would be adapted twice more, most famously in the 2002 Oscar-winning musical version. The film is in the public domain.

Crime · Comedy · Drama · Silent

Cecil B. DeMille's first all-talking feature, made at MGM after he left Paramount. A pampered society girl will lose her trust fund if she is not married by a certain date, so she marries a condemned coal miner on death row, expecting him to be executed before the deadline. When he is pardoned at the last minute, the rough, honorable man arrives at her penthouse to claim his marital rights, upending her world. The film is packed with the class-conscious, never-quite-consummated scandal that was DeMille's specialty, complete with a polo-playing playboy, a penthouse, and a coal mine. Kay Johnson plays the socialite, Conrad Nagel her polo-playing beau, and Charles Bickford the miner. Mitchell Leisen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on the film. A silent version was released simultaneously for theatres not yet wired for sound. Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Romance

Cecil B. DeMille's first historical epic, with Metropolitan Opera soprano Geraldine Farrar as Joan of Arc, framed by a modern story in which a British officer on the eve of a dangerous mission is inspired by her vision. Wallace Reid, Theodore Roberts, and Hobart Bosworth support, and DeMille's early experiments with color effects light the burning-at-the-stake scenes. Produced through the Cardinal Film Corporation for Paramount, the film was among the first screen spectacles devoted to Joan of Arc. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · History · Silent

Cecil B. DeMille's social drama about Lydia Thorne (Leatrice Joy), a wealthy, reckless socialite whose careless driving kills a policeman and lands her in prison. There she encounters the district attorney who prosecuted her, Daniel O'Bannon (Thomas Meighan), a man who once loved her, and Evangelin (Lois Wilson), a selfless fellow inmate whose example forces Lydia to confront the moral emptiness of her privileged life. The film's parallels between Jazz Age excess and Roman decadence, conveyed through one of DeMille's trademark flashback sequences, gave it a moral weight that resonated with 1920s audiences. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Crime · Silent

The Affairs of Anatol is a 1921 silent comedy-drama directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Wallace Reid as Anatol, a wealthy man who repeatedly tries to "save" women from moral peril, often to the distress of his wife Vivian (Gloria Swanson). Based on the 1893 play by Arthur Schnitzler, the film features a lavish production design by Paul Iribe and showcases DeMille's growing taste for opulent sets and decadent subject matter. The all-star cast includes Bebe Daniels as the mysterious Satan Synne, Elliott Dexter, Wanda Hawley, and Monte Blue. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Comedy · Drama · Romance · Silent

A venal socialite embezzles from a charity and turns to a Burmese ivory trader to cover the loss, only to find he expects her body as payment. When she tries to renege, he brands her with a hot iron. Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 melodrama was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry for its significance and for Sessue Hayakawa's landmark performance, which made him one of the first Asian stars of American cinema and a genuine matinee idol. The film's treatment of race and sexuality was controversial even at the time: a Japanese-American newspaper in Los Angeles campaigned against it, and the 1918 re-release changed Hayakawa's character from Japanese to Burmese to avoid offending a wartime ally. Fannie Ward plays the spoiled wife whose recklessness sets the catastrophe in motion. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Crime · Silent

The King of Kings is Cecil B. DeMille's silent epic of the life of Jesus, from the healing of Mary Magdalene through the crucifixion and resurrection. H.B. Warner plays Jesus with a restrained dignity DeMille demanded of the cast and crew, who were asked to behave with reverence during filming. The film was a serious religious picture, not a spectacle, and it was seen by hundreds of millions of people over the decades, often in churches and schools. DeMille's sense of scale is here, but the heart of the film is intimate. It entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

Drama · History · Silent

Mary Pickford plays an American girl whose ship is torpedoed by a German U-boat on the way to France — a sequence Cecil B. DeMille staged as open propaganda while the United States was still deciding whether to join the war. Rescued and sheltered in a French chateau near the front, she is caught between a French officer and a German officer who both love her, and the film builds to the occupation of the chateau and an attempted assault that American audiences in 1917 read as Germany's crimes in miniature. Released months after the US entered the war, it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. A 1917 release, it is in the public domain.

Drama · War · Silent