1928 in film

This is a list of films that were released in 1928. Although some movies released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent.

Years in film
1870s
1880s 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890s 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900s 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910s 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920s 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930s 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960s 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s 2020

Events

• January 6 - The long-awaited Charlie Chaplin comedy The Circus premieres at the Strand Theatre in New York City.^[1]
• July 6 – Lights of New York (starring Helene Costello) is released by Warner Brothers. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film. Previous releases Don Juan and The Jazz Singer had used a synchronized soundtrack with sound effects and music, with The Jazz Singer having a few incidental lines spoken by Al Jolson.^[2]
• September 19 – The Singing Fool, Warner Brothers' follow-up to The Jazz Singer, is released. While still only a partial-talkie (sequences still featured intertitles), 66 minutes of the film's 105 minute running time feature dialogue or songs, making it the longest talking motion picture yet. (Lights of New York runs a total of 57 minutes.) It is the highest-grossing film of the year, becomes Warner Brothers' highest-grossing film for the next 13 years, and is the most financially successful film of Al Jolson's career.^[3][4]
• November 10 – At the beginning of White Shadows in the South Seas, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's mascot Leo the Lion roars for the very first time, giving voice to one of the most popular American film logos.^[5][6][7]
• November 18 – Disney's Steamboat Willie premieres, marking the official introduction of Mickey Mouse. This animated short is the first film to include a soundtrack, completely created in post production, including sound effects, music, and dialogue.
• December 25 – In Old Arizona, released by Fox Films, is the first sound-on-film feature-length talkie, utilizing the Movietone process. Previously, feature-length talkies used the less-reliable Vitaphone sound-on-disc process. It is also the first Western talkie, and the first sound film primarily shot outdoors.

Top-grossing films

Academy Awards

• Best Actor: Emil Jannings for The Last Command and the 1927 movie The Way of All Flesh
• Best Actress: Janet Gaynor for Street Angel and the 1927 movies Seventh Heaven and Sunrise

Note: Prior to 1933, awards were not based on calendar years, which is why there is no 'Best Picture' for a 1928 film.

Notable films released in 1928

U.S.A. unless stated

• Accident (Polizeibericht Überfall) – (Germany)
• Across to Singapore, starring Ramón Novarro and Joan Crawford
• The Actress directed by Sidney Franklin; starring Norma Shearer
• Adam's Apple, starring Monty Banks – (GB)
• Alraune, starring Brigitte Helm and Paul Wegener – (Germany)
• L'Argent (Money), starring Pierre Alcover and Brigitte Helm – (France)
• The Awakening, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Vilma Bánky and Louis Wolheim
• Balaclava, starring Cyril McLaglen, Benita Hume – (GB)
• Beau Sabreur, directed by John Waters, starring Gary Cooper and Evelyn Brent
• Beggars of Life, directed by William Wellman, starring Wallace Beery and Louise Brooks
• The Big City, starring Lon Chaney, Sr.
• The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple (Huo shao hong lian si) – (China) – Released in 18 parts as the film runs for a total of 27 hours
• The Cameraman, a Buster Keaton film
• The Cardboard Lover, directed by Robert Z. Leonard; starring Marion Davies, Nils Asther, and Jetta Goudal
• Champagne, directed by Alfred Hitchcock – (GB)
• The Circus, starring, directed and written by Charles Chaplin
• The Constant Nymph, starring Ivor Novello – (GB)
• The Cossacks starring John Gilbert, Renée Adorée and Ernest Torrence
• The Crowd, directed by King Vidor
• Dawn, directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring Sybil Thorndike – (Britain)
• The Devious Path (Abwege), directed by G.W. Pabst – (Germany)
• The Divine Woman, starring Greta Garbo
• The Docks of New York, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring George Bancroft, Betty Compson and Olga Baclanova
• Easy Virtue, directed by Alfred Hitchcock – (GB)
• The Fall of the House of Usher, directed by James Sibley Watson
• The Fall of the House of Usher (La Chute de la maison Usher) – (France)
• The Farmer's Wife, directed by Alfred Hitchcock – (GB)
• Feel My Pulse, starring Bebe Daniels, Richard Arlen and William Powell
• The First Born, starring Miles Mander, Madeleine Carroll – (GB)
• Four Sons, directed by John Ford
• The Gallant Hussar, directed by Géza von Bolváry, starring Ivor Novello, Evelyn Holt (Britain/Germany)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, starring Ruth Taylor and Alice White, subtitles written by Anita Loos
• A Girl in Every Port, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong, Louise Brooks
• The Godless Girl, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
• The Guns of Loos, directed by Sinclair Hill, starring Madeleine Carroll (Britain)
• Hangman's House, directed by John Ford, starring Victor McLaglen and June Collyer
• His House in Order, starring Tallulah Bankhead (Britain)
• Homecoming (Heimkehr) – (Germany)
• The House on Trubnaya (Дом на Трубной), directed by Boris Barnet – (U.S.S.R.)
• Interference, Paramount's first ever all talking movie
• The Italian Straw Hat (Un chapeau de paille d'Italie), directed by René Clair – (France)
• Jujiro – (Japan)
• Kurama Tengu – (Japan)
• Ladies of the Mob, starring Clara Bow, Richard Arlen and Helen Lynch
• The Last Command, directed by Joseph von Sternberg, starring Emil Jannings, Evelyn Brent and William Powell
• Laugh, Clown, Laugh, starring Lon Chaney and Loretta Young
• Lights of New York
• A Little Bit of Fluff, starring Sydney Chaplin and Betty Balfour – (GB)
• Lonesome, directed by Paul Fejos – (a silent and a sound version)
• The Man Who Laughs, directed by Paul Leni, starring Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin
• Maria Marten, starring Trilby Clark and Warwick Ward (Britain)
• The Matinee Idol, directed by Frank Capra, starring Bessie Love and Johnnie Walker.
• The Midnight Taxi
• Mother Machree, directed by John Ford
• Moulin Rouge directed by Ewald André Dupont – (GB)
• The Mysterious Lady, starring Greta Garbo and Conrad Nagel
• Noah's Ark, starring George O'Brien
• The Noose, starring Richard Barthelmess
• Number 17, directed by Géza von Bolváry, starring Guy Newall and Lien Deyers – (GB/Germany)
• October: Ten Days That Shook the World (Oktyabr': Desyat' dney kotorye potryasli mir), directed by Sergei Eisenstein – (U.S.S.R.)
• On Trial, sound film, starring Pauline Frederick and Bert Lytell
• Our Dancing Daughters, starring Joan Crawford and Johnny Mack Brown
• The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, starring Maria Falconetti – (France)
• The Patsy, directed by King Vidor, starring Marion Davies and Marie Dressler
• Piccadilly, starring Anna May Wong, Gilda Gray and Cyril Ritchard (Britain)
• The Power of the Press, directed by Frank Capra, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr
• Ramona, starring Dolores del Río and Warner Baxter
• The Red Dance, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Dolores del Río and Charles Farrell
• Red Hair, starring Clara Bow
• The Ringer directed by Arthur Maude – (Britain)
• The Road to Ruin
• Rose-Marie, starring James Murray and Joan Crawford
• Sadie Thompson, starring Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore
• The Seashell and the Clergyman (La Coquille et le clergyman) – (France)
• Sex in Chains (Geschlecht in Fesseln), starring and directed by William Dieterle – (Germany)
• Show People, directed by King Vidor, starring Marion Davies and William Haines
• The Singing Fool, starring Al Jolson and Betty Bronson
• Sins of the Fathers starring Emil Jannings and Ruth Chatterton
• Skyscraper, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring William Boyd, Alan Hale, Sue Carol and Alberta Vaughn
• The Smart Set, starring William Haines, Jack Holt, and Alice Day
• A South Sea Bubble, starring Ivor Novello, Benita Hume (Britain)
• Speedy, starring Harold Lloyd
• Spione (Spies), directed by Fritz Lang – (Germany)
• Steamboat Bill Jr., a Buster Keaton film
• Steamboat Willie, a Walt Disney Mickey Mouse short
• Storm Over Asia (Potomok Chingis-Khana), starring Valéry Inkijinoff – (U.S.S.R.)
• Street Angel, starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell
• Sweeney Todd, starring Moore Marriott – (GB)
• Take Me Home, a lost film directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Bebe Daniels
• Tempest, starring John Barrymore, Camilla Horn and George Fawcett
• The Terror, starring May McAvoy, Edward Everett Horton, and Louise Fazenda
• Tesha, directed by Victor Saville, starring María Corda, Jameson Thomas – (GB)
• Thérèse Raquin, directed by Jacques Feyder – (France)
• Three Sinners starring Pola Negri, Warner Baxter and Olga Baclanova
• Tillie's Punctured Romance, starring W. C. Fields, Louise Fazenda and Chester Conklin
• Tommy Atkins, starring Lillian Hall-Davis (Britain)
• Toni starring Jack Buchanan – (GB)
• The Trail of '98, starring Delores del Rio
• The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Matheson Lang (Britain)
• Two Tars, starring Laurel and Hardy
• Underground, directed by Anthony Asquith – (GB)
• The Viking – the first feature-length Technicolor film
• Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast), a dadaist animated short – (Germany)
• The Vortex, starring Ivor Novello – (GB)
• We Faw Down, starring Laurel and Hardy
• The Wedding March, directed by and starring Erich von Stroheim with Fay Wray and ZaSu Pitts
• West of Zanzibar, starring Lon Chaney and Lionel Barrymore
• West Point, starring William Haines and Joan Crawford
• What a Night!, directed by A. Edward Sutherland; starring Bebe Daniels
• While the City Sleeps, directed by Jack Conway; starring Lon Chaney
• White Shadows in the South Seas, starring Monte Blue and Raquel Torres
• The Wind, directed by Victor Sjostrom, starring Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson
• A Woman of Affairs, starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert
• Zvenigora, directed by Alexander Dovzhenko – (U.S.S.R.)

Short film series

• Buster Keaton (1917–1941)
• Our Gang (1922–1944)
• Laurel and Hardy (1921–1943)

Animated short film series

• Felix the Cat (1919–1936)
• Aesop's Film Fables (1921–1933)
• Krazy Kat (1925–1940)
• Inkwell Imps (1927–1929)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
  • Harem Scarem
  • Neck 'n' Neck
  • The Ol' Swimmin' Hole
  • Africa Before Dark
  • Rival Romeos
  • Bright Lights
  • Oh, What a Knight
  • Sagebrush Sadie
  • Ride'em Plow Boy
  • Sky Scrappers
  • Ozzie of the Mounted
  • Hungry Hoboes
  • Poor Papa
  • The Fox Chase
  • Tall Timber
  • Sleigh Bells
  • Hot Dog
• Newslaffs (1927-1928)
• Mickey Mouse
  • Plane Crazy
  • Gallopin' Gaucho
  • Steamboat Willie
  • The Barn Dance

Births

• January 2 - Ellen Kaarma, Estonian actress (d. 1973)
• January 7 - William Peter Blatty, screenwriter (d. 2017)
• January 23 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress, singer, screenwriter and director (d. 2017)
• January 26 – Roger Vadim, director, screenwriter, actor (d. 2000)
• February 1 – Stuart Whitman, film & television actor
• February 8 – Jack Larson, actor (died 2015)
• February 11 – Conrad Janis, actor
• February 29 – Tempest Storm, burlesque performer, actress
• March 1 – Jacques Rivette, film director (d. 2016)
• March 19 – Patrick McGoohan, actor (died 2009)
• March 24 – Vanessa Brown (d. 1999)
• April 7 – James Garner, actor (d. 2014)
• April 23 – Shirley Temple, actress (d. 2014)
• May 7 – Georgi Rusev, Bulgarian actor (died 2011)
• June 12 – Vic Damone, singer, entertainer
• June 13 – Nikola Todev, Bulgarian actor (died 1991)
• June 19 – Nancy Marchand, actress (died 2000)
• June 20 – Martin Landau, actor (d. 2017)
• June 22 – Ralph Waite, actor (d. 2014)
• July 14 – Nancy Olson, actress
• July 26 – Stanley Kubrick, director (died 1999)
• August 6 – Andy Warhol, artist, director (died 1987)
• August 11 – Arlene Dahl, actress
• August 15 – Nicolas Roeg, director
• August 16 – Ann Blyth, actress
• August 31 – James Coburn, actor (died 2002)
• September 17 – Roddy McDowall, actor (died 1998)
• September 19 – Adam West, actor (died 2017)
• October 1 – George Peppard, actor (died 1994)
• October 2 – George McFarland, actor (died 1993)
• November 3 – Wanda Hendrix, actress (died 1981)
• November 13
  • Helena Carroll, Scottish-American actress (died 2013)
  • Ralph Foody, American actor (died 1999)
• December 9 – Dick Van Patten, actor (died 2015)
• December 25 – Dick Miller, actor

Deaths

• January 2 – Emily Stevens, American stage & film actress (born 1882)
• January 3 - Claude France, German film actress (born 1893)
• January 25 – Charles Gorman, American stage and screen actor (born 1865)
• February 22 - Rudolph J. Bergquist American cinematographer
• March 5 – Lidia Quaranta, Italian actress (born 1891)
• March 13 - Poppy Wyndham, British actress and heiress; lost at sea (born 1893)
• April 22 – Frank Currier, American director, stage & silent film actor (born 1857)
• June 22 – George Siegmann, American silent film actor (born 1882)
• June 24 – Holbrook Blinn, American stage & silent film actor (born 1872)
• July 20 – Scott Sidney, American film director (born 1872)
• July 21
  • Ellen Terry, British stage actress of the Victorian and Edwardian times and later a silent film actress (born 1847)
  • Ward Crane, American film actor (born 1890)
• August 10 – Rex Cherryman, American actor (born 1896)
• August 17 – Frank Urson, American film director (born 1887)
• August 26 - Colin Campbell, British-born film director (born 1859)
• October 8 – Larry Semon, American film comedian (born 1889)
• November 10 - Anita Berber, German film actress (born 1899)
• November 19 - Jeanne Bérangère, French stage and film actress (born 1864)
• December 14 – Theodore Roberts, American film actor (born 1861)
• December 25 – Fred Thomson, American film actor (born 1890)

Film debuts

• Humphrey Bogart - The Dancing Town
• Madeleine Carroll - The Guns of Loos
• Jean Gabin - Ohé! Les valises
• Jean Harlow - Moran of the Marines
• Miriam Hopkins - The Home Girl
• Charles Laughton - The Tonic
• Anna Magnani - Scampolo
• Randolph Scott - Sharp Shooters
• Mickey Mouse

References