Paramount Pictures

Frank Borzage's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's World War I novel. Gary Cooper plays an American ambulance driver on the Italian front who falls in love with an English nurse, played by Helen Hayes in her screen debut. The romance unfolds against retreats, bombardments, and a hospital in Switzerland. The film's copyright was not renewed, placing it in the public domain.

Drama · Romance · War

Olive Oyl writes a screenplay in which Popeye plays Aladdin, who uses a magic lamp and his spinach-fueled strength to win the princess from a wicked vizier. The third and last of the Fleischer Studios' two-reel Popeye color specials. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Family · Fantasy

The Marx Brothers' second film, adapted from their 1928 Broadway hit. Groucho plays Captain Spaulding, an African explorer returning to society, who arrives at a Long Island estate at the same moment a valuable painting goes missing. What plot there is exists mainly to hang the brothers' routines on: Groucho's verbal avalanches, Chico's piano and patter, Harpo's silent anarchy, and Margaret Dumont's unflappable dignity under fire. Victor Heerman, who had directed them on stage, kept the camera out of the way and let the act play. The film's surrealist streak was admired by critics from Antonin Artaud to François Truffaut. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Comedy · Musical

A pre-Code backstage musical and the directorial debut of Rouben Mamoulian, who brought his innovative theatrical staging to the early sound film. Helen Morgan plays Kitty Darling, a fading burlesque star who tries to save her convent-educated daughter April (Joan Peers) from following in her footsteps. Mamoulian's extensive use of a moving camera and simultaneous sound tracks was technically groundbreaking for the early sound era. The film's copyright expired on January 1, 2025, entering the public domain.

Drama · Music

Two former nightclub partners, now an army sergeant and a hapless private at a stateside training post, run afoul of officers, paperwork, and the women's auxiliary in a series of service-comedy routines. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis star in their first starring vehicle. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Musical

William Wellman's part-talking drama about a young woman who kills her abusive stepfather and goes on the run dressed as a boy, joining a band of hoboes riding the rails. Louise Brooks, in her best American role, plays the girl; Wallace Beery is Oklahoma Red, the hobo king who takes her in; Richard Arlen is the farm boy who throws in with her. The film was made in the transitional sound period and uses synchronized music, sound effects, and a few spoken passages rather than full dialogue. Wellman shot much of it on location with real trains and real transients, giving it a grit that most studio films of the year did not have. Brooks would leave for Germany and make Pandora's Box shortly after, and her American career never recovered. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · Crime

Rudolph Valentino stars as Juan Gallardo, a Seville matador who rises from poverty to national fame only to be undone by his infatuation with a wealthy aristocrat, Doña Sol. Fred Niblo directed this Paramount adaptation of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez's novel, with June Mathis writing the scenario that helped cement Valentino's screen persona as the brooding, doomed lover. Lila Lee plays the wife he betrays and Nita Naldi, in her breakout role, the temptress. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

One of Paramount's 1930s B-series about the British adventurer Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, adapted from the novels by H.C. "Sapper" McNeile. Days before his long-delayed wedding, Drummond learns that his friend Colonel Nielson of Scotland Yard has been kidnapped and flown to a remote African compound. Drummond, his fiancée Phyllis, and his sidekick Algy follow, uncovering a plot to extract defense secrets from the colonel. John Howard plays Drummond as a breezy, unflappable gentleman hero, and Heather Angel is the fiancée who refuses to be left behind. The picture is a brisk, hour-long programmer of the old dark-house-in-the-bush variety. Released in 1938, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Adventure · Crime

The eighth and final film in Paramount's Bulldog Drummond series, and the wedding finally almost happens. Hugh Drummond (John Howard) and Phyllis Clavering (Heather Angel) are at the altar when a robbery interrupts the ceremony — a gang has hidden its take inside the radio in Drummond's own flat, and the chase to recover it takes the wedding party to a French village under siege. H.B. Warner, Reginald Denny, and E.E. Clive return as Nielsen, Algy, and Tenny for the last time, and Elizabeth Patterson joins as Phyllis's perpetually scandalized aunt. Directed by James P. Hogan, it plays the series' blend of drawing-room comedy and knockabout thrills at full speed. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Mystery · Comedy · Crime

Another entry in Paramount's Bulldog Drummond series, based on the McNeile novel "Temple Tower." Drummond is finally preparing to marry Phyllis at his ancestral country house when an absent-minded professor arrives with a story about a hidden treasure, and a murderer named Henry Seaton turns up to complicate the wedding plans. The plot winds through secret passages and a string of killings around the estate, with Colonel Nielson and Algy along for the chase. John Howard and Heather Angel continue their easy chemistry, and Leo G. Carroll plays the villain. Released in 1939, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Adventure · Crime

A slapstick silent comedy spun from Ernest Thayer's baseball poem, with Wallace Beery as the legendary slugger Casey, here a small-town ballplayer beset by gamblers, romance, and his own mighty whiff. Ford Sterling, ZaSu Pitts, and Sterling Holloway (in his film debut) co-star. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Sport

Rudolph Valentino plays an Italian count and big-game hunter who moves to New York to work for a friend's antiques firm and is drawn into an affair with his employer's wife, a predatory socialite played by Nita Naldi. The title refers to the cobra that mesmerizes its prey, a metaphor the film lays on heavily. Valentino is in his element as the charming, doomed lover, and Nita Naldi's vamp persona is given full rein. The film was one of Valentino's last releases before his death in 1926, and it is a late showcase for the star persona that made him a phenomenon. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

A 1929 pre-Code circus drama starring Clara Bow as a bareback rider caught between two men. Directed by Lothar Mendes, the film follows Patricia, a circus performer in love with tightrope walker Larry Lee, who is already partnered with the older Zara Flynn. When Larry leaves the circus for a society woman, Patricia and Zara are left to pick up the pieces. This was Clara Bow's second talking picture and the first Hollywood film for Kay Francis, who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1930s. The production used 48 aerial ballet artists and 200 clowns for its circus sequences. Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Romance

A 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, starring Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard, and Frank Morgan. The wealthy Lenox family of Long Island is headed by Bronson (Morgan), who respects tradition — but his children are more irreverent. When son Bertie gets involved with chorus girl Alice O'Neil (Lombard) and daughter Marion (Hopkins) falls for auto mechanic Henry Morgan, the family tries to intervene to prevent their children from marrying beneath themselves. The film was written by Preston Sturges, based on the 1924 play The Best People by David Gray and Avery Hopwood. This was Miriam Hopkins' feature film debut.

Comedy · Romance

A pre-Code crime drama from Paramount, directed by John Cromwell. William Powell plays William Foster, a slick criminal defense lawyer who specializes in getting crooks acquitted. He is in love with Irene Manners, played by Kay Francis, a dancer who is also seeing Jack Defoe on the side. When Irene kills a pedestrian while driving Jack's car, Jack takes the blame, and Foster ends up defending him, only to discover that a ring he gave Irene is at the crime scene. The film is a showcase for Powell's effortless sophistication and Francis's cool glamour, a pairing Paramount would reuse the same year in *Ladies of Leisure*. Published in 1930, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Crime · Drama · Romance

A 1927 American silent romantic comedy directed by Dorothy Arzner, starring Clara Bow and Charles "Buddy" Rogers. In Paris, Robert de Belleconte (Rogers), the son of a nobleman, is betrothed in infancy to Simone de Villeneuve. Seventeen years later, he meets American tourist Nancy Worthington (Bow), and they are accidentally locked in a museum overnight. By morning, they are in love — but Robert confesses his arranged engagement, and Nancy leaves in tears. Not one to give up easily, Nancy stages a false automobile wreck to gain entrance to the Belleconte chateau and schemes to break the engagement. Directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of Hollywood's pioneering women directors. The Library of Congress holds an incomplete print, missing two of six reels.

Comedy · Romance

Fleischer Studios' second animated feature, an adaptation of Jonathan Swift's tale of a shipwrecked sailor who washes ashore in Lilliput, a kingdom of tiny people at war with their neighbors. Made to compete with Disney's Snow White, it was only the second American animated feature ever released. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Adventure · Family

A late-silent-era romance from Paramount, directed by George Abbott and based on Henry Leyford Gates's novel *Here Comes the Bandwagon*. Charles "Buddy" Rogers stars as Jimmy, a young man caught between two women, with Jean Arthur as Mary and Paul Lukas as the rival Nick. The film was released in both sound and silent versions, as was common during the transition to talkies. Abbott, better known today as a legendary Broadway director, was then a Hollywood contract director at Paramount. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance

A Pre-Code social comedy directed by Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast for Paramount. Peggy (Nancy Carroll) is a cabaret dancer who marries a wealthy industrialist for security, only to find herself trapped in a loveless marriage. When she reconnects with Paul (Fredric March), a carefree old flame, she must choose between respectability and happiness. The film was a deliberate attempt to capture the spirit of Ernst Lubitsch's sophisticated comedies, and d'Arrast—who had worked with Chaplin on A Woman of Paris—brings a similar visual elegance and wry observation of class manners. Though less well-known than the films it emulated, Laughter is a sharp, stylish look at the tension between wealth and freedom in the Jazz Age. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Romance · Pre-Code

An aspiring young actress keeps her famous actor father a secret to avoid accusations of nepotism, while he refuses to acknowledge her publicly to protect his own career. Adolphe Menjou and Andrea Leeds star in this backstage drama directed by cinematographer-turned-director Karl Freund. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Drama

One of the Zane Grey westerns Henry Hathaway directed for Paramount in the early 1930s, back when Randolph Scott was still playing B-leads in buckskin. Scott is Dale, a mountain man who overhears saloonkeeper Beasley's scheme to grab a rancher's land and kidnap his daughter — so Dale kidnaps her first, dragging the enraged but safe heiress (Verna Hillie) into the hills while he untangles the plot. Harry Carey steals scenes as a philosophical crook. Handsomely shot around Big Bear and considerably better made than the poverty-row oaters of the same year. The film entered the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Western · Action

A silent comedy-drama directed by Victor Fleming, based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis. Clara Bow stars as Alverna, a restless manicurist from Minneapolis who marries a backwoods trader (Ernest Torrence) to escape city life, only to find herself bored in the wilderness. When a city lawyer (Percy Marmont) arrives on a fishing trip, Alverna sees her chance to return to civilization—with disastrous results. The film showcases Bow at the height of her "It Girl" fame, her magnetic energy and modern sensibility clashing with the primitive frontier setting. Fleming's direction captures both the beauty of the Canadian wilderness and the claustrophobia of a love triangle with no easy exit. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Drama · Silent

Josef von Sternberg's first Hollywood film with Marlene Dietrich, made immediately after The Blue Angel launched her to stardom. She plays Amy Jolly, a cabaret singer who arrives in Morocco with no money and fewer illusions, and falls for a Legionnaire played by Gary Cooper. Adolphe Menjou is the wealthy man who offers her everything except the one thing she wants. The film is famous for Dietrich's performance in a man's tailcoat, kissing a woman in the audience, a scene considered scandalous in 1930. Lee Garmes's photography wraps the desert and the nightclub in the same haze of smoke and shadow. Dietrich received the only Academy Award nomination of her career for this role. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Romance · Drama · War

A baby photographer who dreams of being a private detective gets his chance when a beautiful baroness mistakes him for the real detective next door and drags him into a plot involving a kidnapped uncle and a map to uranium. Bob Hope sends up the noir genre he loved. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Mystery

Two rival radio producers — small-town schemer Pinky Wilson and network man John Guedel — chase the same sponsor and the same idea: a show built around ordinary people doing ridiculous things. Jack Haley, Helen Walker, Rudy Vallee, and Ozzie Nelson star in this Paramount musical comedy spun off from Art Linkletter's hit radio program, directed by Sam White. It's an amiable peek at the era when radio gimmicks ruled the airwaves. The film is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Music

A 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy directed by Ludwig Berger, starring Maurice Chevalier and Frances Dee (in her film debut). Albert Loriflan (Chevalier), a waiter in a Paris cafe, unexpectedly inherits a large sum of money from a wealthy relative. His unscrupulous boss, Philibert, refuses to release him from his long-term contract in the hope that Albert will buy him off with a large payment. But Albert refuses, and continues to work at the cafe even though he is now very rich. Before long he falls in love with Philibert's daughter Yvonne (Dee). Based on the 1911 play The Little Cafe by Tristan Bernard. Paramount also produced a separate French-language version, Le Petit Cafe, starring Chevalier, which broke records for opening-day attendance in Paris.

Comedy · Musical · Romance

Popeye and Olive Oyl, traveling through the desert, are captured by the bandit Abu Hassan and his forty thieves, and Popeye must break loose and clean out the thieves' cave. The second of the Fleischer Studios' two-reel Popeye color specials. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Wimpy land on an island ruled by the boastful Sindbad and his menagerie of giant beasts, and Popeye must square off against Sindbad and his two-headed giant. The first of the Fleischer Studios' two-reel Popeye color specials, made in Stereoptical 3D. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

A reckless test pilot and his mechanic brother clash over a woman and the dangerous new aircraft they are developing for the war effort. Richard Arlen and Jean Parker star in this brisk PRC aviation programmer. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Action · War

Two vaudevillians on the run from shotgun weddings ship out to the South Seas, where they rescue and then compete for a beautiful island princess. The sixth of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby "Road" pictures and the only one made in Technicolor. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Adventure · Romance

Two rival college trumpet players and bandleaders compete for a job with Artie Shaw's orchestra and for the affections of their manager, who is rising in the music business faster than either of them. Fred Astaire and Paulette Goddard star in this Paramount musical. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Musical · Comedy · Romance

A pre-Code musical comedy directed by Frank Tuttle for Paramount. Nancy Carroll plays Barbara Pell, a chorus girl who inherits a school for boys and uses her position to sabotage the football career of the man who jilted her. Helen Kane, the "Boop-Oop-a-Doop Girl" whose vocal style inspired Betty Boop, co-stars as Helen Fry. Jack Oakie appears as Tap-Tap Thompson. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain.

Musical · Comedy · Romance

A trumpet player and a singer meet on a ship and fall in love, but his drinking and her rising career pull them apart and back together across the nightclub circuit of Panama and New York. Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray star in Mitchell Leisen's musical remake of The Dance of Life. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Musical · Romance

A 1930 pre-Code crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and based on the 1926 novel by S. S. Van Dine. William Powell stars as the aristocratic detective Philo Vance, investigating the murder of a wealthy broker at his Long Island estate. The film co-stars William "Stage" Boyd, Eugene Pallette, Paul Lukas, and Natalie Moorhead. The screenplay was adapted by Bartlett Cormack. The film entered the public domain on January 1, 2026.

Crime · Mystery · Thriller

The first Marx Brothers feature, adapted from their hit 1925 Broadway show and shot at Paramount's Astoria studio while the brothers were still performing it on stage at night. Groucho runs a Florida hotel during a land boom, Chico and Harpo are a pair of wandering con men, and a necklace theft tangles itself into a romance between the hotel clerk and the owner's daughter. The plot is furniture; what matters is the brothers' anarchic stage routines, captured raw before the Paramount films learned to build movies around them. Irving Berlin wrote the songs, including "When My Dreams Come True." The film preserves the pre-Code edge of the stage act, ruder and looser than the polished MGM comedies that came later. Published in 1929, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Comedy · Musical

A pre-Code musical film directed by John Cromwell and A. Edward Sutherland, the first of three film adaptations of the popular 1927 Broadway play Burlesque. Hal Skelly reprises his Broadway role as Skid Johnson, a vaudeville comic who teams up with dancer Bonny King (Nancy Carroll) to form a comedy- dance act. Their marriage and career flourish until Skid's Broadway success leads him astray. The film was originally made with Technicolor sequences, now lost; only black-and-white prints survive. It entered the public domain in 1957 when its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Musical · Romance

A W.C. Fields comedy short directed by Leslie Pearce for Paramount. Fields plays Dr. Painless Peters, a dentist whose methods are anything but painless. The film is a series of escalating comic set pieces as Fields torments his patients, argues with his daughter's suitor, and pursues a golf game with characteristic misanthropy. The dental gags are both horrifying and hilarious, with Fields wielding oversized pliers and extracting teeth from the wrong patients. The film showcases Fields' genius for combining physical comedy with verbal wit, and his persona as the bumbling, irritable professional would become a template for much of his later work. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Short

A roughneck stoker on a coal-fired ship comes ashore for a single night in New York and falls for a dance-hall girl who is trying to kill herself. Josef von Sternberg's fog-shrouded portrait of the waterfront is one of the most exquisitely photographed films of the silent era, with Harold Rosson's cinematography and Hans Dreier's expressionist sets creating a world of smoke, steam, and shadow. George Bancroft is the brawling stoker and Betty Compson the weary dance-hall girl, and the film follows their brief, doomed romance through a single shore leave. The Docks of New York was selected for the National Film Registry in 1999. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.

Drama · Romance · Silent

Josef von Sternberg's first American film with Emil Jannings, made the year before they would make The Blue Angel together. Jannings plays a deposed Russian grand duke who has fled the Revolution and now scrapes by as a Hollywood extra, hired to play a general in a film about his own downfall. The role-within-a-role lets Jannings collapse the distance between his past authority and present humiliation, and the framing device is what the film is built on. William Powell plays the revolutionary who once served him and now directs him. The Last Command is a film about cinema's power to re-stage a life, and it earned Jannings the first Academy Award for Best Actor. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · War · Silent

Ernst Lubitsch's first sound film and the first Hollywood musical to weave songs into the narrative rather than stopping the story for a number. Maurice Chevalier plays a womanizing military attaché recalled to the kingdom of Sylvania, where the young queen (Jeanette MacDonald, in her film debut) decides to marry him. The comedy turns on the marriage of state: the consort chafes at being a decorative husband, and the queen cannot run a kingdom and a romance at the same time. Lubitsch's touch, the innuendo delivered with a wink, is already fully formed. The film earned six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Musical · Comedy · Romance

The sinister Chinese mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu vows vengeance on the family of the British officer he holds responsible for his family's deaths in the Boxer Rebellion. Warner Oland stars in the first talking Fu Manchu picture. The 1929 film entered the public domain on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Horror · Crime

Betty Hutton plays silent-serial queen Pearl White in this energetic Paramount musical biopic — from sweatshop seamstress to vaudeville fill-in to the daredevil star of cliffhanger chapter plays, with John Lund as the leading man who can't keep up with her stardom. Directed by George Marshall with songs by Frank Loesser, it's a fond, funny love letter to the chaotic early days of moviemaking. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Music

The fiendish Dr. Fu Manchu returns from apparent death to continue his campaign of vengeance against the Petrie family, ensnaring a young woman in his web of poison and hypnotism. Warner Oland reprises his role in this sequel to The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. The 1930 film entered the public domain on January 1, 2026.

Crime · Mystery · Drama

An early sound comedy adapted from Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman's 1927 play The Royal Family, a thinly veiled portrait of the Barrymore acting dynasty. Ina Claire plays Julie Cavendish, the grande dame of a Broadway acting family modeled on Ethel Barrymore, and Fredric March plays her brother Tony, a swashbuckling matinee idol in the John Barrymore mold, fleeing a breach-of-promise suit in Hollywood. The film follows the family as each member must choose between the stage and a private life. George Cukor, who would become one of Hollywood's great directors of actors, co-directed with Cyril Gardner. The film was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in New York. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Comedy · Drama

Hat-check girl Judy Peabody (Betty Hutton) pulls a drowning millionaire (Barry Fitzgerald) out of the water, and he repays her anonymously with a bank account, a swanky apartment, and unlimited credit. The only catch: her GI boyfriend Danny (Don DeFore) comes home and assumes the worst. A breezy Paramount Cinderella story produced by Buddy DeSylva — who also co-wrote the score — with Robert Benchley and real-life Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley along for the ride. Hutton's "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" became a hit. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Musical

A young woman with a dark childhood secret has grown into a powerful industrialist married to a weak, alcoholic district attorney. When a childhood friend returns to town, the past threatens to unravel. Kirk Douglas's film debut, alongside Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Noir · Drama

Erich von Stroheim's lavish romance set in Vienna on the eve of the First World War, in which a penniless aristocrat falls for a brewer's daughter but is pushed into an arranged marriage for money. Stroheim directed and starred, and the production was as extravagant as everything he touched: real period uniforms, a full-scale carnival sequence, and a budget that ran far over what Paramount had agreed to. The studio cut the film down sharply, and the version that survives is only the first half of Stroheim's intended two-part story; the second half, The Honeymoon, is largely lost. Fay Wray, a year before King Kong, plays the girl he cannot marry. What remains is a film of extraordinary visual density and a director's refusal to compromise. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · Romance · Silent

A pre-Code proto-noir directed by Josef von Sternberg, notable for its pioneering use of early sound technology and expressionistic visuals. George Bancroft plays Thunderbolt Jim Lang, a condemned gangster on death row who plots to kill the young man (Richard Arlen) in the next cell for stealing his girlfriend (Fay Wray). Bancroft received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor at the second Academy Awards ceremony in 1930. The screenplay was written by Jules Furthman with dialogue by Herman J. Mankiewicz. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Drama

A Date to Skate is a 1938 Popeye cartoon from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. Popeye takes Olive Oyl on an ice-skating date, showing off his skating prowess until Bluto appears to cause trouble. The short features the distinctive Fleischer Studios animation style and the surreal, elastic transformations that characterized the Popeye series. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

Frank Borzage's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's World War I novel. Gary Cooper plays an American ambulance driver on the Italian front who falls in love with an English nurse, played by Helen Hayes in her screen debut. The romance unfolds against retreats, bombardments, and a hospital in Switzerland. The film's copyright was not renewed, placing it in the public domain.

Drama · Romance · War

A Lamb in a Jam is a 1945 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Isadore Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It features Blackie the Lamb, who is chased by a wolf trying to shear Blackie's wool for a winter coat. The short is part of the Noveltoons series, which ran from 1943 to 1967 and produced over 140 cartoons. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Animation · Comedy

An anti-Mormon silent drama directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Jesse L. Lasky's Feature Play Company. Mae Murray stars as Dora Hogue, a young woman traveling west with her family when their cabin is overtaken by a Mormon caravan. An elder demands Dora as his plural wife, setting in motion a melodramatic conflict that capitalizes on the anti-Mormon sentiment prevalent at the time. Frank Borzage — better known today as one of Hollywood's great directors — appears as an actor in the role of Tom Rigdon. The film was originally eight reels but cut to five before release. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Olive Oyl writes a screenplay in which Popeye plays Aladdin, who uses a magic lamp and his spinach-fueled strength to win the princess from a wicked vizier. The third and last of the Fleischer Studios' two-reel Popeye color specials. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Family · Fantasy

The Marx Brothers' second film, adapted from their 1928 Broadway hit. Groucho plays Captain Spaulding, an African explorer returning to society, who arrives at a Long Island estate at the same moment a valuable painting goes missing. What plot there is exists mainly to hang the brothers' routines on: Groucho's verbal avalanches, Chico's piano and patter, Harpo's silent anarchy, and Margaret Dumont's unflappable dignity under fire. Victor Heerman, who had directed them on stage, kept the camera out of the way and let the act play. The film's surrealist streak was admired by critics from Antonin Artaud to François Truffaut. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Comedy · Musical

A pre-Code backstage musical and the directorial debut of Rouben Mamoulian, who brought his innovative theatrical staging to the early sound film. Helen Morgan plays Kitty Darling, a fading burlesque star who tries to save her convent-educated daughter April (Joan Peers) from following in her footsteps. Mamoulian's extensive use of a moving camera and simultaneous sound tracks was technically groundbreaking for the early sound era. The film's copyright expired on January 1, 2025, entering the public domain.

Drama · Music

A small-town girl hungry for a grander life leaves her devoted sweetheart behind for a wealthy businessman's Riverside Drive apartment in Frank Borzage's silent drama. Adapted by Frances Marion from a Fannie Hurst story and produced by Cosmopolitan Productions for Paramount, the film stars Seena Owen as a woman who discovers, too late, the cost of the comfort she traded for love. Borzage's early interest in the emotional lives of working women, the thread he would pull through much of his later career, is already visible here. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Illustrated Press managing editor Steve Wilson and reporter Lorelei Kilbourne go after a gambling ring preying on college students after the publisher's niece is caught up in a crooked dice game and framed for murder. Phillip Reed and Hillary Brooke reprise their Big Town newspaper roles, with Richard Travis and Ann Gillis. The third of four Pine-Thomas features spun off from the popular radio series, directed by co-producer William C. Thomas. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Crime · Noir · Drama

Superman races to protect a train carrying a billion dollars in defense bonds from a gang of saboteurs who bomb the tracks, wreck a bridge, and commandeer the locomotive. The third of the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Sci-Fi

Rudolph Valentino stars as Juan Gallardo, a Seville matador who rises from poverty to national fame only to be undone by his infatuation with a wealthy aristocrat, Doña Sol. Fred Niblo directed this Paramount adaptation of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez's novel, with June Mathis writing the scenario that helped cement Valentino's screen persona as the brooding, doomed lover. Lila Lee plays the wife he betrays and Nita Naldi, in her breakout role, the temptress. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

Popeye is overjoyed about marrying Olive tomorrow, but she dreams of their future twin sons running wild and gives him a frosty reception the next morning. A Famous Studios Popeye cartoon directed by Izzy Sparber. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

One of Paramount's 1930s B-series about the British adventurer Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, adapted from the novels by H.C. "Sapper" McNeile. Days before his long-delayed wedding, Drummond learns that his friend Colonel Nielson of Scotland Yard has been kidnapped and flown to a remote African compound. Drummond, his fiancée Phyllis, and his sidekick Algy follow, uncovering a plot to extract defense secrets from the colonel. John Howard plays Drummond as a breezy, unflappable gentleman hero, and Heather Angel is the fiancée who refuses to be left behind. The picture is a brisk, hour-long programmer of the old dark-house-in-the-bush variety. Released in 1938, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Adventure · Crime

Another entry in Paramount's Bulldog Drummond series, based on the McNeile novel "Temple Tower." Drummond is finally preparing to marry Phyllis at his ancestral country house when an absent-minded professor arrives with a story about a hidden treasure, and a murderer named Henry Seaton turns up to complicate the wedding plans. The plot winds through secret passages and a string of killings around the estate, with Colonel Nielson and Algy along for the chase. John Howard and Heather Angel continue their easy chemistry, and Leo G. Carroll plays the villain. Released in 1939, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Adventure · Crime

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

A slapstick silent comedy spun from Ernest Thayer's baseball poem, with Wallace Beery as the legendary slugger Casey, here a small-town ballplayer beset by gamblers, romance, and his own mighty whiff. Ford Sterling, ZaSu Pitts, and Sterling Holloway (in his film debut) co-star. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Sport

Chang is a remarkable early documentary feature from the team who would later make King Kong. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack traveled to the jungles of northern Siam, now Thailand, to film a real farming family's struggle against the wilderness. Kru, his wife, and their children battle a leopard, a tiger, and a herd of elephants that destroys their home. The film is staged in places, but the danger and the animals are real, and the result has the grip of an adventure story. Chang was nominated for an Academy Award and is now a forgotten gem. It entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

Documentary · Adventure · Drama · Silent

Herman the mouse outwits a hungry cat and a dim-witted dog by pitting them against each other in a battle over the cheese he covets. A Famous Studios Noveltoon, the first solo cartoon for the Herman and Katnip series. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

On Christmas morning an orphanage full of glum children finds their cheap toys breaking one by one, until a kindly inventor wanders in and conjures wonderful new playthings from his bag of tricks. A Fleischer Color Classics holiday short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

A Mary Pickford vehicle directed by James Kirkwood for Famous Players, and one of the earliest feature-length Cinderella adaptations. Pickford plays the fairy-tale heroine tormented by her stepmother and stepsisters, with her then-husband Owen Moore as Prince Charming. The film features early special effects in the pumpkin-to-coach transformation and was released as a Christmas attraction in December 1914. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Fantasy · Silent

Rudolph Valentino plays an Italian count and big-game hunter who moves to New York to work for a friend's antiques firm and is drawn into an affair with his employer's wife, a predatory socialite played by Nita Naldi. The title refers to the cobra that mesmerizes its prey, a metaphor the film lays on heavily. Valentino is in his element as the charming, doomed lover, and Nita Naldi's vamp persona is given full rein. The film was one of Valentino's last releases before his death in 1926, and it is a late showcase for the star persona that made him a phenomenon. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance · Silent

A tour through a topsy-turvy town where fish swim in the fire hydrants, babies deliver their own stork, and the laws of physics are suggestions at best. A Famous Studios Noveltoon directed by Izzy Sparber. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

A 1929 pre-Code circus drama starring Clara Bow as a bareback rider caught between two men. Directed by Lothar Mendes, the film follows Patricia, a circus performer in love with tightrope walker Larry Lee, who is already partnered with the older Zara Flynn. When Larry leaves the circus for a society woman, Patricia and Zara are left to pick up the pieces. This was Clara Bow's second talking picture and the first Hollywood film for Kay Francis, who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1930s. The production used 48 aerial ballet artists and 200 clowns for its circus sequences. Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Romance

Forest ranger Don Bradley watches the woman he loves marry his friend Steve Downey — not knowing Downey is secretly running a hijacking ring. When a murder forces the gang into the mountains, Bradley has to choose between duty and the lives of the people he cares about. Robert Lowery, Ellen Drew, and Regis Toomey star in this compact Pine-Thomas programmer for Paramount, with Elisha Cook Jr. among the gang. Directed by William Berke. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Drama · Noir

A hapless hound dog's pursuit of a clever bird leads him through a gauntlet of slapstick mishaps in this late Famous Studios Noveltoon. One of the last Noveltoons before the studio was reorganized as Paramount Cartoon Studios. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

A New York magazine editor offers a job to hotshot Iowa photographer "Pat Marvin" — then discovers Pat is Patricia, and promptly falls for her. She's still carrying a torch for her boyfriend Ben, who follows her to the city, and the romantic tangle gets complicated by a staged murder photo that turns out to be real. Chester Morris and Nancy Kelly star in this snappy Pine-Thomas comedy-mystery for Paramount, directed by William Berke. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Crime

The definitive silent adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella, directed by John S. Robertson for Famous Players-Lasky. John Barrymore delivers a tour de force as the virtuous Dr. Jekyll, whose experiments in separating good from evil unleash the hideous Mr. Hyde. Barrymore's transformation, achieved largely through facial contortion and makeup rather than camera tricks, remains one of the most effective in screen history. Nita Naldi plays the dance hall temptress who draws Jekyll toward his darker self. The film cemented Barrymore's reputation as a serious screen actor and established the visual vocabulary for cinematic split-personality horror. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Drama · Silent

A bank teller wakes from a vivid nightmare in which he murders a man in a strange mirrored room, and finds physical evidence in his apartment that suggests it may not have been a dream at all. His brother-in-law, a police detective, does not believe him, until a family picnic strands them near an abandoned mansion that turns out to contain the very room from the dream. The film is based on a Cornell Woolrich story, and it works the Woolrich territory of ordinary people trapped in impossible situations. DeForest Kelley, years before he was Dr. McCoy on Star Trek, makes his film debut as the tormented teller, and Paul Kelly is the skeptical cop. Director Maxwell Shane later remade the film as Nightmare (1956) with Edward G. Robinson. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Crime · Noir · Mystery

A Harold Lloyd sound comedy directed by Clyde Bruckman. Lloyd plays Harold Horne, a lowly shoe salesman who stows away on a ship to Hawaii to impress a girl, then must bluff his way through a series of escalating lies about his identity. The film's centerpiece is a thrilling skyscraper-climbing sequence that recalls Lloyd's silent masterpiece Safety Last! (1923), this time with the added complication of sound—Lloyd's screams and gasps amplify the vertiginous terror. Though Lloyd's sound films never achieved the critical reputation of his silent work, Feet First demonstrates that his daredevil physical comedy remained intact in the talkie era. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy

The blustery town mayor Gabby tries to extinguish a cheese-fueled fire that spirals out of control in this Fleischer Studios Gabby cartoon. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

Richard Arlen stars as Jim Clark, a pilot running a small airline service out of Los Angeles, with Jean Parker as the stewardess torn between him and a smooth-talking passenger. That passenger is a spy who has stolen a secret military navigation device, and when his escape is bungled he hijacks the airliner mid-flight. The plane goes down in the wilderness, leaving the survivors stranded as a forest fire closes in. One of the early "Dollar Bills" from Pine-Thomas Productions, Paramount's B-picture unit, Flying Blind is a compact wartime aviation thriller released just months before Pearl Harbor. Its copyright was never renewed, placing it in the public domain.

Action · Adventure · Drama

A pre-Code crime drama from Paramount, directed by John Cromwell. William Powell plays William Foster, a slick criminal defense lawyer who specializes in getting crooks acquitted. He is in love with Irene Manners, played by Kay Francis, a dancer who is also seeing Jack Defoe on the side. When Irene kills a pedestrian while driving Jack's car, Jack takes the blame, and Foster ends up defending him, only to discover that a ring he gave Irene is at the crime scene. The film is a showcase for Powell's effortless sophistication and Francis's cool glamour, a pairing Paramount would reuse the same year in *Ladies of Leisure*. Published in 1930, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Crime · Drama · Romance

Gabby Goes Fishing is a 1941 animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. The seventh of nine cartoons starring Gabby, the blustering town crier introduced in the Fleischers' feature Gulliver's Travels (1939), it sends the know-it-all to a fishing hole where he sets out to teach a young boy how to land the really big ones — and ends up on the hook himself. Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Goofy, supplies Gabby's voice. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

Professional gambler Ross Hadley runs a plush gaming house in New York while his childhood friend Mike McGlennon, now a police lieutenant, is sworn to shut it down. Their rivalry turns personal when both men fall for nightclub singer Mary Hayes, and a murder forces each to choose between duty, friendship, and the law. Chester Morris, Nancy Kelly, and Russell Hayden star in this Pine-Thomas crime drama for Paramount, directed by Frank McDonald. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Crime · Drama

Little Audrey tries to avoid a spanking from her teacher by hiding in a magical storybook world, where she encounters storybook characters and comic mischief. A Bill Tytla-directed Noveltoons short featuring Little Audrey. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

Before King Kong, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack made their name with this astonishing ethnographic documentary. They joined the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia on its annual migration — some 50,000 people and half a million animals crossing icy rivers and a 12,000-foot mountain pass in search of pasture. The scale is still hard to believe, and the sequence of the migration over the Karun River on inflated goatskin rafts is one of the great images in documentary history. Released by Paramount in 1925 and never renewed, the film is in the public domain.

Documentary · Silent

Fleischer Studios' second animated feature, an adaptation of Jonathan Swift's tale of a shipwrecked sailor who washes ashore in Lilliput, a kingdom of tiny people at war with their neighbors. Made to compete with Disney's Snow White, it was only the second American animated feature ever released. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Adventure · Family

Betty Boop and Koko the Clown are overcome by contagious laughter when a mysterious laughing gas fills their apartment, sending everything in the room into hysterics. A Dave Fleischer-directed Fleischer Studios short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Music

A late-silent-era romance from Paramount, directed by George Abbott and based on Henry Leyford Gates's novel *Here Comes the Bandwagon*. Charles "Buddy" Rogers stars as Jimmy, a young man caught between two women, with Jean Arthur as Mary and Paul Lukas as the rival Nick. The film was released in both sound and silent versions, as was common during the transition to talkies. Abbott, better known today as a legendary Broadway director, was then a Hollywood contract director at Paramount. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Romance

A beleaguered dog named Hector endures a chaotic household in this Noveltoons short, as his attempts to find peace are constantly thwarted by his rambunctious family. A Bill Tytla-directed Famous Studios cartoon. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

A jazz-loving cat sneaks into a music shop after hours to conduct a symphony of instruments, only to be tormented by the mischievous mouse Katnip. A Seymour Kneitel-directed Noveltoons short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Music

A silent Oz fantasy written and produced by L. Frank Baum and directed by J. Farrell MacDonald for Baum's own Oz Film Manufacturing Company. Violet MacMillan plays Dorothy, who wanders into the Land of Oz and joins the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion in a quest to free Princess Gloria from the wicked King Krewl and the witch Mombi. The film draws on incidents from several Baum Oz books and is one of only three surviving features from his short-lived studio. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Fantasy · Adventure · Silent

A Lower East Side boy from an immigrant Jewish family grows up to become a celebrated violinist, only to enlist and head to the trenches as war breaks out. Frank Borzage directed this Cosmopolitan Productions release, adapted by Frances Marion from a Fannie Hurst story, with Vera Gordon's Mama Kantor anchoring the family and Gaston Glass as the adult Leon. The film was a hit and a model for the immigrant-family melodramas that followed. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Popeye battles an army of hungry insects that descends on his vegetable garden, using his spinach-fueled strength to save his harvest. A Famous Studios Popeye cartoon directed by Morey Reden and Dave Tendlar. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

It is the film that coined the phrase "It girl" and made Clara Bow the embodiment of the 1920s flapper. She plays a department store salesgirl with plenty of "It", that magnetic self-confidence author Elinor Glyn defined on screen, who sets her sights on the store's handsome young owner. Bow's charm carries the whole picture, and the film was a sensation when it was released. Long considered lost, a print surfaced in Prague in the 1960s, and the Library of Congress selected It for the National Film Registry. The film's copyright was renewed in 1954 and expired on January 1, 2023, when it entered the public domain.

Comedy · Romance · Silent

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

La Paloma is a 1930 Screen Song cartoon from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. The Screen Songs series featured animated segments leading up to a "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along sequence where theater audiences were invited to join in. This entry features the popular Spanish song "La Paloma" by Sebastián Iradier. As a 1930 work, the film entered the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2026.

Animation · Musical

An aspiring young actress keeps her famous actor father a secret to avoid accusations of nepotism, while he refuses to acknowledge her publicly to protect his own career. Adolphe Menjou and Andrea Leeds star in this backstage drama directed by cinematographer-turned-director Karl Freund. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Drama

Confined to the corner with a dunce cap after flubbing a history quiz, Lulu dozes off and dreams of chasing Tubby through the pages of the history book — dodging Indians, meeting pirates, and taking a dip in the Fountain of Youth. One of the best-regarded of Famous Studios' Little Lulu cartoons for Paramount, directed by Bill Tytla with Cecil Roy voicing Lulu and Arnold Stang as Tubby. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

Making Stars is a 1935 Betty Boop cartoon from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. Betty Boop introduces a troupe of child performers who take the stage in a series of musical and comedy numbers. The short features the distinctive Fleischer animation style and Betty's trademark charm. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Animation · Comedy · Musical

Gloria Swanson stars as Tessie McGuire, a department store clerk who rises through New York's social strata after a wealthy man takes an interest in her, only to discover that high society can be as exploitative as the shop floor. Directed by Allan Dwan from a story by Frank R. Adams, the film is a sharp class comedy that gives Swanson ample opportunity to display both comic timing and dramatic depth. The film's critique of urban capitalism and its treatment of working women was unusual for a mainstream Paramount production of the period. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Comedy · Drama · 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

Reporter Sue Gallagher (Detour's Ann Savage) discovers the corpse of a notorious gangster propped up in a wax museum and fights to keep the scoop — while a rival reporter (William Gargan), the museum's bumbling maintenance man (Leo Gorcey), and the killer himself (George Zucco) all converge on the evidence. A fast, funny 64-minute programmer from Pine-Thomas Productions, Paramount's prolific "Dollar Bills" B-movie unit. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Crime · Mystery

Directed by William C. deMille (Cecil's older brother) and based on Zona Gale's Pulitzer Prize-winning play and novel, this silent drama is a quietly devastating portrait of a woman's self-emergence. Lois Wilson stars as Lulu Bett, an unmarried woman in a dull Midwestern town who serves as an unpaid household drudge for her sister and overbearing brother-in-law. When a chance at marriage seems to offer escape, only to collapse, Lulu gradually evolves from servitude into self-assurance. The film was selected for the National Film Registry in 2001. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Comedy · Drama · Silent

Josef von Sternberg's first Hollywood film with Marlene Dietrich, made immediately after The Blue Angel launched her to stardom. She plays Amy Jolly, a cabaret singer who arrives in Morocco with no money and fewer illusions, and falls for a Legionnaire played by Gary Cooper. Adolphe Menjou is the wealthy man who offers her everything except the one thing she wants. The film is famous for Dietrich's performance in a man's tailcoat, kissing a woman in the audience, a scene considered scandalous in 1930. Lee Garmes's photography wraps the desert and the nightclub in the same haze of smoke and shadow. Dietrich received the only Academy Award nomination of her career for this role. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Romance · Drama · War

Much Ado About Mutton is a 1947 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Isadore Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It features Blackie the Lamb in his final appearance in the Noveltoon series, once again matching wits with Wolfie the Wolf. The short is part of the long-running Noveltoons series that produced over 140 cartoons between 1943 and 1967. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

A baby photographer who dreams of being a private detective gets his chance when a beautiful baroness mistakes him for the real detective next door and drags him into a plot involving a kidnapped uncle and a map to uranium. Bob Hope sends up the noir genre he loved. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Mystery

Naughty but Mice is a 1947 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Seymour Kneitel and distributed by Paramount Pictures. City mouse Herman visits his country cousins and helps them deal with a menacing cat. The short features animation by Dave Tendlar and Al Eugster, with music by Winston Sharples. Herman the Mouse would become a recurring character in the Noveltoons series, often paired with Katnip the cat. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

Neptune Nonsense is a 1936 Popeye cartoon from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. Popeye's pet goldfish appears lonely, prompting Popeye to venture underwater to find a companion, where he encounters Neptune and various sea creatures. The short features the distinctive Fleischer Studios animation style and surreal underwater transformations. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

Private detective Humphrey Campbell tracks down a missing girl for a bank vault company, only to find her murdered — and his search pulls in a psychic act, a collection of eccentric suspects, and his own sharp-tongued wife Louise. Chester Morris plays the brash Campbell, a lighter riff on his Boston Blackie persona, with Jean Parker as Louise. A fast, cheap, and lively Pine-Thomas production for Paramount, directed by Frank McDonald and adapted from a novel by Daniel Mainwaring writing as Geoffrey Homes. The film entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Mystery · Comedy

Insurance salesman Albert Tuttle arrives at the Rutherford mansion to sell a policy — only to find his prospect already dead, the heirs locked in by a will that won't be read until the body is entombed, and the corpse itself refusing to stay put. Jack Haley plays the jittery Tuttle, with Bela Lugosi in a red-herring role as the sinister butler, plus secret passages and a disappearing body. A Pine-Thomas production for Paramount, directed by Frank McDonald. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Horror · Mystery

The only film ever directed by Marlon Brando, who also stars as Rio, a bank robber betrayed by his partner Dad Longworth (Karl Malden) after a Mexican heist. Years later Rio escapes prison and tracks Dad to a California coastal town where the betrayer has reinvented himself as a respectable sheriff with a wife and stepdaughter (Pina Pellicer). Stanley Kubrick was originally set to direct before Brando took over himself, and the production became legendary for its cost overruns — but the result is a brooding, unusually psychological western shot in VistaVision along the Monterey coast. The film entered the public domain when its copyright was not renewed.

Western · Drama

Two rival radio producers — small-town schemer Pinky Wilson and network man John Guedel — chase the same sponsor and the same idea: a show built around ordinary people doing ridiculous things. Jack Haley, Helen Walker, Rudy Vallee, and Ozzie Nelson star in this Paramount musical comedy spun off from Art Linkletter's hit radio program, directed by Sam White. It's an amiable peek at the era when radio gimmicks ruled the airwaves. The film is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Music

Pest Pupil is a 1957 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Dave Tendlar and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The short features Baby Huey, the oversized and dimwitted duckling, who causes chaos on his first day of school. Baby Huey was one of the most popular characters in the Noveltoons series, debuting in 1950's Quack-a-Doodle-Doo. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

The first film adaptation of J.M. Barrie's play, made with Barrie's blessing and his personal choice of Betty Bronson for the title role. Herbert Brenon's production preserves the stage business, including an animal impersonator as the Darling family's dog Nana and the crocodile, and the famous moment when the audience is asked to clap if they believe in fairies. Ernest Torrence's Captain Hook set the template for every screen Hook to follow, and the film's success helped convince a young Walt Disney that Peter Pan was worth adapting himself. Long thought lost, a copy was recovered by film historian James Card in the 1950s. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2020.

Fantasy · Adventure · Family · Silent

Pleased to Eat You is a 1950 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Isadore Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The short features a hungry lion who escapes from the zoo and attempts to find a meal, encountering various animals and people along the way. The cartoon features animation by Myron Waldman and William Pattengill, with music by Winston Sharples. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

Poor Cinderella is a 1934 animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was the first color cartoon in the Betty Boop series, produced in two-strip Cinecolor. Betty Boop stars as Cinderella in this retelling of the classic fairy tale, with the Fleischers' signature surreal animation style and musical numbers. The short was a departure from Betty's usual urban, adult-oriented comedies. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Fantasy · Musical

Popeye the Sailor Meets Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp is a 1939 two-reel Popeye cartoon from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. The longest of the Fleischer Popeye specials at approximately 21 minutes, the short features Olive Oyl as a storyteller recounting the tale of Aladdin, with Popeye as the hero and Bluto as the villain. The cartoon was produced in Technicolor and features elaborate set pieces and musical numbers. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Fantasy · Adventure

Cooking with Gags is a 1954 Popeye cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by I. Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. On April Fool's Day, Bluto plays a series of practical jokes on Popeye and Olive Oyl — including a prank picnic that goes wrong for the prankster. Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, and Jackson Beck voice Popeye, Olive, and Bluto. The cartoon is in the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Animation · Comedy

Floor Flusher is a 1954 Popeye cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Izzy Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Olive Oyl's kitchen sink won't stop running, so Popeye volunteers to fix the plumbing — but rival plumber Bluto is determined to sabotage the job and flood the house in the process. The escalating water damage builds to the usual spinach-powered showdown, with Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, and Jackson Beck supplying the classic voices. It is in the public domain in the United States.

Animation · Comedy

Gopher Spinach is a 1954 Popeye cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Seymour Kneitel and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Popeye plants his spinach bed, only to discover a gopher stealing his baby plants. What follows is a battle of wits between Popeye and the resourceful rodent. The cartoon was the first entry of the 1954-55 film season. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

Popeye's four nephews — Pipeye, Peepeye, Poopeye, and Pupeye — refuse to eat their spinach, so Popeye tells them the story of his great Uncle Hercules, the legendary strongman of ancient Greece. In the flashback, Hercules battles the Bluto-like Brutus in a series of mythological contests, powered by a can of "spinachus." A Famous Studios Popeye cartoon directed by Seymour Kneitel and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Animation · Comedy

Parlez Vous Woo is a 1956 Popeye cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Izzy Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Olive Oyl has fallen for "The International," a suave, romantic television personality — who turns out to be Bluto in disguise. When the smooth-talking rival invites Olive to his penthouse for dinner, a jealous Popeye follows to expose the phony, and the evening erupts into the usual spinach-fueled brawl. One of the later entries in the long-running series, it features the classic voice trio of Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, and Jackson Beck. It is in the public domain in the United States.

Animation · Comedy

Shuteye Popeye is a 1952 Popeye cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Izzy Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. A very tired Popeye retires for the night, but his window-rattling snoring disturbs a small mouse trying to sleep in the same room. The mouse's escalating attempts to silence the sailor — and Popeye's oblivious, sleepwalking responses — drive the escalating gag structure typical of the studio's early-1950s output. The cartoon is in the public domain in the United States through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

Spree Lunch is a 1957 Popeye cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Seymour Kneitel from a story by Jack Mercer and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Popeye and Bluto run rival restaurants and compete aggressively for the patronage of Wimpy, whose legendary appetite for hamburgers — and reluctance to pay for them — makes him a challenging customer. The short is notable as the final theatrical film appearance of both Bluto and Wimpy before the Popeye series moved to television. It is in the public domain in the United States.

Animation · Comedy

Popeye and Bluto run rival taxi services and race across the city to pick up fares, wrecking each other's cabs at every turn. When both drivers compete for the same passenger — Olive Oyl — the feud escalates until spinach decides the outcome. A Famous Studios Popeye cartoon directed by Seymour Kneitel and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Animation · Comedy

Popeye and Olive Oyl, traveling through the desert, are captured by the bandit Abu Hassan and his forty thieves, and Popeye must break loose and clean out the thieves' cave. The second of the Fleischer Studios' two-reel Popeye color specials. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Wimpy land on an island ruled by the boastful Sindbad and his menagerie of giant beasts, and Popeye must square off against Sindbad and his two-headed giant. The first of the Fleischer Studios' two-reel Popeye color specials, made in Stereoptical 3D. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

A reckless test pilot and his mechanic brother clash over a woman and the dangerous new aircraft they are developing for the war effort. Richard Arlen and Jean Parker star in this brisk PRC aviation programmer. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Action · War

Quack-a-Doodle-Doo is a 1950 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Isadore Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The short marks the very first appearance of Baby Huey, the oversized and dimwitted duckling who would become one of the most popular Noveltoons characters. A fox attempts to make a meal of the newly hatched Huey, but the enormous duckling's innocent clumsiness inadvertently foils the predator's plans. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

Two vaudevillians on the run from shotgun weddings ship out to the South Seas, where they rescue and then compete for a beautiful island princess. The sixth of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby "Road" pictures and the only one made in Technicolor. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Adventure · Romance

Saved by the Bell is a 1950 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Seymour Kneitel and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The short features Blackie the Lamb and Wolfie the Wolf in one of their recurring confrontations, this time set in a school context. The Blackie and Wolfie characters were staples of the Noveltoons series throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

Larry Elliot, a timid chess columnist who covers murders for a newspaper, flees to Grape City to escape a gangster's threats — only to land in a haunted-house mystery involving a stolen jade chess set, a missing corpse, and a fortune hidden in a creepy mansion. Jack Haley, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, plays the jittery reporter alongside Ann Savage and Barton MacLane. A Pine-Thomas production for Paramount, also released as Treasure of Fear. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Mystery · Horror

Scrappily Married is a 1945 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Seymour Kneitel and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The short features Herman the Mouse and Henry the Rooster in a domestic comedy. Henry is a henpecked rooster whose overbearing wife drives him to despair, while Herman schemes to help him. The cartoon was the first Noveltoons entry to use the "Featuring" title card and fanfare. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

Two rival college trumpet players and bandleaders compete for a job with Artie Shaw's orchestra and for the affections of their manager, who is rising in the music business faster than either of them. Fred Astaire and Paulette Goddard star in this Paramount musical. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Musical · Comedy · Romance

A silent fairy-tale feature directed by J. Searle Dawley for Famous Players, starring Marguerite Clark, who reprises her Broadway stage role as Snow White. The film follows the Brothers Grimm tale of a princess menaced by her jealous stepmother, sheltered by dwarfs in the forest, and restored to her prince. Long believed lost in a vault fire, a substantially complete print with Dutch intertitles was rediscovered in Amsterdam in 1992 and restored by the George Eastman Museum. Walt Disney reportedly cited this film as the inspiration for his 1937 animated feature. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Fantasy · Silent

A pre-Code crime drama directed by John Cromwell and produced by David O. Selznick, Street of Chance stars William Powell as a jewel thief who suffers amnesia after being struck on the head during a robbery. He awakens to find himself living a respectable life as a wealthy businessman, with no memory of his criminal past — until his old associates resurface. Jean Arthur plays his wife and Kay Francis his former accomplice. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing. As a work published in 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Drama

Destruction, Inc. is a 1942 Superman animated short, the tenth in the Paramount series and the second made by Famous Studios after the Fleischer brothers' reorganization. Saboteurs infiltrate the Metropolis Munitions Works, murdering the elderly night watchman and planting explosives throughout the plant. Lois Lane follows the story undercover and is captured by the gang, leaving Superman to stop the destruction and rescue her before the whole works goes up. Released on Christmas Day 1942, the short leans hard into wartime sabotage paranoia. I. Sparber directs, with Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander voicing Superman and Lois. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Adventure

Electric Earthquake is a 1942 Superman animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. A Native American villain uses an electric ray device to threaten Manhattan with earthquakes, demanding the return of the island to his people. Superman must stop the destruction and save the city. The Fleischer Superman cartoons were noted for their art deco style, cinematic animation, and mature storytelling. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Sci-Fi

Lois Lane's plane is shot down over Africa and she's captured by a German force occupying a jungle temple, where they use the natives' drums to signal strikes on Allied convoys. Superman follows her trail and turns the drums' own warning system against the occupiers. The fifteenth of the Paramount Superman cartoons, made by Famous Studios after the Fleischer brothers' departure, and the series' most direct piece of wartime propaganda. It is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · War

Terror on the Midway is a 1942 Superman animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. When a circus gorilla breaks loose, panic erupts at the carnival. Lois Lane is trapped in the chaos, and Superman must subdue the rampaging beast. This was the last Superman cartoon produced by Fleischer Studios before the studio was reorganized as Famous Studios. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Adventure

The Arctic Giant is a 1942 Superman animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. An expedition to the Arctic uncovers a frozen Tyrannosaurus Rex, which thaws and rampages through Metropolis. Superman must stop the prehistoric creature before it destroys the city. The cartoon is notable for its dinosaur sequence, which predates similar scenes in later films by decades. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Sci-Fi

The Magnetic Telescope is a 1942 Superman animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. A scientist invents a magnetic telescope that can attract meteors from space, but the device goes out of control and threatens Metropolis with a catastrophic comet impact. Superman must destroy the deadly projectile before it hits the city. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Sci-Fi

The Mechanical Monsters is the second of the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons, released by Paramount in November 1941. A mad inventor sends an army of flying robots to loot Metropolis — banks, jewel houses, anything they can carry — and captures Lois Lane when she stows away inside one of the machines. Superman battles the mechanical army and flies to the inventor's lair to save her from a vat of molten metal. The robot designs influenced decades of animation, from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow to a famous homage in The Iron Giant. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Adventure

Lois Lane is taken prisoner by a race of bird-men living in caverns beneath the earth after a mining expedition discovers their hidden world, and Superman has to burrow down to rescue her before she is thrown to a lake of lava. The last of the seventeen Fleischer/Famous Studios Superman shorts and one of the strangest — directed by Seymour Kneitel with Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander voicing Superman and Lois. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Adventure

Volcano is a 1942 Superman animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. When a dormant volcano on a populated island begins erupting, Superman must save the inhabitants from the lava and ash. The cartoon features spectacular destruction sequences and showcases the Fleischers' talent for cinematic action animation. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Adventure

A pre-Code musical comedy directed by Frank Tuttle for Paramount. Nancy Carroll plays Barbara Pell, a chorus girl who inherits a school for boys and uses her position to sabotage the football career of the man who jilted her. Helen Kane, the "Boop-Oop-a-Doop Girl" whose vocal style inspired Betty Boop, co-stars as Helen Fry. Jack Oakie appears as Tap-Tap Thompson. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain.

Musical · Comedy · Romance

Gabby, the pompous town crier spun off from Gulliver's Travels (1939), takes charge of spring cleaning at King Little's castle and turns the job into chaos — brooms, ladders, and buckets flying as he bosses around the Lilliputian castle staff to the tune of a swing band. The seventh of Fleischer Studios' eight Gabby cartoons for Paramount, with Pinto Colvig (the original voice of Goofy) as Gabby and Jack Mercer voicing King Little. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Short

A trumpet player and a singer meet on a ship and fall in love, but his drinking and her rising career pull them apart and back together across the nightclub circuit of Panama and New York. Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray star in Mitchell Leisen's musical remake of The Dance of Life. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Musical · Romance

Teacher's Pest is a 1950 Noveltoons cartoon from Famous Studios, directed by Isadore Sparber and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The short features Junior Owl on his way to his first day of kindergarten, trying to live up to the reputation of owls being wise. But Mr. Wolf knows a few tricks of his own, and Junior ends up in the wolf's pot of boiling water before Mama Owl saves him. This was Wolfie's final appearance in the Noveltoon series. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

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 1930 pre-Code crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and based on the 1926 novel by S. S. Van Dine. William Powell stars as the aristocratic detective Philo Vance, investigating the murder of a wealthy broker at his Long Island estate. The film co-stars William "Stage" Boyd, Eugene Pallette, Paul Lukas, and Natalie Moorhead. The screenplay was adapted by Bartlett Cormack. The film entered the public domain on January 1, 2026.

Crime · Mystery · Thriller

A bored cuckoo bird in a clock grows restless with his repetitive routine and ventures out into the world for adventure, with comic results. A Bill Tytla-directed Noveltoons short from Famous Studios. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

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 first Marx Brothers feature, adapted from their hit 1925 Broadway show and shot at Paramount's Astoria studio while the brothers were still performing it on stage at night. Groucho runs a Florida hotel during a land boom, Chico and Harpo are a pair of wandering con men, and a necklace theft tangles itself into a romance between the hotel clerk and the owner's daughter. The plot is furniture; what matters is the brothers' anarchic stage routines, captured raw before the Paramount films learned to build movies around them. Irving Berlin wrote the songs, including "When My Dreams Come True." The film preserves the pre-Code edge of the stage act, ruder and looser than the polished MGM comedies that came later. Published in 1929, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Comedy · Musical

The Cradle of Courage is a 1920 silent drama starring William S. Hart as 'Square' Kelly, a former crook who serves in World War I and returns home to join the police force — only to find himself confronting his old gang. Directed by Lambert Hillyer and produced by Hart through his own production company, the film explores themes of redemption and moral courage. Ann Little plays Hart's love interest, with Tom Santschi as her criminal brother. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures through the Artcraft Pictures Corporation. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent · Crime

A pre-Code musical film directed by John Cromwell and A. Edward Sutherland, the first of three film adaptations of the popular 1927 Broadway play Burlesque. Hal Skelly reprises his Broadway role as Skid Johnson, a vaudeville comic who teams up with dancer Bonny King (Nancy Carroll) to form a comedy- dance act. Their marriage and career flourish until Skid's Broadway success leads him astray. The film was originally made with Technicolor sequences, now lost; only black-and-white prints survive. It entered the public domain in 1957 when its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Musical · Romance

A roughneck stoker on a coal-fired ship comes ashore for a single night in New York and falls for a dance-hall girl who is trying to kill herself. Josef von Sternberg's fog-shrouded portrait of the waterfront is one of the most exquisitely photographed films of the silent era, with Harold Rosson's cinematography and Hans Dreier's expressionist sets creating a world of smoke, steam, and shadow. George Bancroft is the brawling stoker and Betty Compson the weary dance-hall girl, and the film follows their brief, doomed romance through a single shore leave. The Docks of New York was selected for the National Film Registry in 1999. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.

Drama · Romance · Silent

A Venetian gondolier emigrates to America dreaming of fortune and instead finds himself shining shoes in a New York tenement, where a corrupt ward boss and the brutality of poverty grind down his young family. Stage actor George Beban stars opposite Clara Williams in this Thomas H. Ince production directed by Reginald Barker, one of the earliest feature films to center an immigrant experience with sympathy rather than caricature. The Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

The Kid Brother is a 1927 silent comedy feature directed by Ted Wilde for the Harold Lloyd Corporation, distributed by Paramount Pictures. Harold Lloyd stars as Harold Hickory, the milquetoast youngest son of a tough sheriff, who gets his chance to prove himself when a traveling medicine show brings con artists to town. The film features some of Lloyd's most thrilling climactic set pieces, including a suspended-from-a-tower sequence. Widely regarded as one of Lloyd's best features. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Adventure

Little Audrey dreams of a fantastic adventure through a surreal dreamscape, only to find her dream turning into a comic nightmare before she wakes up. A Bill Tytla-directed Noveltoons short featuring Little Audrey. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

Ernst Lubitsch's first sound film and the first Hollywood musical to weave songs into the narrative rather than stopping the story for a number. Maurice Chevalier plays a womanizing military attaché recalled to the kingdom of Sylvania, where the young queen (Jeanette MacDonald, in her film debut) decides to marry him. The comedy turns on the marriage of state: the consort chafes at being a decorative husband, and the queen cannot run a kingdom and a romance at the same time. Lubitsch's touch, the innuendo delivered with a wink, is already fully formed. The film earned six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Musical · Comedy · Romance

Clark Kent and Lois Lane investigate the mysterious death of an Egyptologist at the Metropolis Museum, where Superman must battle the undead guards of an ancient king. An Izzy Sparber-directed Superman cartoon from Famous Studios. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Adventure

The sinister Chinese mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu vows vengeance on the family of the British officer he holds responsible for his family's deaths in the Boxer Rebellion. Warner Oland stars in the first talking Fu Manchu picture. The 1929 film entered the public domain on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Horror · Crime

A wolf and a lamb engage in a classic shell game con, each trying to outwit the other in a series of escalating tricks. A Seymour Kneitel-directed Noveltoons short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

Betty Hutton plays silent-serial queen Pearl White in this energetic Paramount musical biopic — from sweatshop seamstress to vaudeville fill-in to the daredevil star of cliffhanger chapter plays, with John Lund as the leading man who can't keep up with her stardom. Directed by George Marshall with songs by Frank Loesser, it's a fond, funny love letter to the chaotic early days of moviemaking. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Music

James Cruze, who had scored a hit with The Covered Wagon (1923), returned to the frontier epic with this story of the Pony Express and the riders who carried mail across the West. The plot follows a rider framed for murder and the woman who believes him, set against the backdrop of the short-lived but legendary mail service. Wallace Beery plays a villain, Ricardo Cortez the accused rider, and Betty Compson the woman who helps clear him. Cruze stages the riding sequences with the same eye for scale that made his westerns spectacles. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Western · Adventure · Silent

The fiendish Dr. Fu Manchu returns from apparent death to continue his campaign of vengeance against the Petrie family, ensnaring a young woman in his web of poison and hypnotism. Warner Oland reprises his role in this sequel to The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. The 1930 film entered the public domain on January 1, 2026.

Crime · Mystery · Drama

An early sound Paramount comedy-adventure based on Booth Tarkington's play Magnolia. Raised by Northern Quakers, a young Mississippi gentleman (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) refuses a duel and is disgraced, then returns years later disguised as a notorious riverboat rogue to win back his honor and his sweetheart (Mary Brian). Richard Wallace directed a cast that also includes Henry B. Walthall and Wallace Beery. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Romance · Drama

An early sound comedy adapted from Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman's 1927 play The Royal Family, a thinly veiled portrait of the Barrymore acting dynasty. Ina Claire plays Julie Cavendish, the grande dame of a Broadway acting family modeled on Ethel Barrymore, and Fredric March plays her brother Tony, a swashbuckling matinee idol in the John Barrymore mold, fleeing a breach-of-promise suit in Hollywood. The film follows the family as each member must choose between the stage and a private life. George Cukor, who would become one of Hollywood's great directors of actors, co-directed with Cyril Gardner. The film was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in New York. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Comedy · Drama

Based on E.M. Hull's bestselling 1919 novel, The Sheik made Rudolph Valentino a star almost overnight. Agnes Ayres plays Lady Diana Mayo, a headstrong Englishwoman who insists on traveling alone into the Algerian desert, only to be abducted by Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, a desert chief who falls in love with his captive. The film is a silent romantic adventure of the desert-romance school, all tents and horses and yearning close-ups, and it struck a nerve with 1921 audiences that few films before or since have matched. Valentino's dark, smoldering presence became a cultural phenomenon. The portrayal has not aged well in every respect, but the film's place in cinema history is secure as the picture that defined a new kind of leading man. It was published in 1921 and is in the public domain in the United States.

Romance · Adventure · Silent

D.W. Griffith's lavish adaptation of Marie Corelli's bestselling novel. A penniless writer (Ricardo Cortez) is granted wealth and fame by a suave stranger (Adolphe Menjou) who is Satan in disguise, only to find that every wish brings misery, while the woman who truly loves him (Carol Dempster) stands beyond his corrupted reach. One of Griffith's most expensive productions, the film pairs its Faustian plot with opulent sets and a European cast including Lya De Putti. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

Hat-check girl Judy Peabody (Betty Hutton) pulls a drowning millionaire (Barry Fitzgerald) out of the water, and he repays her anonymously with a bank account, a swanky apartment, and unlimited credit. The only catch: her GI boyfriend Danny (Don DeFore) comes home and assumes the worst. A breezy Paramount Cinderella story produced by Buddy DeSylva — who also co-wrote the score — with Robert Benchley and real-life Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley along for the ride. Hutton's "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" became a hit. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Musical

A young woman with a dark childhood secret has grown into a powerful industrialist married to a weak, alcoholic district attorney. When a childhood friend returns to town, the past threatens to unravel. Kirk Douglas's film debut, alongside Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Noir · Drama

A superstitious cat tries to catch Buzzy the Crow for breakfast, but the clever crow uses the cat's belief in bad luck omens to outwit him at every turn. A Seymour Kneitel-directed Noveltoons short, marking the first appearance of Buzzy the Crow. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

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

Paddy the Leprechaun emerges from his fairy shoe shop to mend shoes for the townsfolk at night, until he is discovered by a little girl who befriends him. A Bill Tytla-directed Noveltoons short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

Tom Durling is framed for a bank robbery and a killing he didn't commit, then escapes custody to hunt down the real gang before the police close in. Robert Lowery and Barbara Britton star in this tight hour-long programmer from Pine-Thomas Productions — Paramount's "dollar bills," the B-unit famous for fast, cheap, profitable pictures — directed by William C. Thomas himself. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Noir · Thriller

A pre-Code proto-noir directed by Josef von Sternberg, notable for its pioneering use of early sound technology and expressionistic visuals. George Bancroft plays Thunderbolt Jim Lang, a condemned gangster on death row who plots to kill the young man (Richard Arlen) in the next cell for stealing his girlfriend (Fay Wray). Bancroft received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor at the second Academy Awards ceremony in 1930. The screenplay was written by Jules Furthman with dialogue by Herman J. Mankiewicz. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Drama

George Pal's Puppetoon short, photographed in three-strip Technicolor, tells the story of Jan and Janette, a young Dutch couple whose windmill country idyll is overrun by an army of mechanical Screwball soldiers — an unmistakable allegory for the Nazi occupation of Pal's native Netherlands. When a thunderstorm rusts the invading machines into scrap, the tulips grow again. A young Ray Harryhausen worked on the film's replacement-animation puppets. Released by Paramount in 1942, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short and was added to the National Film Registry in 1997. The film entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Animation · War · Short

Underworld is the film that launched the American gangster genre. Josef von Sternberg directed it from a story by Ben Hecht, who would win the first Academy Award for Best Original Story the year the awards began. George Bancroft plays Bull Weed, a criminal kingpin whose jealous devotion to his moll, Feathers, drags him into a war with a rival and the law. Evelyn Brent is the woman caught between the gangster and the alcoholic lawyer he befriends. Von Sternberg's camera work is fluid and expressive, already showing the style he would bring to his films with Marlene Dietrich. The film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

Crime · Drama · Silent

A Noveltoons short from Famous Studios, directed by Seymour Kneitel. Lightning is said to be the fastest horse around and a sure bet for the Ups and Downs steeplechase, but when race time comes, the horse decides to take a nap instead. The jockey tries everything to wake him, and the real fun begins as he devises a plan to enter the race with a sleeping horse. Released June 9, 1950, the cartoon was produced by Famous Studios for Paramount Pictures. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Short · Comedy · Family

A botanist with an expertise in fingerprints is mistaken for a detective and sent to San Francisco to investigate a Chinatown tong smuggling ring. Harold Lloyd's first talkie, directed by Clyde Bruckman. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Crime

The headstrong Princess Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII, is betrothed to the aged King of France but falls for the dashing Captain Charles Brandon, and risks throne and life to follow her heart. Marion Davies stars in this lavish Hearst-produced silent costume romance. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Romance · History · Adventure

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

Wings is the film that won the very first Academy Award for Best Picture, and it remains the only fully silent film to take the top prize. Directed by William A. Wellman, a former World War I fighter pilot, it follows two young American aviators who enlist in the Army Air Corps and become combat pilots in France, bound by friendship and divided by their love for the same woman. Clara Bow plays the hometown girl waiting back home. The aerial dogfight sequences were shot with real planes and real pilots, hundreds of them, and they still rank among the most thrilling ever filmed. Gary Cooper appears briefly in an early role that helped launch his career. The film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

War · Drama · Romance · Silent

A Noveltoons short from Famous Studios, directed by Isadore Sparber. Spunky the donkey tries to enlist in the WAGS, an elite corps of Army dogs, but is rejected after a series of physical tests deem him unfit for service. When a flea attack cripples the dog unit, Spunky proves his worth by saving the day. Released October 27, 1944, the cartoon is a wartime morale piece wrapped in barnyard comedy, produced by Famous Studios for Paramount Pictures. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Short · Comedy · Family