RKO Radio Pictures

A sequel to Herbert Brenon's 1926 hit Beau Geste, this pre-Code adventure sends an American (Lester Vail) into the French Foreign Legion to rescue his boyhood friend John Geste (Ralph Forbes, reprising his silent role). Filmed on location in the Sonoran Desert and on the RKO lot, the picture adapts P.C. Wren's novel with a Max Steiner score and early all-dialogue location recording. Loretta Young and Irene Rich round out the cast. The film is marked public domain on its Internet Archive item.

Adventure · Romance · War

A social-climbing governess in early nineteenth-century England schemes her way through the Napoleonic era, leaving a trail of broken men in her wake. Miriam Hopkins stars in this adaptation of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, the first feature film shot entirely in three-strip Technicolor. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · History

A capable private secretary holds a struggling executive's business together, only to see him take the credit and the corner office, in a pre-Code workplace drama about the woman behind the man. Mary Astor and Ricardo Cortez star. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

A young American sailor falls for a Polynesian princess on a South Seas island, ignoring warnings that she is destined to be sacrificed to a volcano god. Dolores del Río and Joel McCrea star in King Vidor's pre-Code romance, filmed on location in Hawaii. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Adventure · Romance · Drama

A musical comedy short directed by Leigh Jason, featuring Ethel Waters as a Harlem woman who works tirelessly to feed and clean up after her lazy husband and his numerous relatives who have taken over her apartment. The film includes musical performances by Waters and the Southernaires quartet. As a work published between 1930 and 1963 whose copyright was not renewed, the film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Music

The only feature film starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, the creators and voices of the enormously popular radio program Amos 'n' Andy. The two play the owners of the Fresh Air Taxi Cab Company who get involved in a mystery at a haunted house while helping a wealthy man find a lost deed. The film captures the radio duo in blackface, a convention of the era that is deeply offensive by modern standards but was standard practice for the show. The film was a major box office hit at the time, riding the wave of Amos 'n' Andy's unprecedented radio popularity. Duke Ellington and his orchestra appear in a musical sequence. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy

A 1930 mystery melodrama from RKO, directed by Christy Cabanne and based on the 1912 play by Robert B. Baker and John Emerson. Margaret Holt and her brother Victor investigate the narcotics ring responsible for their father's death, with the help of a crotchety crime author played by Ned Sparks, whose over-the-top performance steals the show. The film is a fascinating artifact of the early sound era, when actors and directors were still learning to adapt to the medium of talkies. Bessie Love and Hugh Trevor round out the cast. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 1958 because the copyright was never renewed.

Mystery · Crime · Drama

The hard-driving boss of a Montana railroad and his top engineer clash over a woman and the brutal demands of keeping the line open through the mountains. Louis Wolheim, Robert Armstrong, and Jean Arthur star in this early-sound railroad drama, filmed partly on location. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Action

The first great disaster movie. When unexplained earthquakes unleash a catastrophic storm and tidal wave that obliterates New York City — footage later recycled into serials and films for decades — lawyer Martin Webster (Sidney Blackmer) is separated from his family and left to survive in the ruins. On a devastated coast he meets swimmer Claire Arlington (Peggy Shannon), and the two must contend with looters and lawless survivors in a Hobbesian world. Produced by RKO and directed by Felix E. Feist, its miniature work and destruction sequences were astonishing for 1933. The film's copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Sci-Fi · Drama

The fourth and final RKO Dick Tracy feature, and the only one to star Boris Karloff. A convicted killer called Gruesome gets his hands on a canister of experimental nerve gas that freezes anyone who breathes it mid-action, and uses it to stage a bank robbery in which the customers and staff stand paralyzed while the vault is cleaned out. Tess Trueheart witnesses the robbery and barely escapes, bringing Dick Tracy onto the case. Ralph Byrd, who had played Tracy in the Republic serials, returns to the role here. Karloff's presence gives the picture a jolt of real menace that the series had lacked, and the gas gimmick is a neat piece of B-noir plotting. Released in 1947, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Mystery · Thriller

The second of RKO's four Dick Tracy features, based on Chester Gould's comic strip. A bald, thick-necked ex-convict called Cueball strangles a diamond courier with a shoelace and goes hunting for the rest of the stolen stones, leaving a trail of bodies across the city. Dick Tracy and his girlfriend Tess Trueheart work the case from opposite ends, she going undercover as a diamond broker to draw the killer out. Morgan Conway plays Tracy as a placid, square-jawed straight arrow, and Dick Wessel's Cueball is an effectively brutal heavy. The film is a tight, cheap, well-paced B-mystery that clocks in at just over an hour. Released in 1946, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Mystery · Action

A Pre-Code musical comedy set in a traveling circus in the Old South, directed by Luther Reed for RKO. Bebe Daniels stars as Dixiana, a circus performer caught in a love triangle between a wealthy plantation owner's son and a villainous suitor. The film introduced the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey (Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey) to film audiences, and their rapid-fire banter and physical comedy made them instant favorites, launching a decade-long series of RKO comedies. The film was originally released in Technicolor sequences, though most surviving prints are in black and white. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Musical · Romance

An early RKO talkie built around a then-modern question: what happens when a society girl secretly marries a man her parents would never approve of and has to keep the marriage hidden while living at home? Olive Borden plays the debutante who weds Morgan Farley's penniless architect and then splits her life between his boarding-house room and her family's mansion, dodging a mother's plan to marry her off to a rich suitor. Directed by William J. Cowen and produced by William LeBaron, it is a time capsule of both the transitional sound era and 1920s anxieties about class and working wives. It entered the public domain after its copyright was never renewed.

Drama · Romance

A Wheeler & Woolsey comedy directed by Paul Sloane for RKO. Bert and Bob are two American soldiers in Paris during World War I who go AWOL to enjoy the city's nightlife. When military police catch up with them, they disguise themselves as officers and end up in increasingly absurd situations, including a run-in with a German spy. Dorothy Lee plays the nurse who falls for Bert, adding romance to the duo's rapid-fire comedy. The film was one of several Wheeler & Woolsey service comedies and helped establish their formula of wisecracks, physical gags, and musical numbers. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · War

A Wheeler & Woolsey comedy directed by Edward F. Cline for RKO. Two down-on-their-luck insurance salesmen (Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey) are sent to investigate a suspicious death at a hotel, where they encounter a beautiful woman (Dorothy Lee) and a cast of suspicious characters. The film features the duo's trademark blend of verbal wordplay and physical slapstick, with Woolsey's cigar-chomping wisecracks and Wheeler's boyish energy in full display. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy

A pre-Code spy drama set at Gibraltar during the First World War, where a pair of German agents posing as a British officer and a family friend plot to seize the key to the harbor's mine field, each unaware of the other's true loyalty. Betty Compson and Ralph Forbes star, with Montagu Love as the governor and Mischa Auer as the Hindu servant who unmasks them. Directed by effects pioneer Roy Pomeroy for RKO from Earl Derr Biggers' 1915 play, the film entered the public domain in the United States when its copyright was not renewed after 28 years.

Drama · War

A spoiled heiress marries a working-class steel man on a whim and sets out to remake him into a society ornament, driving him toward a breaking point. Dorothy Mackaill and Joel McCrea star in this pre-Code class-and-gender drama. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Comedy

A district attorney, hoping to surprise his wife, disguises himself as a woman, just as his wife secretly returns home and a pair of mistaken-identity impostors descend on the house. Edward Everett Horton stars in this farcical pre-Code comedy. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

A French playboy and an American singer meet aboard an ocean liner and fall in love, though both are engaged to others. They agree to reunite in six months atop the Empire State Building to test their love. Leo McCarey's original was remade by him as An Affair to Remember and later by Warren Beatty. The 1939 version lapsed into the public domain through non-renewal.

Romance · Drama

A young woman marries a philanderer, divorces him, and raises their daughter alone while navigating the compromises of love and independence through the Jazz Age and the Depression. Helen Twelvetrees stars with Joan Blondell in this pre-Code adaptation of Donald Henderson Clarke's novel. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

A sensitive, clubfooted medical student abandons his artistic ambitions in Paris to study in London, where he becomes destructively obsessed with a cold, cruel waitress who has no feeling for him. Leslie Howard and a breakout Bette Davis star in this adaptation of Somerset Maugham's novel. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

A 1929 American pre-Code RKO musical comedy starring Bebe Daniels and John Boles, along with the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey. Based on the 1927 stage musical produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, the film follows Capt. Jim Stewart (Boles), who pursues the bandit "The Kinkajou" over the Mexican border and falls in love with Rita (Daniels), though he suspects that her brother is the bandit. The film was the biggest and most expensive RKO production of 1929 and the studio's biggest box office hit until King Kong (1933). Its finale was photographed in two-color Technicolor. Rio Rita was chosen as one of the 10 best films of 1929 by Film Daily. The film united Wheeler and Woolsey as a team and made them famous.

Musical · Romance · Western

Constance Bennett plays Sylvia Brenner, a dowdy secretary who agrees to a marriage of convenience with her divorce-lawyer boss Gaylord Stanton (Kenneth MacKenna) so he can fend off a demanding client. She sails to Paris to wait out the arrangement and comes back transformed — which is when the fake marriage starts becoming a problem. An early RKO pre-Code romantic comedy that makes good use of Bennett's knack for playing women smarter than the plot around them. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Romance · Drama

A pre-Code musical film directed by Wesley Ruggles, and the first film produced by RKO Radio Pictures. Betty Compson plays Frederika, a homeless young woman taken in by a four-piece band led by Mike Fall (John Harron). She becomes their manager and guides them to success, but romantic complications ensue when a prince takes an interest in her. Jack Oakie co-stars as band member Joe Spring. The film was a box office hit, accounting for nearly half of RKO's profits for the year. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain.

Musical · Drama · Romance

Anna Neagle stars as Sunny O'Sullivan, the equestrian star of a small circus, in this RKO adaptation of the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II stage musical. During Mardi Gras in New Orleans she falls for Larry Warren, heir to the wealthy and snobbish Warren family, and must choose between love and her life under the big top. Ray Bolger, two years past The Wizard of Oz, leads the circus troupe and dances a memorable number. British producer-director Herbert Wilcox brought his wife Neagle to Hollywood for this and a handful of other RKO vehicles. The film entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Musical · Romance

A publisher torn between a free-spirited artist and a manipulative socialite must choose which woman truly understands him. Leslie Howard, Ann Harding, and Myrna Loy star in this pre-Code adaptation of Philip Barry's play, produced by David O. Selznick. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance · Comedy

After Ollie is rejected by the innkeeper's daughter, he and Stan join the French Foreign Legion so he can forget her, only to find themselves marching through the desert and tangled in a local rebellion. The boys' only non-Hal Roach feature. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

The Golf Specialist is a 1930 pre-Code comedy short directed by Monte Brice and starring W.C. Fields, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. Fields plays J. Effingham Bellweather, a golfer at a Florida resort who becomes entangled with a house detective's flirtatious wife while trying to enjoy a round of golf. The short adapts Fields' vaudeville golf routine, showcasing his trademark physical comedy and mumbling asides. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Sports

A destitute young woman on the verge of prostitution is hired by a wealthy man to lure his wayward son away from a gold-digger, only for the scheme to entangle all of them. Betty Compson stars in this pre-Code melodrama. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

The original screen adaptation of Richard Connell's 1924 short story, directed by Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack for RKO. Famed big game hunter Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) is shipwrecked on a remote island ruled by the urbane Russian Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks), who has grown bored with stalking animals and now hunts the shipwrecked sailors who wash ashore. Zaroff offers Rainsford a deal: survive three days as prey in the jungle, and he goes free. Fay Wray, fresh off King Kong (shot on the same RKO jungle sets), plays a fellow captive. The film's influence on the survival-horror genre is immeasurable, and its central premise has been remade and riffed on endlessly. The film is in the public domain.

Adventure · Horror · Thriller

A pre-Code crime drama directed by and starring Lowell Sherman, based on the 1927 play Crime by Samuel Shipman and John B. Hymer. Sherman plays Gene Fenmore, a gang boss who takes pity on a young couple robbed by one of his thugs (Hugh Trevor) and brings them under his protection. When the resentful thug is killed in a botched robbery, the police focus their investigation on the innocent couple. Marian Nixon co-stars as Nancy. The film entered the public domain in 1958 when its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Drama

An RKO pre-Code adventure drama adapted from Rex Beach's 1909 novel, directed by George Archainbaud. Joel McCrea plays Boyd Emerson, a young man who heads to Alaska to make his fortune in the salmon fisheries and finds himself squeezed between ruthless cannery interests and two very different women — society girl Mildred Wayland (Jean Arthur) and Cherry Malotte (Evelyn Brent), the worldly saloon keeper who truly loves him. Louis Wolheim is memorable as George Balt, the rough-edged fisherman who becomes Boyd's loyal ally. Shot partly on location in Alaska, it was an early talkie showcase for McCrea on his way to stardom. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 1958 after its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Adventure · Romance

A sequel to Herbert Brenon's 1926 hit Beau Geste, this pre-Code adventure sends an American (Lester Vail) into the French Foreign Legion to rescue his boyhood friend John Geste (Ralph Forbes, reprising his silent role). Filmed on location in the Sonoran Desert and on the RKO lot, the picture adapts P.C. Wren's novel with a Max Steiner score and early all-dialogue location recording. Loretta Young and Irene Rich round out the cast. The film is marked public domain on its Internet Archive item.

Adventure · Romance · War

A social-climbing governess in early nineteenth-century England schemes her way through the Napoleonic era, leaving a trail of broken men in her wake. Miriam Hopkins stars in this adaptation of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, the first feature film shot entirely in three-strip Technicolor. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · History

A capable private secretary holds a struggling executive's business together, only to see him take the credit and the corner office, in a pre-Code workplace drama about the woman behind the man. Mary Astor and Ricardo Cortez star. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

Three lonely millionaire engineers — Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith, and Charles Winninger — throw their wallets out the window on Christmas Eve to see who returns them, and end up adopting the two strangers who do: a young singer and a cowboy who fall in love. When the three men die in a plane crash, they return as ghosts to shepherd the couple through the consequences of the money they left behind. Also released as Beyond Christmas, it is a gentle holiday fantasy directed by A. Edward Sutherland for RKO, and its dark second half — one ghost tempted away from the light — surprises anyone expecting pure sentiment. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Drama · Fantasy · Romance

A young American sailor falls for a Polynesian princess on a South Seas island, ignoring warnings that she is destined to be sacrificed to a volcano god. Dolores del Río and Joel McCrea star in King Vidor's pre-Code romance, filmed on location in Hawaii. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Adventure · Romance · Drama

A musical short film written and directed by Dudley Murphy, set during the Harlem Renaissance. It was the first film to feature Duke Ellington and His Orchestra performing as a jazz band, and the film debut of actress Fredi Washington. The plot follows a couple in the performing arts: Duke's girlfriend Fredi, a dancer with a heart condition, collapses on stage while performing with the band. The Ellington Orchestra plays "The Duke Steps Out," "Black Beauty," "Cotton Club Storm," "Hot Feet," and the title piece "Black and Tan Fantasy." As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain.

Music · Drama

Felix the Cat seeks shelter in a castle whose boisterous king boasts endlessly of his courage, until the ghosts of those he wronged rise to teach him humility. A Van Beuren Technicolor Felix cartoon directed by Burt Gillett. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

A musical comedy short directed by Leigh Jason, featuring Ethel Waters as a Harlem woman who works tirelessly to feed and clean up after her lazy husband and his numerous relatives who have taken over her apartment. The film includes musical performances by Waters and the Southernaires quartet. As a work published between 1930 and 1963 whose copyright was not renewed, the film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Music

A 1930 mystery melodrama from RKO, directed by Christy Cabanne and based on the 1912 play by Robert B. Baker and John Emerson. Margaret Holt and her brother Victor investigate the narcotics ring responsible for their father's death, with the help of a crotchety crime author played by Ned Sparks, whose over-the-top performance steals the show. The film is a fascinating artifact of the early sound era, when actors and directors were still learning to adapt to the medium of talkies. Bessie Love and Hugh Trevor round out the cast. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 1958 because the copyright was never renewed.

Mystery · Crime · Drama

The hard-driving boss of a Montana railroad and his top engineer clash over a woman and the brutal demands of keeping the line open through the mountains. Louis Wolheim, Robert Armstrong, and Jean Arthur star in this early-sound railroad drama, filmed partly on location. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Action

The first great disaster movie. When unexplained earthquakes unleash a catastrophic storm and tidal wave that obliterates New York City — footage later recycled into serials and films for decades — lawyer Martin Webster (Sidney Blackmer) is separated from his family and left to survive in the ruins. On a devastated coast he meets swimmer Claire Arlington (Peggy Shannon), and the two must contend with looters and lawless survivors in a Hobbesian world. Produced by RKO and directed by Felix E. Feist, its miniature work and destruction sequences were astonishing for 1933. The film's copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Sci-Fi · Drama

The fourth and final RKO Dick Tracy feature, and the only one to star Boris Karloff. A convicted killer called Gruesome gets his hands on a canister of experimental nerve gas that freezes anyone who breathes it mid-action, and uses it to stage a bank robbery in which the customers and staff stand paralyzed while the vault is cleaned out. Tess Trueheart witnesses the robbery and barely escapes, bringing Dick Tracy onto the case. Ralph Byrd, who had played Tracy in the Republic serials, returns to the role here. Karloff's presence gives the picture a jolt of real menace that the series had lacked, and the gas gimmick is a neat piece of B-noir plotting. Released in 1947, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Mystery · Thriller

The second of RKO's four Dick Tracy features, based on Chester Gould's comic strip. A bald, thick-necked ex-convict called Cueball strangles a diamond courier with a shoelace and goes hunting for the rest of the stolen stones, leaving a trail of bodies across the city. Dick Tracy and his girlfriend Tess Trueheart work the case from opposite ends, she going undercover as a diamond broker to draw the killer out. Morgan Conway plays Tracy as a placid, square-jawed straight arrow, and Dick Wessel's Cueball is an effectively brutal heavy. The film is a tight, cheap, well-paced B-mystery that clocks in at just over an hour. Released in 1946, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Mystery · Action

A pre-Code RKO comedy spun from the era's divorce scandals. Lawyer Chester Hamilton (Sidney Blackmer) keeps his practice afloat by hiring a professional "co-respondent" — the glamorous Phyllis Van Kamp (Verree Teasdale) — to pose as the other woman in divorce cases. When Oswald Groggs (Charles Ruggles), a hapless real-estate clerk down to his last dollars, gets tangled in the scheme, mistaken identities and double-crosses pile up fast. Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and built for pure speed, it is a tidy example of the studio's pre-Code programmers — risqué, cynical, and over in an hour. Its copyright was never renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Comedy · Romance

A Van Beuren Aesop's Fables short directed by Vernon Stallings, featuring Cubby Bear as Robin Hood. Cubby swoops in to rescue a princess from an arranged marriage to a sheriff whose face, she observes, looks like a cellar door. The cartoon spoofs the Robin Hood legend with a Friar performing the wedding, a parrot providing comic commentary, and a musical medley of original tunes about the days of Robin Hood. Released February 23, 1934, the short is one of the later Cubby Bear cartoons as the character's career wound down ahead of Van Beuren's shift to color Rainbow Parade films. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Short · Comedy · Adventure

An early RKO talkie built around a then-modern question: what happens when a society girl secretly marries a man her parents would never approve of and has to keep the marriage hidden while living at home? Olive Borden plays the debutante who weds Morgan Farley's penniless architect and then splits her life between his boarding-house room and her family's mansion, dodging a mother's plan to marry her off to a rich suitor. Directed by William J. Cowen and produced by William LeBaron, it is a time capsule of both the transitional sound era and 1920s anxieties about class and working wives. It entered the public domain after its copyright was never renewed.

Drama · Romance

A pre-Code spy drama set at Gibraltar during the First World War, where a pair of German agents posing as a British officer and a family friend plot to seize the key to the harbor's mine field, each unaware of the other's true loyalty. Betty Compson and Ralph Forbes star, with Montagu Love as the governor and Mischa Auer as the Hindu servant who unmasks them. Directed by effects pioneer Roy Pomeroy for RKO from Earl Derr Biggers' 1915 play, the film entered the public domain in the United States when its copyright was not renewed after 28 years.

Drama · War

A spoiled heiress marries a working-class steel man on a whim and sets out to remake him into a society ornament, driving him toward a breaking point. Dorothy Mackaill and Joel McCrea star in this pre-Code class-and-gender drama. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Comedy

The first screen adaptation of Al Capp's wildly popular comic strip brings Dogpatch to life. Brawny, dim-witted Li'l Abner (Jeff York, billed as Granville Owen) spends his days dodging marriage-hungry Daisy Mae Scraggs (Martha O'Driscoll) while his Mammy (Mona Ray) rules the holler with a rolling pin. When a scientist discovers the Yokum family tonic could make millions, city slickers descend on Dogpatch just ahead of Sadie Hawkins Day. Silent comedy legend Buster Keaton steals scenes as the perpetually unlucky Lonesome Polecat. Produced by Vogue Pictures and released by RKO, the film's copyright was never renewed. It is in the public domain in the United States.

Comedy · Romance

A district attorney, hoping to surprise his wife, disguises himself as a woman, just as his wife secretly returns home and a pair of mistaken-identity impostors descend on the house. Edward Everett Horton stars in this farcical pre-Code comedy. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

A French playboy and an American singer meet aboard an ocean liner and fall in love, though both are engaged to others. They agree to reunite in six months atop the Empire State Building to test their love. Leo McCarey's original was remade by him as An Affair to Remember and later by Warren Beatty. The 1939 version lapsed into the public domain through non-renewal.

Romance · Drama

A young woman marries a philanderer, divorces him, and raises their daughter alone while navigating the compromises of love and independence through the Jazz Age and the Depression. Helen Twelvetrees stars with Joan Blondell in this pre-Code adaptation of Donald Henderson Clarke's novel. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

A sensitive, clubfooted medical student abandons his artistic ambitions in Paris to study in London, where he becomes destructively obsessed with a cold, cruel waitress who has no feeling for him. Leslie Howard and a breakout Bette Davis star in this adaptation of Somerset Maugham's novel. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

Pastry Town Wedding is a 1934 animated short from the Van Beuren Corporation's Rainbow Parade series, co-directed by Burt Gillett and Ted Eshbaugh and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The first entry in the Rainbow Parade series, it is set in a fantastical world made entirely of pastries where a young couple's wedding is celebrated by pastry chefs. The short was the first Van Beuren cartoon produced in two-strip Cinecolor. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy · Fantasy

Constance Bennett plays Sylvia Brenner, a dowdy secretary who agrees to a marriage of convenience with her divorce-lawyer boss Gaylord Stanton (Kenneth MacKenna) so he can fend off a demanding client. She sails to Paris to wait out the arrangement and comes back transformed — which is when the fake marriage starts becoming a problem. An early RKO pre-Code romantic comedy that makes good use of Bennett's knack for playing women smarter than the plot around them. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Romance · Drama

A two-reel short film directed by Dudley Murphy and the only known film appearance of Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues." Smith plays a woman abandoned by her roving lover (Jimmy Mordecai) for a younger woman (Isabel Washington). In a speakeasy during Prohibition, she sings the W. C. Handy standard "St. Louis Blues" accompanied by James P. Johnson on piano and the Hall Johnson Choir. The film features an entirely Black cast and was selected for the National Film Registry. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain.

Music · Drama

A pre-Code musical film directed by Wesley Ruggles, and the first film produced by RKO Radio Pictures. Betty Compson plays Frederika, a homeless young woman taken in by a four-piece band led by Mike Fall (John Harron). She becomes their manager and guides them to success, but romantic complications ensue when a prince takes an interest in her. Jack Oakie co-stars as band member Joe Spring. The film was a box office hit, accounting for nearly half of RKO's profits for the year. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain.

Musical · Drama · Romance

Anna Neagle stars as Sunny O'Sullivan, the equestrian star of a small circus, in this RKO adaptation of the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II stage musical. During Mardi Gras in New Orleans she falls for Larry Warren, heir to the wealthy and snobbish Warren family, and must choose between love and her life under the big top. Ray Bolger, two years past The Wizard of Oz, leads the circus troupe and dances a memorable number. British producer-director Herbert Wilcox brought his wife Neagle to Hollywood for this and a handful of other RKO vehicles. The film entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Musical · Romance

A publisher torn between a free-spirited artist and a manipulative socialite must choose which woman truly understands him. Leslie Howard, Ann Harding, and Myrna Loy star in this pre-Code adaptation of Philip Barry's play, produced by David O. Selznick. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance · Comedy

The Bashful Bachelor is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Malcolm St. Clair, produced by Jack Wm. Votion Productions and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The second film in the "Lum and Abner" series adapted from the hit radio program, it stars Chester Lauck and Norris Goff as Pine Ridge storekeepers Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody. Lum is finally set to marry his patient sweetheart Geraldine (ZaSu Pitts), but a staged rescue that makes him a reluctant hero — and the attentions of a grateful society girl — drives Geraldine into the arms of rival Cedric Weehunt, forcing Lum and Abner to win her back at the county horse race. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Romance

A 1950 American film noir Western directed by John Sturges, starring Lew Ayres and Teresa Wright. Lin Vanner, an American oil company manager in Mexico, shoots a man he believes stole the payroll — then learns the suspect was likely innocent. Guilt-ridden, he seeks out the dead man's widow Ellen and her son at their remote ranch, concealing his role in her husband's death as an uneasy romance grows between them. An early credit for Sturges before his run of classic Westerns, the film is a compact psychological study of guilt and expiation. It entered the public domain and is also known by its reissue title, Tar Comes Back.

Drama · Crime · Western

After Ollie is rejected by the innkeeper's daughter, he and Stan join the French Foreign Legion so he can forget her, only to find themselves marching through the desert and tangled in a local rebellion. The boys' only non-Hal Roach feature. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

The Golf Specialist is a 1930 pre-Code comedy short directed by Monte Brice and starring W.C. Fields, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. Fields plays J. Effingham Bellweather, a golfer at a Florida resort who becomes entangled with a house detective's flirtatious wife while trying to enjoy a round of golf. The short adapts Fields' vaudeville golf routine, showcasing his trademark physical comedy and mumbling asides. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Sports

Felix the Cat rescues a goose that lays golden eggs from a greedy farmer who wants to exploit her, in this Van Beuren Rainbow Parade cartoon. A Burt Gillett-directed short featuring Felix in his brief 1930s color revival. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

Two friends on a fishing trip in Mexico pick up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a wanted killer on the run. He forces them to drive him toward the border and lets them know that as soon as they stop being useful he will kill them. The hitchhiker has a paralyzed eye that never closes, even when he sleeps, so the two men can never tell when it is safe to try an escape. The film is based on the real-life case of Billy Cook, who killed several people on a similar spree. Ida Lupino directed, one of the few women directing Hollywood features at the time, and she keeps the film tight and tense, almost entirely inside the car. The film is a lean, real-time thriller about men trapped with someone who has nothing to lose. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Noir · Thriller

A ten-minute short film starring Frank Sinatra, directed by Mervyn LeRoy and written by Albert Maltz. While on a break from a recording session, Sinatra stops a group of boys from chasing a Jewish youngster and talks to them about racial and religious tolerance, singing the Earl Robinson-Abel Meeropol song "The House I Live In." Commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith to oppose anti-Semitism at the end of World War II, the film received an Honorary Academy Award and a special Golden Globe in 1946. It was selected for the National Film Registry in 2007. The film is in the public domain.

Drama · Music

A destitute young woman on the verge of prostitution is hired by a wealthy man to lure his wayward son away from a gold-digger, only for the scheme to entangle all of them. Betty Compson stars in this pre-Code melodrama. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

Cubby Bear, a mail carrier in a Gold Rush-era frontier town, braves the wilderness to deliver the last mail, racing against time and a villainous raccoon. A Mannie Davis-directed Van Beuren Aesop's Fables short featuring Cubby Bear. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Western

Five young friends in a Ukrainian village set out on a walking trip to Kiev in June 1941 — and march straight into the first wave of the Nazi invasion. Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Walter Huston, and Walter Brennan star in Lewis Milestone's wartime drama from a Lillian Hellman screenplay, produced by Samuel Goldwyn with a score by Aaron Copland. A prestige Hollywood plea for the Soviet ally, released through RKO. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · War

The parrots of Parrotville spring into action when a fire breaks out, manning their rickety fire engine with predictably chaotic results. A Burt Gillett-directed Van Beuren Rainbow Parade cartoon. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

A pre-Code crime drama directed by and starring Lowell Sherman, based on the 1927 play Crime by Samuel Shipman and John B. Hymer. Sherman plays Gene Fenmore, a gang boss who takes pity on a young couple robbed by one of his thugs (Hugh Trevor) and brings them under his protection. When the resentful thug is killed in a botched robbery, the police focus their investigation on the innocent couple. Marian Nixon co-stars as Nancy. The film entered the public domain in 1958 when its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Drama

An RKO pre-Code adventure drama adapted from Rex Beach's 1909 novel, directed by George Archainbaud. Joel McCrea plays Boyd Emerson, a young man who heads to Alaska to make his fortune in the salmon fisheries and finds himself squeezed between ruthless cannery interests and two very different women — society girl Mildred Wayland (Jean Arthur) and Cherry Malotte (Evelyn Brent), the worldly saloon keeper who truly loves him. Louis Wolheim is memorable as George Balt, the rough-edged fisherman who becomes Boyd's loyal ally. Shot partly on location in Alaska, it was an early talkie showcase for McCrea on his way to stardom. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 1958 after its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Adventure · Romance

Orson Welles directed and stars as a Nazi war criminal hiding in a small Connecticut town, posing as a prep school teacher. Edward G. Robinson is the investigator who tracks him down. The film is the only Welles-directed film to be a commercial success during his lifetime. It is more conventional than his other work, which is why the studio let him make it. The clock tower sequence near the end is a strong set piece. Loretta Young plays Welles's wife, who slowly realizes who her husband really is. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Drama · Thriller

Two Weeks to Live is a 1943 American comedy film directed by Malcolm St. Clair, produced by Jack Wm. Votion Productions and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The third film in the "Lum and Abner" series, it stars radio comedians Chester Lauck and Norris Goff as their fictional characters Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody. When Abner is mistakenly diagnosed as having only two weeks to live, Lum gets the idea that they can make a fortune by having Abner perform dangerous stunts. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Adventure

The first Van Beuren Tom and Jerry short, a duo of cab drivers not to be confused with MGM's later cat and mouse. On a dark and stormy night, Tom and Jerry drive two mysterious bearded men to a castle, only for the passengers to vanish without paying. The cabbies follow them inside and find themselves in a haunted castle full of skeletons, ghosts, and ghouls. Directed by John Foster and George Stallings, the short is a clear riff on Disney's The Skeleton Dance, with Jim Tyer's animation lending it a looser, weirder energy. The series was later reissued as Dick and Larry to avoid confusion with the MGM characters. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Short · Comedy · Horror