1940s Films

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

The second East Side Kids film and the first to star Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, and Ernest Morrison. Directed by Joseph H. Lewis and produced by Sam Katzman for Monogram Pictures, the film follows a group of street kids who escape the city heat for a summer camp in the Adirondacks. When their car breaks down, they take shelter in the home of Judge Malcolm Parker, who is under indictment for bribery and has been threatened by racketeers. After the Judge is found strangled and his niece kidnapped, the boys must solve the murder themselves, navigating secret passages and unmasking the real killer. The film is also known by the alternative title The Ghost Creeps. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Mystery · Thriller

A 1940 American 12-chapter science fiction serial from Universal Pictures, co-directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor, and the last of the three Universal Flash Gordon serials. A mysterious plague called the Purple Death ravages the Earth. Dr. Zarkov discovers a ship from planet Mongo seeding the atmosphere with dust — Ming the Merciless is up to his old tricks. Flash, Dale, and Zarkov return to Mongo to stop Ming, encountering the Rock People and the Arborians along the way. Buster Crabbe reprises his role as Flash, with Carol Hughes replacing Jean Rogers as Dale Arden. The serial entered the public domain via non-renewal of its copyright.

Sci-Fi · Action · Adventure

Cary Grant plays a newspaper editor who discovers his ex-wife is leaving journalism to marry a safe, boring insurance salesman. He lures her back with one last story: a convicted murderer is about to be executed, and the governor may be about to pardon him. The dialogue is fast and overlapping, with characters talking over each other in a way that sounds natural and was hard to write. Rosalind Russell matches Grant beat for beat. The film was based on the play "The Front Page" but Hawks changed the Hildy Johnson character from a man to a woman, which gave the story a romantic tension the original lacked.

Comedy · Romance

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 1940 American mystery film directed by Howard Bretherton and released by Monogram Pictures. The film stars John 'Dusty' King as Val Lennon and Marjorie Reynolds as Joan Marshall, who find themselves aboard the Midnight Limited, a train where a mysterious crime unfolds. George Cleveland plays Professor Van Dillon. The film is a classic Poverty Row mystery, typical of Monogram's low-budget output of the era. The film is in the public domain.

Mystery · Crime · Action

A low-budget comedy directed by William Beaudine for Crescent Pictures. A department store owner's wife suspects her husband of infidelity when a series of misunderstandings make him appear guilty. The plot involves mistaken identities, a jealous wife, and a series of comic complications as the husband tries to prove his innocence. Betty Compson, a former silent star who had transitioned to B-pictures, plays the wife. The film is a typical product of the "Poverty Row" studios of the 1940s—fast, cheap, and unpretentious. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy

A film version of Thornton Wilder's play about life, love, and loss in the small New Hampshire town of Grover's Corners at the turn of the twentieth century. William Holden and Martha Scott play the young couple whose courtship and marriage anchor the story. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Romance

West Point classmates J.E.B. Stuart and George Custer are posted to Kansas Territory, where they clash with the abolitionist John Brown and his violent crusade against slavery. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ronald Reagan star in this highly fictionalized Warner Bros. western. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Western · History

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

Boris Karloff plays Dr. Bernard Adrian, a gentle small-town physician still grieving his wife and daughter's deaths from polio, now experimenting with spinal fluid to cure a paralyzed young woman. When a vicious circus ape escapes and is shot, Adrian sees a grim shortcut to the human material he needs — and the killings that follow are blamed on the ape itself. A Monogram horror cheapie that gives Karloff an unusually sympathetic mad scientist. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Mystery

Bela Lugosi plays a small-town chemist who breeds a giant bat and trains it to attack anyone wearing a cologne he invented. He uses it to take revenge on the family he believes cheated him, handing out the cologne as a free sample and then sending the bat after each victim. A reporter and his photographer, played by the comic team of Dave O'Brien and Donald Kerr, arrive to investigate the strange deaths. It was the first horror film from Producers Releasing Corporation, one of the poverty-row studios, and Lugosi gives it more gravity than the budget deserves. The film was a surprise hit and PRC made a fortune on it. It entered the public domain and has circulated in countless cut and restored versions ever since.

Horror · Comedy

Bad Man of Deadwood is a 1941 Republic Pictures western directed by Joseph Kane, starring Roy Rogers and George "Gabby" Hayes. Rogers plays sharpshooter Brett Starr, who rolls into the town of Deadwood with Professor Blackstone's traveling medicine show, alongside singer Sally Payne. The show's tuneful pitch gets a hostile reception from the crooked businessmen who run the town and the hired guns who enforce their rule, so Starr sticks around to help the townsfolk — including a reform-minded judge's daughter — break the gang's grip. A classic singing-cowboy oater from Rogers's peak Republic years, the film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Western · Music

Bowery Blitzkrieg is a 1941 East Side Kids comedy-drama directed by Wallace Fox for Monogram Pictures. Policeman Tom Brady (Warren Hull) spots promising young boxer Danny Breslin (Bobby Jordan) and steers him toward an amateur boxing tournament, hoping to keep him off the streets. But Danny is torn between the ring and easy money, and when a gangster pressures him to throw the fight, Muggs (Leo Gorcey), Glimpy (Huntz Hall), and the rest of the Kids rally around him. The first East Side Kids entry to feature Keye Luke as Clancy, the film's title trades on the wartime headlines of its day. It entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Crime

Martha Scott stars as Ella Bishop, a small-town Midwestern schoolteacher looking back over fifty years at Midwestern College — the men she loved and lost, the students whose lives she shaped, and the niece (Marsha Hunt) she raised. William Gargan plays the suitor who never quite catches her. Directed by Tay Garnett and adapted from Bess Streeter Aldrich's novel Miss Bishop, it is a sentimental women's picture in the Goodbye, Mr. Chips mold, carried by Scott's performance, which earned her comparisons to the best character actresses of the day and an Oscar nomination for its score by Edward Ward. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Drama · Romance

Ralph Byrd, then riding high as the screen's Dick Tracy, stars as Tony Bronson, a pilot whose plane is hijacked mid-flight over the Caribbean by a gang after the payroll he's carrying. When the plane goes down on a remote island, Bronson has to outwit the hijackers with help from a stranded showgirl troupe. Directed by William Beaudine — the famously tireless "One Shot" of Poverty Row — Desperate Cargo is a brisk PRC programmer that packs a hijacking, a crash, and a jungle standoff into barely an hour. The film's copyright was never renewed, placing it in the public domain.

Adventure · Crime · Thriller

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

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

A 15-chapter Columbia cliffhanger serial directed by James W. Horne, with Chapter 1 titled "Chaotic Greek." Jack Holt plays a Secret Service agent infiltrating a gang of counterfeiters who have kidnapped the government's best engraver to produce undetectable phony money. Evelyn Brent co-stars as his undercover partner Kay Drew. Holt, Columbia's longest-tenured star, was effectively demoted to serials by studio head Harry Cohn, but the production retained a feature-film crew under producer Larry Darmour. The serial is in the public domain.

Action · Crime

Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Charles Kessler, a grief-stricken widower whose wife is believed dead — but is actually alive, hidden away in the cellar by the gardener, driven mad by a car accident. When she wanders the grounds at night, the sight of her through the window sends Kessler into a trance that turns him into an unwitting killer, and his daughter Virginia's fiance takes the fall for the murders. The first of Lugosi's nine Monogram pictures, directed with unusual atmosphere by Joseph H. Lewis, who stages the trances with slow, eerie poise. Clarence Muse gives a dignified turn as the Kesslers' butler Evans. The film entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Horror · Crime · Thriller

A pilot and his passengers crash-land on a Caribbean island while searching for a missing admiral and find a mansion occupied by a sinister doctor and his household, where voodoo is practiced and zombies roam. Mantan Moreland plays the pilot's valet, Jeff, and his reactions carry most of the film's comedy; he was a gifted comedian whose wide-eyed double takes were a staple of 1940s B-pictures, though the roles he was given were limited by the era's racism. The film was Monogram's answer to Paramount's Bob Hope hit The Ghost Breakers, and it earned an Academy Award nomination for its musical score, a rare distinction for a poverty-row horror comedy. It entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Comedy · Horror

A newspaper columnist about to lose her job invents a letter from a "John Doe" who says he will jump off a building on Christmas Eve to protest the state of the country. The letter goes viral, the paper hires a former ballplayer turned hobo to play John Doe, and his radio speeches about neighbors helping neighbors start a real movement. Then the publisher who owns the paper tries to turn that movement into a political machine for himself. Frank Capra's film sits between his optimistic comedies and his darker wartime work, and it argues that ordinary decency is the only thing standing between people and demagogues. Gary Cooper plays the reluctant symbol and Barbara Stanwyck the writer who created him and comes to regret what she built. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Drama · Comedy

Meet John Doughboy is a 1941 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions, featuring Porky Pig. Porky tours a military training camp and observes the preparations of the "Doughboys" — American soldiers — as they train for service. The short was part of a wave of patriotic cartoons produced before the United States entered World War II. 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

Pantry Panic is a 1941 Woody Woodpecker cartoon directed by Walter Lantz for Walter Lantz Productions, distributed by Universal Pictures. The third cartoon in the Woody Woodpecker series, it features Woody facing a hungry cat during a harsh winter when food is scarce. The short is notable as one of the few early Woody cartoons where he does not say "Guess Who?" in the opening titles. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

A newspaperman and a former shop girl meet over a phonograph record in a San Francisco music store, and their marriage plays out through the songs that bookend it. As Julie packs to leave Roger, she plays each record and remembers: the courtship, the move to Japan, the earthquake that costs them everything, the long wait to adopt a child, and the strain of Roger's failing newspaper that pulls them apart. George Stevens directs with a gentle, unhurried hand, letting the music carry the emotion the dialogue will not. Cary Grant, in one of his two Oscar-nominated dramatic performances, is loose and wounded as Roger, and Irene Dunne matches him with a performance built on small, precise gestures. The film is a melodrama in the old sense, earned by patience rather than contrivance. Its copyright was not renewed at the end of its first 28-year term, and it entered the public domain in 1970.

Romance · Drama

A young man returns to his uncle's music store business and falls for a singer from a feuding family, getting tangled in a radio giveaway contest and a war between the two clans. James Stewart and Paulette Goddard star in this musical comedy. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Musical · Romance

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

The first feature-length animated film made in China, produced by the Wan brothers at Shanghai's Xinhua Film Company in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Drawn with rotoscoped movement in a style openly inspired by Disney's Snow White, it adapts an episode of Journey to the West: the Monkey King and his companions are halted by the Mountain of Flames, and only the magic fan of the reluctant Princess Iron Fan can quench the fire. Made under brutal wartime conditions, the film doubled as a patriotic allegory of united resistance, and its influence reached Japan, where a young Osamu Tezuka credited it with inspiring his own career in animation. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Fantasy · Adventure

Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat is a 1941 animated short from Walter Lantz Productions, distributed by Universal Pictures. A boogie-woogie playing laundry woman inspires a sleepy town's inhabitants to clean up and dance. The cartoon is a swing-era musical with the popular boogie-woogie sound of the early 1940s. Like many cartoons of the era, it contains racial stereotypes that reflect the prejudices of its time. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy · Musical

The East Side Kids, a gang of streetwise New York teenagers, are shipped off to a summer camp in the country and end up stranded in a town where a "monster killer" is said to be on the loose. After one of them is wounded, they take shelter at a hilltop mansion owned by a mysterious caped figure named Nardo, played by Bela Lugosi, and his dwarf assistant. The boys decide Nardo is a zombie master and tie him up. The film was made to pair Monogram's two biggest draws, Lugosi and the East Side Kids, and it leans into the comedy as much as the scares. Leo Gorcey's malapropism-heavy banter with Huntz Hall is the engine of the picture. The film entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Horror

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

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

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 bored wife of an insurance salesman seeks psychoanalysis for her mysterious neuroses, only to find herself entangled with an eccentric pianist and demanding a divorce. Ernst Lubitsch's remake of his own silent film Kiss Me Again, starring Merle Oberon, Melvyn Douglas, and Burgess Meredith. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Romance

A starving cat wanders into a haunted house hoping to catch a mouse, only to find the mouse is a ghost who torments him with supernatural gags. A Tex Avery-directed Looney Tunes short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Horror

A young woman is murdered at a creepy mansion and returns as a ghost to enlist the mild-mannered Cosmo Topper to find her killer, dragging the bewildered man through a house full of secret passages and suspects. The third Topper comedy. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Mystery · Fantasy

The East Side Kids rescue Sylvia, a young girl fleeing her abusive stepfather Morley, and hide her in their clubhouse dressed as a boy. When Morley turns up dead — killed by racketeer McGaffey for a stolen stash of money — Danny is arrested for the murder after returning to the girl's apartment for her clothes. Muggs is then blackmailed into joining a warehouse robbery, leaving the kids to clear their friend's name and catch the real killer, with help from Rusty, a former East Side Kid home on leave from the Navy. The eleventh East Side Kids picture, directed by Wallace Fox for Monogram, and one of the series' more dramatic entries. The film entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Crime · Drama

A Tale of Two Kitties is a 1942 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions. It features two hungry cats, Babbit and Catstello — parodies of the comedy team Abbott and Costello — who scheme to catch a baby bird in a nest atop a high telephone pole. The bird is Tweety, making his first-ever appearance (then called "Orson"), who would go on to become one of Warner Bros.' most enduring characters. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

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

A wartime espionage quickie from Monogram, rushed into theaters three months after Pearl Harbor. Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Melcher, a plastic surgeon who has spent years transforming six agents of Japan's Black Dragon Society into doubles of prominent American industrialists — a fifth column planted to sabotage the US war effort. When the infiltrators start turning up dead with ceremonial daggers in their chests, a doctor and a detective try to untangle the conspiracy. Clayton Moore, a few years away from the Lone Ranger, plays a young FBI man. Cheap even by poverty-row standards, but a vivid snapshot of wartime paranoia. The film entered the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Thriller · Mystery · War

A respected university professor by day secretly runs a criminal ring out of a Bowery soup kitchen by night, disposing of disloyal henchmen by burying them in the cellar, where a junkie doctor keeps them in a zombie-like trance. Bela Lugosi stars in this Monogram quickie. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Horror · Crime

A narrator introduces a moth who falls ravenously in love with a glamorous female performer, with comic results blending live action and animation. A Bob Clampett-directed Warner Bros. short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

Edward Arnold stars as Duncan "Mac" Maclain, a blind detective who refuses to let his disability slow him down, relying on his guide dog Friday and his heightened remaining senses. When old friend Norma Lawry (Ann Harding) asks him to scare off a scheming actor courting her teenage stepdaughter (Donna Reed, in one of her earliest roles), Mac walks into a case that quickly turns to espionage and murder. Directed by Fred Zinnemann near the start of his Hollywood career, this lean MGM programmer spins Baynard Kendrick's novels into a tight, atmospheric thriller — the first of only two Maclain films. Its copyright was never renewed, placing it in the public domain.

Noir · Mystery · Crime

A parade of fairy-tale characters gets the Looney Tunes treatment, from a lazy Grasshopper who refuses to fiddle to a Cinderella whose glass slipper shatters. A Friz Freleng-directed Merrie Melodies short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Family

A fox reads that fox fur is the latest fashion rage and, mistaking popularity for affection, eagerly turns himself in to a furrier, with predictably comic results. A Chuck Jones-directed Merrie Melodies short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

A wartime propaganda short produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to convince American farmers to plant hemp. With Japan's 1942 occupation of the Philippines cutting off the rope fiber imports the Navy depended on, the government needed domestic production fast — this film walks farmers through planting, harvesting, and processing the crop, with hemp promised to buy war bonds at harvest. Long suppressed after the war when hemp was lumped back in with marijuana prohibition, it resurfaced as a staple of cannabis-reform lore; the USDA denied the film existed until a copy turned up in a government archive in 1989. As a work of the U.S. federal government, it is in the public domain.

War · Documentary · Short

The man-cub Mowgli, raised by wolves in the Indian jungle, is drawn back toward the human village even as he battles the tiger Shere Khan and the cunning serpent Kaa. Sabu stars in Zoltan Korda's lavish Technicolor adaptation of Kipling's stories, filmed in India with real wildlife. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Adventure · Family · Fantasy

The first chapter of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series, made for the U.S. War Department to explain to soldiers and the public why the country was at war. The film frames World War II as a struggle between the "slave world" of the Axis dictatorships and the "free world" of American liberty, tracing the rise of Mussolini, Hitler, and Japanese militarism through archival footage and animated maps. Walter Huston narrates. The series was supervised by Capra, then a major in the Army Signal Corps, who drew on captured enemy footage and Hollywood editing techniques to make propaganda that played like a feature film. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

A 1942 American comedy-musical film directed by Edward F. Cline and produced by Universal Pictures. Released during World War II, the film combines military comedy with musical performances by The Andrews Sisters and Harry James and His Music Makers. The story follows entertainer Lon Prentice (Dick Foran), who enlists in the United States Army and struggles to adapt to military life during basic training. Shemp Howard (later of The Three Stooges) co-stars as First Sgt. "Muggsy" Shavel. The Andrews Sisters perform several songs including "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else But Me)" and "Three Little Sisters." A young Donald O'Connor also appears in a supporting role.

Comedy · Musical · War

Saps in Chaps is a 1942 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions. A Western-themed gag cartoon featuring sagebrush sight gags and wild west wackiness, with horses, cowboys, and desert humor. The short was the last black-and-white Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Freleng. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy · Western

The East Side Kids earn money for baseball uniforms, but their plans collide with gangster Butch Brocalli when Muggs catches the eye of the ex-boxer's gang. Muggs lands in jail for refusing to inform on an old friend, while Danny's sister Ruth desperately needs money for an operation. Former East Side Kid Hank Salko, fresh out of prison, falls back in with the gang before deciding where his loyalties lie. Former light-heavyweight champion Maxie "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom plays Brocalli, and Gale Storm appears as Ruth. The tenth East Side Kids picture, directed by Wallace Fox for Monogram. The film entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Crime · Drama

ZaSu Pitts gets a rare leading role as Emma Bates, a fluttery small-town spinster who comes to the big city to see a prizefight and is promptly mistaken for a notorious gun moll. The mix-up pulls her into the boxing racket, a kidnapping, and a couple of gangland murders, and Emma turns out to be considerably sharper than the mobsters around her. Jean Yarbrough directs for Monogram, with Roger Pryor as a fast-talking reporter and Warren Hymer doing his patented dumb-mug routine. A lightweight but likeable entry in the era's run of little-old-lady comedies. The film entered the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Crime

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

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

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

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

John Ford, serving as a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, was on Midway Island when the Japanese attacked in June 1942 and was wounded while filming. The result is one of the first American combat documentaries of the war, shot in color and built around the pivotal naval battle that broke the back of the Japanese carrier fleet. The film shifts between the calm of island life, the chaos of the attack, and the recovery of American airmen from the sea. Hollywood voices including Henry Fonda, Donald Crisp, and Jane Darwell narrate, giving the footage a human, almost home-front tone. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Lorenz, a mad scientist who sends poisoned orchids to brides so they collapse at the altar, then steals their bodies to extract the fluids that keep his aging wife young. A journalist investigating the string of deaths tracks Lorenz to his country home, where she finds a household of coffins, secret passages, and a hunchbacked servant. The Corpse Vanishes is a brisk Monogram B-picture from the stretch of Lugosi's career when he was working the Poverty Row circuit. It is campy and cheap, but Lugosi plays it with complete conviction. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Mystery

Three pranking brothers at Pimento University must rescue their sweetheart Dora Standpipe from the villainous Dan Backslide. A Chuck Jones-directed Merrie Melodies short, considered a landmark in animation for its limited-animation style and breakneck pacing. The film entered the public domain in 1970 through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

A duck farm becomes a parody of Axis powers as a Hitler-duck, Mussolini-goose, and Hirohito-duck rise to power, until a peaceful dove finally has enough. A Norman McCabe-directed Looney Tunes wartime propaganda short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · War

The Mad Monster is a 1942 horror film directed by Sam Newfield and produced by Sigmund Neufeld for Producers Releasing Corporation. George Zucco plays Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, a discredited scientist who injects his simple-minded handyman Petro (Glenn Strange) with a serum derived from wolf's blood, transforming him into a werewolf. Cameron unleashes his creation on the colleagues who ruined his career, while reporter Tom Gregory (Johnny Downs) and Cameron's daughter Lenora (Anne Nagel) close in on the truth. A quickie knock-off of Universal's monster pictures, it gave Glenn Strange an early turn as a screen monster before he played Frankenstein's creature at Universal. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Horror · Sci-Fi

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

A Looney Tunes wartime cartoon directed by Bob Clampett, set on a farm where the animals are preparing for World War II in a series of blackout skits. A narrator tours the barnyard, finding chickens rationing feed, a horse collecting scrap metal, and a duck dodging air raid drills. The gags are disconnected and rapid-fire, mixing patriotic messaging with Clampett's characteristic absurdity. Released July 11, 1942, the short was produced by Leon Schlesinger for Warner Bros. and is in the public domain.

Animation · Short · Comedy

Supreme Court Justice John Josephus Grant (Frank Morgan) slips away for a quiet duck-hunting trip and lands in a small town ruled by a corrupt mayor and a bought judge. Incognito, he watches local politicians railroad an innocent young man and decides to put the system on trial himself. A warm, Capra-flavored civics comedy built around the Wizard of Oz himself, with Richard Carlson and Jean Rogers as the young couple caught in the machine. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Drama · Romance

Linda Darnell plays a young woman who gets herself sent to a women's prison to be near her husband, a Coast Guard officer convicted of a crime he didn't commit. Inside she finds a population of wives and mothers serving time alongside — and sometimes instead of — the men who dragged them into trouble. Edgar Buchanan and Glenda Farrell lead the ensemble. Sidney Salkow directed this Columbia prison-reform drama at the height of the wartime cycle of women's-prison pictures. The film is in the public domain.

Drama · Crime

A U.S. Army Air Forces documentary produced by the First Motion Picture Unit and narrated by Clark Gable, who interrupted his superstar career to enlist after the death of his wife Carole Lombard. The film follows a single B-17 Flying Fortress crew of the 351st Bombardment Group from training in the United States through combat missions over Nazi-occupied Europe — Gable himself flew five missions over Germany gathering footage. Built to sell war bonds and reassure audiences about what their sons were facing, it doubles as an unusually frank portrait of daylight bombing at its most dangerous. As a work of the United States government it is in the public domain.

Documentary · War

Coming!! Snafu is a 1943 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Chuck Jones for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. This is the very first Snafu short, serving as an introduction to the bumbling soldier character. The cartoon sets the template for the series: Snafu demonstrates exactly what NOT to do in military situations, with humorous consequences. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy

John Ford and cinematographer Gregg Toland made this film about the attack on Pearl Harbor for the U.S. Navy. The original cut ran 82 minutes and asked uncomfortable questions about American readiness and the treatment of Japanese Americans; the Navy shelved it and Ford cut it to 32 minutes, concentrating on the battle and the recovery. The shorter version won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1944. Toland's staged recreation of the attack was so convincing that feature films borrowed footage from it for decades. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

A British documentary about the Allied campaign to drive Germany and Italy from North Africa, centered on the Battle of El Alamein. Produced by the Army Film and Photographic Unit and the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit, it was shot by cameramen embedded with the Eighth Army during the advance across the desert, and four of them were killed, seven wounded, and six captured in the making of it. The film follows Montgomery's army from the defensive line at El Alamein through the pursuit of Rommel's forces across 1,400 miles to Tripoli. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. As a work of the United Kingdom government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

The third chapter of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series picks up after Britain and France declare war on Germany. It follows the Nazi capture of Denmark and Norway, the conquest of Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and the collapse of France in just over a month. The film pays blunt attention to Nazi atrocities, including the bombing of Rotterdam, and explains the German tactic of flooding roads with refugees to slow Allied armies. Made for the U.S. War Department, it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

Private Snafu learns the hard way that a soldier is only as good as his equipment, as he neglects his weapons and pays the price on the front lines. A Bob Clampett-directed Private Snafu training short featuring a Daffy Duck cameo. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

The East Side Kids return in a sequel of sorts to Spooks Run Wild. When one of their own gets married, the gang tries to fix up a bargain suburban house for the newlyweds but accidentally breaks into the "haunted" house next door, where a mysterious man named Emil, played by Bela Lugosi, slips in and out of secret panels. The boys uncover a Nazi spy ring operating a printing press in the basement. Ava Gardner, on loan from MGM and not yet a major star, appears as the bride. William Beaudine directs with his usual no-nonsense pace. The film is more comedy than horror, with the gang's slapstick carrying most of the running time, and Lugosi used mostly for atmosphere. It entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Horror

Private Snafu grumbles about army life until a magical fairy grants his wish to be in charge, with predictably disastrous results. A Friz Freleng-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

A wartime drama based on the real-life Makin Island raid by the U.S. Marine Corps' 2nd Raider Battalion, led by Colonel Evans Carlson. Randolph Scott plays the officer who assembles a volunteer unit of "Carlson's Raiders" from civilians and soldiers, trains them in jungle warfare, and leads them on a mission to attack a Japanese-held Pacific island. The film was made with the cooperation of the Marine Corps and was released less than a year after the raid it dramatizes. A young Robert Mitchum appears in one of his earliest credited roles. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

War · Drama

A pair of Scottish rabbits bedevil a gullible American tourist duck named Claude Hopper in this wartime Looney Tunes short. A Norman McCabe-directed Leon Schlesinger production. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · War

Cowboy Dan Somers and oilman Jim "Hunk" Gardner square off over drilling rights on Indian land in Oklahoma — and over schoolteacher Catherine Allen — in a feud that escalates from fists to sabotage to a race against a burning oil field. John Wayne stars opposite Martha Scott and Albert Dekker, with Gabby Hayes, Marjorie Rambeau, and Dale Evans. One of Republic's biggest pictures of 1943, later reissued as War of the Wildcats. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Western · Romance · Drama

A U.S. military and diplomatic mission film documenting the journey from Gangtok, India, to Lhasa, Tibet during World War II. The party crosses the Natu La and Kechu La passes, stops at the British trail station at Gyantse, reviews Tibetan troops, and is ferried across the Brahmaputra River. Rare footage of Tibetan natives, terrain, the New Year religious festival, the Dalai Lama's palaces, and monasteries. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Documentary

The U.S. government's own film about the internment of Japanese Americans, produced by the Office of War Information with the War Relocation Authority. WRA director Milton Eisenhower, the president's brother, appears on camera to explain that more than 100,000 people — most of them American citizens — have been moved from the West Coast to inland camps, and the narration frames it as a humane wartime necessity. What it does not mention is that no charges or trials were involved. It stands as a primary document of wartime propaganda aimed at Americans themselves. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary · Short

Striptease artist Dixie Daisy is riding out backstage feuds and fending off brash comic Biff Brannigan when a string of murders starts picking off her fellow dancers one by one — and she's next on the list. Barbara Stanwyck leads the wisecracking company in William A. Wellman's adaptation of Gypsy Rose Lee's novel The G-String Murders, with Michael O'Shea, Iris Adrian, and a backstage world rendered with real backstage bite. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Mystery · Music

Pigs in a Polka is a 1943 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions. A parody of Disney's Three Little Pigs, the short retells the familiar story set to the music of Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances. The Big Bad Wolf uses various disguises to trick the pigs, with the classical music underscore driving the comedy. The cartoon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon). The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy · Musical

Puss n' Booty is a 1943 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin for Leon Schlesinger Productions. A woman is distraught because her pet cats keep mysteriously disappearing, and she hires a mouse investigator to solve the case. The short is a film noir parody with a surprising twist ending. Tashlin's live-action-influenced directorial style is evident throughout. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy · Mystery

The first of John Huston's three war documentaries, made while he served as a captain in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The film follows the daily life of American soldiers stationed on the Aleutian island of Adak, a cold and barren outpost of immense strategic value in the Pacific, and culminates in a bombing run over Japanese-occupied Kiska that Huston filmed from the plane himself. He narrates with his father, Walter Huston. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

Rumors is a 1943 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Friz Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Snafu overhears a rumor about an impending enemy attack and spreads it through the camp, demonstrating how rumors can spiral out of control and damage morale and military effectiveness. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy

The fourth of Universal's Sherlock Holmes films updates Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" to wartime. Holmes smuggles a Swiss scientist out of Zurich ahead of the Gestapo and brings him to London, where the man has developed a revolutionary bombsight he intends to give the Allies. When the scientist is kidnapped, Holmes and Watson discover that Professor Moriarty is behind it, working to deliver the weapon to Nazi Germany. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are in their familiar roles, with Lionel Atwill as a silkily malevolent Moriarty. The film grafts a spy thriller onto a Conan Doyle puzzle and was made on a small budget at a moment when the series leaned hard into the war effort. It was released in 1943 and is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Crime · Thriller

Spies is a 1943 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Chuck Jones for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Snafu inadvertently leaks military secrets to enemy spies through careless behavior, demonstrating the dangers of loose lips. The cartoon features a memorable sequence where Snafu is pursued through a nightmarish landscape of espionage. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy

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

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

The first of four Mr. Hook cartoons made for the US Navy to sell war bonds. Set in 1953, sailor Hook tells his young son how buying bonds a decade earlier helped him defeat a Japanese fighter pilot attacking his aircraft carrier. The only Hook short produced at Walter Lantz Productions — in Technicolor — before the series moved to Warner Bros., and the only one directed by James "Shamus" Culhane, with Dick Nelson voicing Hook. A US government film in the public domain; like much wartime propaganda it trades in the racial caricatures of the era.

Animation · Comedy · War

Bela Lugosi at his most committedly absurd: Dr. James Brewster, a scientist whose experiments with ape glands have turned him into a stooped, shaggy ape-man who must harvest human spinal fluid to stay alive. Wallace Ford and Louise Currie play the reporters who stumble onto the story, and Henry Hall wanders through as the creepiest character in the picture — a mysterious man who keeps appearing to comment on events. Shot in a week for Monogram under William Beaudine, it is cheap even by poverty-row standards, but Lugosi plays the degradation with real conviction, and the final twist is genuinely strange. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Horror · Sci-Fi

The fourth chapter of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series is devoted to the British stand against Germany in 1940, from the fall of France through the Luftwaffe's campaign to destroy the Royal Air Force and the Blitz that followed. The film argues that the Royal Air Force's refusal to break saved Britain and, by extension, the possibility of a liberated Europe. It blends British combat footage with captured German material and animated maps. Made for the U.S. War Department. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

The fifth and longest chapter of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series covers the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Red Army's defense. Co-directed by the Russian-born Anatole Litvak, the film recounts seven hundred years of failed invasions of Russia, then traces the Nazi advance to the gates of Moscow and Leningrad and the turning point at Stalingrad. Released two years before the Cold War, it portrays the Soviet people sympathetically as allies. Walter Huston narrates, with a score by Dimitri Tiomkin drawing on Tchaikovsky and Russian folk song. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

A 1943 Poverty Row mystery-horror film directed by Sam Newfield and produced by Sigmund Neufeld for Producers Releasing Corporation. On a stormy night, a group of strangers—including an eloping couple, an embezzling bank teller, and a gangster—take shelter at the Black Raven inn, run by the mysterious Amos Bradford (George Zucco), known in the underworld as "The Raven." When a murder occurs and the roads wash out, the trapped travelers begin to suspect each other. The film co-stars Wanda McKay, Robert Livingston, and Charles Middleton. The film is in the public domain.

Mystery · Crime · Horror

A sinister mouse agitator infiltrates a peaceful mouse community and turns them against each other, a parable for fascist fifth-column subversion during World War II. A Friz Freleng-directed Merrie Melodies short. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · War

Private Snafu learns the hard way that goldbricking—shirking duty and faking illness—has consequences when his laziness gives the enemy an opening. A Frank Tashlin-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

Private Snafu imagines what his family is doing back home, picturing a carefree civilian life that contrasts sharply with his own hardships, until reality sets in. A Frank Tashlin-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

Private Snafu endures the grueling marches, drills, and discomforts of infantry life, learning that the blues of the foot soldier are the foundation of military victory. A Chuck Jones-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

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 second chapter of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series covers Adolf Hitler's plan for world conquest and Germany's march across Europe. From the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia through the invasion of Poland that triggered the British and French declarations of war, the film lays out the Nazi strategy of "softening up" future targets with political subversion before striking militarily. It uses captured German footage alongside Allied material. Made for the U.S. War Department, it was shown to troops heading overseas and then to the public. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

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

A fictionalized western in which Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, and Pat Garrett circle one another in a love-and-rivalry triangle over a half-Mexican woman. Howard Hughes produced and directed, famously clashing with the Production Code over Jane Russell's presence; the film's release was delayed for years. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Western · Drama

A 15-chapter Columbia cliffhanger serial based on Lee Falk's comic strip, with Chapter 1 titled "The Sign of the Skull." Tom Tyler plays Geoffrey Prescott, who inherits the mantle of The Phantom—the legendary "Ghost Who Walks"—and races against a foreign agent and a treasure hunter to find the Lost City of Zoloz. Jeanne Bates co-stars as Diana Palmer. Directed by B. Reeves Eason, the serial is a faithful early screen translation of the comic character and is in the public domain.

Action · Adventure

Donald Duck faces a wartime dilemma: spend his paycheck on fun, or save it to pay his income taxes and fund the fight against the Axis. A thrifty Scotsman and a lavish spendthrift battle for his wallet in this Disney propaganda short made for the U.S. Treasury Department, which helped convince millions of Americans to pay their income tax for the first time. Clarence Nash voices Donald; Jack King directs. As a work made for the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy · War

A wartime Technicolor musical comedy directed by Michael Curtiz, adapted from Irving Berlin's 1942 Broadway stage show. George Murphy plays Jerry Jones, a dancer wounded in World War I who becomes a producer and, 25 years later, mounts an all-soldier revue packed with Berlin songs. Ronald Reagan co-stars as his son Johnny, a corporal in the WWII-era production. The large ensemble cast includes Kate Smith singing "God Bless America," boxing champion Joe Louis, and Irving Berlin himself performing "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." All proceeds went to the Army Emergency Relief Fund. The film is not listed in the Catalog of Copyright Entries and is in the public domain.

Musical · Comedy

A satirical tour of wartime Japan, lampooning Japanese military culture, propaganda, and industry through a series of blackout gags. A Norman McCabe-directed Looney Tunes propaganda short, his final Warner Bros. cartoon before being drafted. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · War

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

A 1943 Office of Strategic Services training film directed by and featuring John Ford, and the first film ever produced by an intelligence service to train its agents. Structured as a film within a film, it dramatizes the experiences of two OSS recruits: the careful, studious "Student Al" (Victor Varconi) and the arrogant, impulsive "Student Charlie." Through their parallel stories, the film teaches proper preparation, cover establishment, and techniques for blending into enemy culture behind enemy lines. Ford appears as "Col. J.P. Baldwin," an OSS officer — his only sound film acting role. The film was classified during the war and declassified afterward. As a U.S. government work, it is in the public domain.

Documentary · War

A Few Quick Facts About Inflation is a 1944 animated short from the "A Few Quick Facts" series, produced by UPA for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Directed by Osmond Evans, it features Private Snafu learning about inflation and its effects on the wartime economy. The short is one of a series of brief educational cartoons commissioned by the Army to explain complex topics to servicemen in an accessible, humorous way. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Educational

A Lecture on Camouflage is a 1944 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Chuck Jones for Leon Schlesinger Productions, written by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel). Using Snafu as an example, Technical Fairy First Class teaches the methods of effective camouflage in a typically irreverent Snafu short, building to a famously shocking ending. As a U.S. government work produced for the Army Signal Corps, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Educational

In 19th-century Paris, puppeteer and portrait painter Gaston Morrell strangles the models who pose for him, while police hunt the killer the newspapers call Bluebeard. John Carradine gives one of his finest performances as the tormented Morrell, with Jean Parker as the dressmaker who loves him and Nils Asther as the inspector on his trail. Made on a five-day PRC schedule, it's poverty-row stylist Edgar G. Ulmer's most admired film — moody, literate, and shot with genuine atmosphere. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Horror · Noir

Private Snafu blunders through a booby-trapped North African landscape, ignoring every warning about hidden explosives until the traps teach him their lessons the hard way. A Bob Clampett-directed Army training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

An independently made short musical film directed by Hanus Burger, shot in September 1941 but not released until 1944. Lena Horne stars as a kitchen maid who joins an after-hours jam session at a nightclub with boogie-woogie piano masters Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, and Teddy Wilson and his orchestra. The film is significant in jazz history for its early glimpse of Horne (in only her second film) and as the only filmed record of Ammons and Johnson performing together. The film is in the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Music

Private Snafu resents having his mail censored by the Army and wishes for a free hand to tell all, only to learn that his loose letters leak secrets straight to the enemy. A Frank Tashlin-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

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 small town is shaken when a high school girl's death is ruled suicide — until a reporter and a detective dig into the dance halls and shady hangouts preying on local teens. June Carlson, Fifi D'Orsay, and Margia Dean star in this PRC "juvenile delinquency" exposé, wartime exploitation fare that mixed moral panic with low-budget crime thrills. Directed by Albert Herman. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Drama

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

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

Private Snafu tosses away his gas mask, confident that poison gas will never reach him, until a surreal gas attack proves him catastrophically wrong. A Chuck Jones-directed Private Snafu training short with a Bugs Bunny cameo. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

Private Snafu goes on leave and can't stop blabbing military secrets to everyone back home, with disastrous consequences for his unit. A Chuck Jones-directed Private Snafu training short written by Dr. Seuss. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

The East Side Kids — Muggs (Leo Gorcey), Glimpy (Huntz Hall), and the gang — rescue millionaire John Cortland from a mugging, and his gratitude lands them in a world of swank they were never built for. The good turn sours when the boys discover a friend has been recruited by the crooks behind a string of robberies, and Muggs has to choose between loyalty and doing right. One of the tighter entries in Monogram's long-running East Side Kids series, with the usual mix of slapstick, Bowery slang, and last-reel fisticuffs under series regular Wallace Fox. Sam Katzman produced, as he did for most of the gang's pictures. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Comedy · Crime

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

Payday is a 1944 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Friz Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Snafu receives his first paycheck and must decide what to do with his newfound wealth, learning lessons about financial responsibility and the dangers of gambling. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy

Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike is a 1944 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Chuck Jones for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Snafu is stationed in a jungle where a malaria-carrying mosquito named Malaria Mike targets him as his next victim. The cartoon was part of a series of instructional films designed to teach soldiers about malaria prevention in tropical theaters. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy

A U.S. Army Air Forces docudrama training film directed by Robert B. Sinclair and produced by Ronald Reagan. The film dramatizes the experiences of a five-man American bomber crew shot down over Italy and captured by German forces. Though reminded to provide only name, rank, and serial number, the crew members gradually fall prey to the clever interrogation techniques of their Nazi captors at Dulag Luft, revealing seemingly harmless information that is pieced together into valuable military intelligence. The film stars Lloyd Nolan, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Tormé, Craig Stevens, and Peter Van Eyck. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 1945. As a U.S. government work, it is in the public domain.

War · Drama

Snafuperman is a 1944 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Friz Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. A Superman parody, the short features Snafu gaining superpowers after reading a comic book, only to bumble his way through a mission with his usual incompetence. The cartoon includes a brief cameo appearance by Superman himself (as "Super-Snafu"). As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy · Parody

A documentary film directed by William Keighley for the First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces. The film describes the preparation and mounting of an Eighth Air Force daylight bombing raid on Nazi Germany industrial targets in East Prussia, including Anklam, the air base at Marienburg, and Gdynia in occupied Poland. From target selection through briefing, takeoff, combat footage of B-17 and B-24 bombers, and post-mission interrogation, the film provides a comprehensive account of a single bombing mission. The film was also shown in civilian theaters in connection with war bond drives. As a U.S. government work, it is in the public domain.

Documentary · War

A Private Snafu training short directed by Frank Tashlin for Leon Schlesinger Productions, commissioned by the US Army Signal Corps during World War II. An armada of malaria-laden mosquitoes trains like a military squadron and attacks American troops, finding Private Snafu woefully unprepared with his mosquito netting and repellent. The cartoon was part of a series written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel and voiced by Mel Blanc, designed to teach soldiers about hygiene and discipline through humor that was too risqué for civilian audiences. The film is in the public domain as a US government work.

Animation · Short · Comedy · War

That's My Baby! is a 1944 comedy directed by William Berke and starring Richard Arlen as a comic book artist and Ellen Drew as the publisher's daughter. The film follows a love triangle complicated by the father's severe melancholy, which requires an emergency cure of laughter. The film features a variety of musical acts and comedy routines, including performances by Mike Riley and His Musical Maniacs and Freddie Fisher and His Schnikelfritz Orchestra. Produced by Walter Colmes and released by Republic Pictures, the film is a lighthearted wartime entertainment. As a public domain film, it is freely available.

Comedy · Music

The sixth chapter of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series explains Japan's long ambition to conquer China. It covers the invasion of Manchuria, the fall of Nanking, and the Chinese resistance that unified a fractured country against a foreign enemy. The film highlights the Burma Road, the seven-hundred-mile supply route the Allies built over the mountains to keep the Chinese army fed and armed, and argues that Japan's frustration in China drove it toward the Pacific and the United States. Made for the U.S. War Department. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

Private Snafu learns the importance of not wasting food, as his gluttony in the mess hall leads to a surreal lesson in military discipline. A Frank Tashlin-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

Directed by the renowned photographer Edward Steichen while he served in the U.S. Navy, this documentary follows life aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, identified only as "the Fighting Lady" for wartime security (she was the USS Yorktown). The film moves from the routines of life at sea through the Panama Canal to combat in the Marcus Islands and the climactic "Marianas Turkey Shoot," where American pilots downed nearly four hundred Japanese aircraft. Cameras mounted in cockpit canopies show what it is like to dive through anti-aircraft fire. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

The second of Columbia's eight Whistler films, drawn from the popular radio mystery series in which an unseen narrator who "knows many things" walks the listener through a story of fate and guilt. Richard Dix plays a drifter who stumbles into a dormant bank account left in his name by a dead man, and tries to pass himself off as the depositor's long-lost son to collect the money. The scheme draws in a woman who may know more than she lets on and a killer waiting in the background. William Castle directed, working from a Cornell Woolrich story, and the film carries Woolrich's signature dread of ordinary people trapped by coincidence. Released in 1944, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Noir · Crime

William Wyler, serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces, filmed the crew of the B-17 bomber Memphis Belle on its 25th and final mission over Europe, the milestone that would send the crew home. Shot with hand-held 16mm cameras mounted inside the plane, the documentary puts the viewer inside a real bombing raid, with flak so thick the crew said you could walk on it. Wyler combined footage from several missions to tell the story of one plane and its ten crewmen, ordinary Americans doing a job that might not let them come back. One of Wyler's cameramen was killed during filming. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

A mad scientist becomes obsessed with a concert pianist's daughter and, when she rejects him, injects the pianist with a serum that causes acromegaly, the glandular disease that hideously enlarges the face and extremities. He offers the cure only in exchange for the daughter's hand. J. Carrol Naish plays the villain with relish, and the film uses the real, disfiguring effects of the disease as its horror rather than a fictional monster. A cheap, brisk PRC production from the prolific director Sam Newfield, it is a solid example of 1940s Poverty Row horror. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A U.S. Army documentary produced under Frank Capra's supervision and directed by Stuart Heisler, The Negro Soldier was a landmark in the portrayal of African Americans in the military. Framed as a sermon in a Black church, it traces the contributions of Black soldiers from the American Revolution through the Spanish-American War and into World War II, intercut with footage of training and combat. The film was made to recruit Black soldiers and to push back against segregation within the ranks, and it was required viewing for all U.S. Army troops. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

Private Snafu is stationed on a remote island outpost, where isolation and boredom lead him into typical Snafu-style trouble. A Chuck Jones-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

Private Snafu's three brothers—Tarfu, Fubar, and the Technical Fairy—each demonstrate a different branch of military service, with Bugs Bunny making a cameo appearance. A Friz Freleng-directed Private Snafu training short written by Dr. Seuss. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

Dr. Marlowe, a mad scientist played by Bela Lugosi, uses voodoo and hypnosis to kidnap young women and transfer their life essence into the body of his dead wife, who has been in a trance for twenty-eight years. His assistants are a zombie-like coachman played by John Carradine and a gas station owner played by George Zucco who lures victims by pretending their cars have broken down. Shot in seven days by William Beaudine for Sam Katzman's Monogram unit, the film was not intended as a comedy, but its absurd plot and loose continuity have made it a favorite of bad-movie audiences. Carradine reportedly considered it the worst film he ever made. It was the last of Lugosi's nine Monogram features. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Horror · Comedy

A short documentary about the U.S. Marine assault on the Japanese-held island of Tarawa in November 1943, directed by Louis Hayward, who served in the Marine Corps. Shot in full color with no actors, it shows the landing, the fight across the beach, the casualties, and the burial of the dead at sea. The footage was so graphic that Hollywood distributors refused to release it, and only President Roosevelt's personal approval sent it to theaters. The film was meant to show Americans at home that the war was not a parade of easy victories. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

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

A Few Quick Facts About Fear is a 1945 animated short from the "A Few Quick Facts" series, produced by UPA (United Productions of America) for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Directed by Zack Schwartz, it features Private Snafu in knight's armor encountering a fire-breathing dragon, using the allegory to examine the emotion of fear and its influence on human nature. The screenplay was written by Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), who contributed to many of the Snafu shorts. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Educational

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

Ten strangers lured to a remote island mansion by the unseen "Mr. Owen" are accused by a gramophone recording of crimes the law couldn't touch — then begin dying one by one, following the nursery rhyme tacked above the mantel. René Clair's adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel keeps the jagged suspense while letting an impeccable ensemble — Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez — play it with dry wit. Still the benchmark screen version of the most-read mystery novel ever written. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Crime · Mystery · Drama

An American newspaper editor in 1920s Tokyo uncovers a secret Japanese military plan for expansion across the Pacific, and becomes a target of both the army and a double agent. James Cagney stars in this wartime thriller, which won an Academy Award for art direction. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Thriller · War · Drama

The notorious pirate Captain Kidd is hired by the king to escort a treasure ship from India, while secretly plotting to seize the cargo, and a convict pressed into his crew works to expose him. Charles Laughton reprises his swaggering villain. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Adventure · History

Al Roberts is a piano player hitchhiking from New York to Los Angeles to find his girlfriend, a singer who left to try her luck on the coast. He is picked up by a man who dies, and Al takes the man's identity and his car to avoid being blamed. Then he picks up Vera, a woman who knew the dead man and who decides to use what she knows against him. The film was shot in under a week on a tiny budget, and it is one of the bleakest films noir ever made. Edgar G. Ulmer uses voiceover, rear projection, and obvious sets to make the world feel closed in, and the story Al tells is so unreliable that the truth of what happened is never clear. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Noir · Drama

An educational Walt Disney short produced for the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, contrasting two families to teach children in the Americas the importance of personal hygiene and sanitation. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Educational · Family

Private Snafu finds himself in a literal hot spot when he is transported to a devilish atlas come to life, with Bugs Bunny making a brief cameo. A Friz Freleng-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

Private Snafu is stationed on the cold, remote Aleutian Islands, where boredom and isolation prove as dangerous as the enemy. A Chuck Jones-directed Private Snafu training short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

It's Murder She Says is a 1945 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Chuck Jones for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. In this installment, Snafu becomes the victim of a murder mystery aboard a military base, with the cartoon using the whodunit format to deliver its instructional message about military security and vigilance. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy

Jerky Turkey is a 1945 MGM cartoon directed by Tex Avery. A Pilgrim sets out to hunt a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but the turkey proves to be more than a match for him in a series of wild gags and sight gags. The short is a classic example of Avery's screwball style, with rapid-fire pacing and absurd visual humor. The film is in the public domain.

Animation · Comedy

Frank Capra's companion piece to the "Why We Fight" series, produced for the War Department to orient troops headed for the Pacific. Joris Ivens began the film; Capra finished it, building a portrait of Japanese history and militarism out of captured Japanese footage — including material taken from Japan's own propaganda — before the surrender made it obsolete. It was withheld until 1977, and its portrayal of an entire people is both historically revealing and deeply of its moment. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

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

No Buddy Atoll is a 1945 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Chuck Jones for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Snafu finds himself stranded on a tropical island, where he believes he has found a companion — only to discover that his new "buddy" is actually a Japanese sniper. The cartoon is one of the later Snafu shorts, produced near the end of World War II. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy

Operation Snafu is a 1945 Private Snafu cartoon directed by Friz Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. In this dialogue-free short, Snafu does something right for once — he personally steals Japanese war plans and captures Tojo himself. The cartoon is one of the final Snafu shorts, released near the end of World War II. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · 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

A mild-mannered middle-aged cashier and amateur painter is manipulated by a cynical young woman and her hustler boyfriend, who pass his work off as her own and sell it to a dealer. Fritz Lang's first of three films with Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea is a bleak noir of guilt and doom. The film entered the public domain when its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Noir

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

Seaman Tarfu in the Navy is a 1945 Private Snafu cartoon directed by George Gordon for Harman-Ising Productions, produced for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. This is the only Snafu cartoon not produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons — it was instead produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising's independent studio. The short follows Snafu's misadvent ures in the Navy, with the usual bumbling behavior that gives the character his name (Situation Normal: All Fouled Up). As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · War · Comedy

Haunted by a recurring dream in which a suave stranger seduces his widowed mother, teenager Paul Cartwright (Jimmy Lydon) becomes convinced that the man — Brett Curtis (Warren William) — murdered his father. Edgar G. Ulmer's poverty-row Hamlet, made on PRC's tiny budgets with his signature hallucinatory style, proves atmosphere doesn't require money. Curtis's oily charm does the rest. One of the most admired of Ulmer's "stylish cheapies," the film is in the public domain.

Noir · Mystery · Thriller

John Huston's second war documentary is about the 1943 Battle of San Pietro Infine, a costly Allied fight in the Italian campaign. Huston filmed with troops in the field, and the result was so unflinching that the U.S. Army initially refused to show it, fearing it would damage morale. General George Marshall ordered its release, arguing that soldiers headed into combat should see what war really looked like. Some battle scenes were re-created with the soldiers who had fought there, but the cost is real: two members of Huston's crew were killed during filming. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

A Mr. Hook cartoon made for the U.S. Navy, in which the sailor Hook dreams of the girl he left stateside and the egg that represents his future happiness. A Chuck Jones-directed Warner Bros. wartime short. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

A vaudeville sharpshooter is manipulated by his beautiful assistant and her alcoholic husband into killing the husband on stage, only to realize he has been set up. Erich von Stroheim stars in this early Anthony Mann noir. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Noir · Drama

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

Sailor Mr. Hook regales his skeptical shipmates with his post-war plans, funded by his diligent war bond purchases, convincing them to invest too. A Robert McKimson-directed Mr. Hook short, his first directorial credit. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

One of the six Charlie Chan pictures Sidney Toler made for Monogram after the series left Fox. When murders pile up around a radio station that is secretly tied to a wartime espionage ring, Chan works the case while his son Tommy and chauffeur Birmingham Brown stumble through the clues beside him. The film is best remembered for the extended comedy routine between Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter, whose rhyming, never-finished conversations became a signature of the Monogram Chans. Directed by series veteran Phil Rosen, it is a brisk poverty-row mystery that keeps the plot moving and the banter constant. The film entered the public domain after its copyright was never renewed.

Mystery · Crime · Thriller

A Texas cotton picker decides to stop working other people's land and farm a patch of his own, battling poor soil, a hostile neighbor, weather, and exhaustion to give his family a better life. Jean Renoir's loving, unsentimental portrait of rural American poverty was one of his favorite films. It entered the public domain through non-renewal.

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

The official Anglo-American film of the European campaign, co-directed by Garson Kanin and Carol Reed from footage shot by hundreds of combat cameramen on both sides of the Atlantic. Its unusual device is the narration: instead of one authoritative voice, the film is told in the voices of ordinary soldiers, nurses, and liberated civilians, written by playwrights including Paddy Chayefsky. Eisenhower introduces it. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. As a co-production of the U.S. Office of War Information and the British Ministry of Information, it is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

The White Gorilla is a 1945 jungle adventure written and directed by Harry L. Fraser and produced by Louis Weiss. Ray Corrigan plays Steve Collins, a white explorer in the African jungle who recounts the story of a lost silent expedition and its encounter with a legendary white gorilla. The film was made by re-editing Fraser's own 1927 silent serial Perils of the Jungle, starring the silent-screen Tarzan Frank Merrill, and adding new sound footage as a framing device. The result is a curious hybrid in which roughly half the running time is vintage silent footage projected at sound speed, with Corrigan narrating the action in flashback. The film is in the public domain.

Adventure · Jungle

A string of murders of young women baffles Scotland Yard, but Sherlock Holmes spots the pattern: respectable gentlemen are being hypnotized into believing they are the killers, then blackmailed. The trail leads through a society of mesmerists to a glamorous woman in green — and behind her, Professor Moriarty, reported hanged in Montevideo but very much alive. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce's eleventh Holmes film, with Hillary Brooke and Henry Daniell as a memorably icy Moriarty, directed by Roy William Neill for Universal. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Mystery · Crime · Thriller

Mr. Hook battles the propaganda of Tokyo Rose, who tries to convince sailors not to buy war bonds, by firing a shell carrying a sentient war bond to Japan. A Bob Clampett-directed Mr. Hook short made for the U.S. Navy. The film entered the public domain as a U.S. government work.

Animation · Comedy · War

The seventh and final chapter of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series tells the story of America's slide into the war it had spent years trying to avoid. It traces the rise of isolationism and the German-American Bund, the growth of American industry and the draft as war grew inevitable, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that ended the argument. The film is both a defense of American values and an argument that those values could not survive a world ruled by the Axis. Made for the U.S. War Department. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

An Army Air Forces short about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black military pilots in American history, made by the First Motion Picture Unit and narrated by Captain Ronald Reagan — the future president's own unit produced the film. It follows Black cadets through flight training at Tuskegee and into combat over Europe with the 332nd Fighter Group, pushing back against the Army's own official skepticism that Black men could fly fighters. Short, pointed, and a remarkable artifact of what the wartime government chose to say on film. As a work of the U.S. federal government, it is in the public domain.

War · Documentary · Short

A supernatural comedy in the Here Comes Mr. Jordan vein, directed by Archie Mayo as his final film. Paul Muni plays Eddie Kagle, a murdered gangster whom the Devil (Claude Rains) sends back to Earth in the body of an upright judge to corrupt him, only to watch Kagle gradually reform. Anne Baxter is the judge's fiancée who sees through the swap. The film's U.S. copyright expired in 1973, leaving it in the public domain.

Comedy · Fantasy

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

A comedy directed by Irving Pichel, based on the novel by Berry Fleming. Colonel Willard Effingham (Charles Coburn), a retired Army officer, returns to his hometown of Fredericksville, Georgia, and discovers the town's historical monuments are being neglected. When the corrupt city council tries to sell the town square for a parking lot, the Colonel mounts a one-man crusade to preserve the town's heritage, enlisting the help of his niece (Joan Bennett) and a young newspaper editor (William Eythe). The film is a gentle satire of small-town politics and civic pride, with Coburn's blustering but warm-hearted performance as its centerpiece. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy

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

The last of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Three apparently ordinary music boxes, made by prisoners in Dartmoor and sold at auction, turn out to hide a coded message pointing to a fortune in stolen Bank of England plates. A collector who buys one of the boxes is murdered, and Holmes and Watson race a coolly ruthless woman, Hilda Courtney, to recover the other two before she cracks the code. Patricia Morison plays the villain, one of the series' most memorable, against Rathbone's weary, finally retiring Holmes. Roy William Neill produced and directed his final film before his death later that year. Released in 1946, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Crime

Alan Curtis plays a former FBI agent flying passengers to Honolulu who gets pulled into a hunt for a stolen map of uranium deposits in Death Valley — a map that agents of a foreign power will kill for. Evelyn Ankers co-stars as a fellow passenger with her own reasons for the trip. A Screen Guild B-thriller trading on post-war atomic anxiety, with most of the action confined to the hotel and the doomed flight. The film is in the public domain.

Crime · Mystery · Thriller

John Huston's last war documentary and the most controversial: filmed inside a military psychiatric hospital, it follows soldiers with what the Army called "psychoneurotic" conditions — today it would be PTSD — through treatment and back toward ordinary life. Walter Huston narrates. The War Department suppressed it for more than thirty years, reportedly because it showed damaged veterans too honestly, and it did not reach the public until 1980. It is now in the National Film Registry. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.

War · Documentary

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

Andy Hardy returns from army service to Carvel and falls for a sophisticated exchange student, chasing her all the way to South America in pursuit of romance. Mickey Rooney stars in the last of the long-running MGM Andy Hardy series. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Romance

When Gabby Kendrick refuses to breed his prize stallion Golden Sovereign to Roy Rogers' mare, fate intervenes — the horses run off, a rustler's bullet kills the Sovereign, and Roy is blamed and jailed. A year later he returns with Trigger, the Sovereign's son, determined to clear his name. Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Gabby Hayes star in the film Republic used to explain how the smartest horse in the movies came to Roy. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Western · Music

The fifth of Columbia's Whistler films. A shady private detective named Don Gale is hired by an old shopkeeper to find a young woman from his past so he can leave her a fortune, but the case is a setup, and Gale is soon framed for murder. As the Whistler's narration reminds us, the detective's own greed set the trap, and the film watches him scramble to stay ahead of the police and the real killer. Richard Dix plays his seventh Whistler lead, with Barton MacLane as the cop on his trail and Mike Mazurki as a menacing thug. William Castle directed. Released in 1946, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Noir · Crime

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

From her hotel window, Janet Stewart witnesses Dr. Richard Cross (Vincent Price) murder his wife — and the sight leaves her in a catatonic state. Worse, she's committed to Cross's own sanitarium, where the doctor must decide whether to cure her or make sure she never recovers. Shock was Vincent Price's first real stab at a psychological thriller, and he plays the charming, increasingly desperate psychiatrist with silky menace. Made at 20th Century Fox on a B-picture budget, it's in the public domain.

Noir · Thriller · Drama

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson board the London-to-Edinburgh express to guard the Star of Rhodesia, a priceless diamond with a bloody history. When the jewel's owner is murdered and the stone vanishes, Holmes must unmask the killer among a carriage full of suspects — including the eminent Colonel Sebastian Moran — before the train reaches its destination. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce's thirteenth outing as Holmes and Watson, directed and produced by Roy William Neill for Universal, compresses the series' formula into a brisk, atmospheric hour. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Mystery · Crime · Thriller

An out-of-work veteran takes a job as a chauffeur to a mobster and falls for the gangster's girlfriend, getting swept into a nightmare of murder, mistaken identity, and a dreamlike escape across Cuba. Robert Cummings and Peter Lorre star in this offbeat Cornell Woolrich adaptation. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Noir · Thriller · Crime

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

In 1820s Bangor, Maine, the beautiful and ruthless Jenny Hager schemes her way from poverty to power, marrying a rich lumber baron and seducing his son along the way. Hedy Lamarr gives one of her best performances opposite George Sanders in this adaptation of Ben Ames Williams' novel — a prestige production for B-movie master Edgar G. Ulmer, who brings his usual moody economy to a story of ambition and desire. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Thriller

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

The final Charlie Chan film starring Sidney Toler, directed by Howard Bretherton for Monogram Pictures. When two members of a showgirl troupe vacationing at a Malibu Beach resort are garroted, detective Charlie Chan is called in to solve the case, assisted by his Number Two Son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) and faithful chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland). Toler was stricken with cancer during filming and was so physically weak he could hardly walk or deliver his lines; he died on February 12, 1947. The film entered the public domain due to the omission of a valid copyright notice on original prints.

Mystery · Crime

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 biographical musical tracing the life of composer Jerome Kern, from his early struggles to his triumphs on Broadway and in London, built around lavish performances of his songs by Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, and Kathryn Grayson. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Musical · Biography

Mary (Ava Gardner) returns to her small whistle-stop hometown and reignites an old rivalry between two men who never got over her — bitter, jobless Kenny Veech (George Raft) and slick nightclub owner Lew Lentz (Tom Conway). When Kenny gets pulled into a robbery scheme aimed at Lentz, old jealousy turns to murder. An early starring role for Gardner and a moody small-town noir from Russian émigré director Léonide Moguy, produced by Seymour Nebenzal (M) for United Artists release. The film is in the public domain.

Noir · Crime · Drama

A wounded gunfighter is taken in and nursed by a family of Quakers, and their gentle faith slowly wears down his thirst for revenge against the man who killed his foster father. John Wayne produced and starred; it was the first film his own company made. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Western · Romance

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

Two producers trying to bankroll a musical lose their backer at the last minute, so they rope in female impersonator Bumpsie — played by vaudeville and Amos 'n' Andy star Tim Moore — to pose as a wealthy widow and keep the money flowing. Made by Herald Pictures for the "race film" circuit of Black theaters, it's a rare surviving showcase for a cast of African-American entertainers including Sheila Guyse and guest spots by the Harlemaniacs, with hot big-band numbers throughout. It is in the public domain.

Comedy · Music

A voice teacher must marry within hours to inherit a fortune, and the Stooges scramble to find him a bride among a parade of bruisers and shrews. One of the four public-domain Columbia Stooge shorts, and a particular favorite of Shemp-era fans. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

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

A film noir directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Hedy Lamarr, who also co-produced. Lamarr plays Madeleine Damien, a Manhattan magazine editor living a fast, scandalous social life who retreats from it all after a murder charge and attempts to rebuild with a kind psychiatrist (Dennis O'Keefe), only to be drawn back into danger by the wealthy Felix Courtland (John Loder, Lamarr's real-life husband at the time). Based on the 1930 play by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes, the film is in the public domain.

Crime · Drama

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 film noir directed by John Reinhardt and starring Cathy Downs and Paul Langton. With only a year left on his sentence, convict Johnny Coulter (Langton) is forced into a jailbreak by the violent Matt Gruber, who kills a guard during the escape. Once free, Johnny makes his way to a remote diner where he meets Hope Novak (Downs), a waitress with her own ties to Gruber. Together they plan to turn Gruber in, but the arrival of the ruthless convict threatens both their freedom and their growing affection. The film is in the public domain.

Crime · Drama

A comedy based on the wildly popular radio character Senator Beauregard Claghorn, played by Kenny Delmar on the Fred Allen show. Claghorn is a blustering Southern politician whose every sentence begins with "I'm from the South, suh!" and ends with "That's a joke, son!" In the film, the senator opposes his daughter's romance with a Yankee and gets entangled in a political scheme involving a corrupt party boss. The Claghorn character was the direct inspiration for Warner Bros.' cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn, who borrowed Delmar's voice and catchphrases. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy

Hitchhiking con men Bad News Johnson (Spencer Williams) and July Jones roll into a small Kansas town with twenty-five cents between them. Posing as Hollywood acting coaches, they set up shop in Mama Lou Holiday's boarding house and promise to turn her daughter Honey Dew into a beauty-contest winner, while the juke joint next door pulls the whole family toward trouble. Williams — later TV's Andy Brown on Amos 'n' Andy — wrote, directed, and starred in this all-Black-cast comedy for Dallas-based Sack Amusement Enterprises, and it's a prime example of the "race films" made for Black theaters in the 1940s. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Drama

A straitlaced 1880s New York stockbroker runs his household with the same rigid discipline he applies to business, while his warm-hearted wife quietly gets her way. William Powell and Irene Dunne star in this Technicolor adaptation of the long-running play. A young Elizabeth Taylor appears as the houseguest. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Family

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

Jungle pulp from Screen Guild Pictures. Jean Preston (Patricia Morison) flies to Africa to find her missing fiancé, last seen hunting ivory on a safari that vanished into forbidden territory. With safari guide Gary Lambert (Robert Lowery) and comic-relief cook Gabby (J. Edward Bromberg), she penetrates the jungle realm of Zita, the Amazon queen — a white goddess ruling a tribe that traffics in enslaved men. Cheap, fast, and unabashedly lurid, it is Poverty Row adventure filmmaking at its most shameless, padded with stock wildlife footage. Its copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Adventure · Romance

A 1947 American musical race film produced and released by Astor Pictures, starring Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. Old-time musical star Schyler Jarvis, now wealthy, is dying; his last act is a visionary plan for the future happiness of his son, swing bandleader Louis Jarvis, and Honey Carter, daughter of his long-lost love. But crooked lawyer Henry Talbot has a nefarious scheme to get his hands on the Jarvis money. The film features 14 songs by Louis Jordan with his Tympany Five, June Richmond, and Mable Lee. This was the second of three feature films starring Louis Jordan, following the success of Crouch's Caldonia (1945).

Musical · Romance

Band singer Bob Jordan (Billy Daniels) is torn between the long-suffering Barbara (Sheila Guyse), who has loved him since his struggling days, and a wealthy society woman who promises to make him a star. Made for the Black theater circuit by producer Jack Goldberg's Herald Pictures, Sepia Cinderella is one of the best surviving examples of the all-Black-cast "race films" of the era, mixing backstage romance with nightclub numbers that showcase Daniels' smooth crooning — including the hit "That Old Black Magic." The film is in the public domain.

Musical · Romance

The Stooges run a failing tailor shop and stumble into a cache of stolen loot hidden by a gangster, leading to a frantic scramble to stay alive and collect the reward. One of the four public-domain Columbia Stooge shorts. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

Singer Angie Evans gives up her own rising career to marry struggling crooner Ken Conway, and when his star finally ascends she finds herself alone with a baby, a bottle, and a husband who's never home. Susan Hayward earned her first Academy Award nomination as the wife sliding into alcoholism, with Lee Bowman, Eddie Albert, and Marsha Hunt in support. Walter Wanger produced and Stuart Heisler directed this stark melodrama, released by Universal-International. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Noir

When a gang starts slaughtering game out of season to corner the meat market, cowboy Roy Rogers rides in to help wildlife officer Cap Foster protect the herds — and ends up framed for Foster's murder. Republic's King of the Cowboys is joined by Trigger, Jane Frazee, Andy Devine, and the Sons of the Pioneers in this Trucolor musical western from ace serial and B-western director William Witney. The archive.org source is the uncut Trucolor version. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Western · Music

A mysterious Chinese princess is murdered in Charlie Chan's own home, leaving only a large ring and the dying message "Capt K" as clues. Chan traces the ring to a visiting princess and untangles a plot involving stolen fighter planes and a cargo ship bound for China. The Chinese Ring was Roland Winters' first outing as Chan after taking over the role at Monogram, with Mantan Moreland and Victor Sen Yung back as Birmingham Brown and Tommy Chan. Directed by the prolific William Beaudine, the film is in the public domain.

Mystery · Crime

Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey play themselves in this musical biopic tracing the brothers from their coal-country boyhood through their rise to the top of the swing era, their famous on-stage breakup, and their reunion. The plot is a sanitized version of a genuinely combative relationship, but the band sequences — including a show-stopping "Green Eyes" — are the real thing. Directed by Alfred E. Green for United Artists, with Janet Blair and Paul Whiteman. The film is in the public domain.

Music · Drama · Biography

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

Pete Morgan is a farmer with a bad leg and a dark secret. He has raised his niece Meg as his own and forbids her from going near an abandoned house deep in the woods on his land, warning her that the woods are haunted. When a hired hand starts asking questions and Meg grows more curious, the family's buried past begins to surface. Edward G. Robinson plays against type as the gentle, haunted farmer, and the film leans on atmosphere and dread rather than violence. Miklos Rozsa's score and Bert Glennon's camerawork make the forest feel like a place that does not want its secrets found. The film was the first production of Thalia, the company Robinson formed with producer Sol Lesser. It entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Crime · Mystery · Thriller

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

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

Leslie Brooks plays Claire Cummings, a society columnist who marries rich and keeps moving up, leaving a trail of dead husbands and a psychologist, played by Robert Paige, who realizes too late what she is. A cold-blooded B noir from poverty-row distributor Film Classics, the film runs its femme fatale premise harder than most A-pictures dared: Claire kills without remorse and without a mitigating backstory. Brooks, usually a musical-comedy blonde, is the whole show here, and director Jack Bernhard keeps the melodrama lean and mean. Neglected for decades, it has since been reclaimed as a minor noir classic. It entered the public domain after its copyright was never renewed.

Noir · Crime · Drama

A burglar who listens in on police radio to stay a step ahead of the law shoots a Los Angeles officer and becomes the target of a citywide manhunt. The film follows the police investigation step by step, the forensics, the informants, the dead ends, and the final chase through the storm drains under the city. It is loosely based on the real crime spree of Erwin "Machine-Gun" Walker, a former police department employee who terrorized Los Angeles in 1946. Richard Basehart is cold and precise as the killer, and John Alton's cinematography turns the night streets and the underground tunnels into something close to a nightmare. The film is also the unlikely origin of Dragnet: Jack Webb met the production's police technical advisor on set, and that conversation led him to create the radio show. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Crime · Noir

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

Fresh out of prison, con man John Muller botches a casino heist and needs to disappear — until he meets Dr. Bartok, a psychiatrist who is his near-exact double, save for a scar on the opposite cheek. Muller kills Bartok, scars himself, and steps into the dead man's life, only to learn the doctor had dangerous secrets of his own. Paul Henreid plays both roles opposite Joan Bennett in this fatalistic Eagle-Lion noir from director Steve Sekely, reissued as The Scar. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Noir · Thriller

On a dark train platform, a stranger tells a waiting woman the story of Harold Dunlap — a man who accidentally kills his jilting lover on that very platform and flees to a small town, only to find that a young boy named Mike saw the whole thing. Trapped by flooded roads, Dunlap has to decide what to do about his witness. Directed by prolific B-movie hand Lew Landers and tying into the Inner Sanctum radio and pulp-mystery brand, this hour-long M.R.S. Pictures cheapie stars Charles Russell and Mary Beth Hughes. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Mystery · Noir

Stockbroker Nicholas Lawrence embezzles a million dollars from his firm and boards a plane bound for Shanghai, figuring he has one free weekend before the theft is discovered. On the flight he meets Cynthia Strong, a socialite fleeing a blackmailer, and when the plane goes down their problems — and the money — get a lot more complicated. Star Gene Raymond also directs, with Osa Massen and Francis Lederer in support. A compact late-40s crime picture with a lighter touch than most noir of the era, it is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Noir · Thriller

Bank robber Steve Clark stashes nearly $200,000 in a safety deposit box and lays low in a small town driving a cab, where he woos and marries Julie Saunders — niece of a wealthy invalid — to give himself the perfect cover. When Julie discovers who her husband really is, she is pulled into a tightening web of greed, blackmail, and murder as the law closes in. Hugh Beaumont, later famous as Ward Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver, plays against type as the cold-blooded killer, with Frances Rafferty as Julie. Directed by B-movie workhorse Sam Newfield. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Crime · Noir · Thriller

A bestselling novelist's long-suffering secretary finally quits and writes her own successful book, only for her idle former boss to chase her to the country and try to win her back. Laraine Day and Kirk Douglas star in this romantic comedy. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Romance

When a string of notorious criminals walks free on suspiciously easy parole, the federal government sends undercover agent Richard Hendricks to find out who is selling the state's leniency. Posing as wanted convict Rick Carson, Hendricks works his way into the gang run by the cunning Barney Rodescu — until his cover is blown and the racket turns on him. Directed by Alfred Zeisler and starring Michael O'Shea, Turhan Bey, and Evelyn Ankers, this lean Eagle-Lion release is a brisk Poverty Row noir built on an early version of the undercover-cop story. The film is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Noir · Thriller

Fei Mu's 1948 masterpiece, regularly named the greatest Chinese film ever made. In a ruined house in a war-scarred provincial town, Zhou Yuwen (Wei Wei) cares for her invalid husband while drifting through a marriage emptied of love — until Zhang Zhichen (Shi Yu), her husband's old friend and her own first love, arrives as a visiting doctor. What follows is almost unbearably restrained: long walks on the ruined city wall, glances held a beat too long, and a narration that confesses what the characters cannot say. Fei Mu films adulterous longing without a single transgressive act, and the result influenced generations of Chinese-language cinema. Made on the eve of revolution and rediscovered decades later, the film is in the public domain.

Drama · Romance

A wealthy widow is convinced she hears her late husband's voice on the beach, and a suave spiritualist seems to confirm it, while her skeptical sister and a psychiatrist try to expose him as a fraud. Turhan Bey stars in this atmospheric noir, also released as The Spiritualist. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Noir · 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 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

James Cagney plays Joe, a gentle idler who spends his days observing life in Nick's waterfront saloon in San Francisco, sending lackey Tom on eccentric errands and watching the bar's regulars drift through: an old cowboy spinning tall tales, a hoofer who can't get a laugh, and Kitty Duval, played by Cagney's sister Jeanne. William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play comes to the screen under director H.C. Potter, with William Bendix as Nick and Broderick Crawford and Ward Bond among the ensemble. Warm, odd, and unhurried, it is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Comedy · Drama

Roy Rogers returns to his ranch after ten years in Hollywood only to have Trigger kidnapped by a gang demanding a $100,000 ransom — and Roy has to track them down without spooking them into harming the horse. Jane Frazee is the ranch owner's daughter and Andy Devine does triple duty as three members of the Bullfincher clan. One of Roy Rogers's best-loved Republic westerns, directed by serial veteran William Witney, and in Trucolor. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Western

In the final days of the Second World War, six women — one from each of the Allied nations — are held captive in a Shanghai hotel by Axis officers developing a "cosmic ray" superweapon they claim could outmatch the atomic bomb. As the Allies close in, the prisoners plot to steal the weapon's plans and turn the tables on their captors. Tala Birell, William Henry, and Richard Loo star in this wartime thriller directed by William Rowland. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

War · Drama · Thriller

A bookseller and his bumbling assistant get tangled up with a diamond-hunting expedition to Africa, where they are pursued by lions, cannibals, and a rival explorer. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello star in one of their most popular vehicles. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Adventure

When his best friend is murdered while pursuing jewel smugglers, U.S. customs agent Cliff Holden (Dean Jagger) takes over the case, flying to Europe to board the same return flight as the chief suspect and following the trail back to a New York gang. John Carradine co-stars as the suave Doc Spencer. Shot almost entirely on New York City locations, C-Man has the gritty, documentary-style look of the independent noirs director Joseph Lerner made with his wife and producing partner Geraldine. The film was produced by Laurel Films and distributed by Film Classics, and is in the public domain.

Noir · Crime · Drama

A farm dog desperately needs sleep before an early morning rabbit hunt, but a scheming rabbit does everything in his power to keep the dog awake all night. A Tex Avery MGM cartoon, one of the few MGM shorts in the public domain. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy

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 wealthy businessman survives a murder attempt arranged by his wife and her lover, then disappears so that the two of them can be charged with killing him. He hides out in a small town under an assumed name while the police, led by a sharp lieutenant played by Charles Coburn, work to build the case. Brian Donlevy is the wronged husband who has to decide whether to come back at all, and Ella Raines is the woman who helps him. The film was shot entirely in Northern California, around San Francisco and Marin County, which gives it a different look from the usual Los Angeles noir. It entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Crime · Noir · Mystery

When a newspaper columnist is murdered while investigating the Crusaders, a flag-waving hate group building itself into a political power, assistant district attorney Howard Malloy (Franchot Tone) is named special prosecutor and digs into the shadowy organization. The film is famous for its uncredited cameos — Marlene Dietrich, Henry Fonda, John Garfield, Burgess Meredith, and Everett Sloane all turn up in small roles as a favor to director Fletcher Markle. Produced by the Danziger brothers and released by United Artists, Jigsaw is in the public domain.

Noir · Crime · Mystery

The Stooges run a cafe and get mixed up with a band of desert cutthroats hunting the tomb of Rootin' Tootin, where they mistake a circle of magicians for the thieves. One of the four public-domain Columbia Stooge shorts. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

During the bloodiest days of the French Revolution, a mysterious operative known as Charles D'Aubigny infiltrates Paris to recover Robespierre's "black book" — a list of intended victims whose executions would cement his dictatorship — before it can be used. Robert Cummings plays the double agent, with Richard Basehart a chilling Robespierre and Arlene Dahl as the woman caught between them. Anthony Mann shot it like a noir despite the period setting, all shadows and paranoia, on a shoestring budget for Walter Wanger. Reissued as The Black Book. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

History · Thriller · Noir

She Shoulda Said No! (also released as Wild Weed and The Devil's Weed) is a 1949 exploitation film directed by Sam Newfield and starring Lila Leeds, whose arrest with Robert Mitchum on marijuana charges the previous year provided the marketing hook. Leeds plays a chorus girl whose descent into marijuana addiction ruins her career and drives her brother to suicide, in the spirit of earlier drug-scare pictures like Reefer Madness. The film was produced and roadshown by the exploitation impresario Kroger Babb under his Hygienic Productions banner, with a sensational prologue and an in-person lecture component. It features the feature-film debut of the character actor Jack Elam. The film is in the public domain.

Exploitation · Drama

So Much for So Little is a 1949 educational animated short directed by Chuck Jones for Leon Schlesinger Productions. Produced for the Federal Security Agency Public Health Service, the cartoon advocates for public health spending, arguing that a few cents per person per year can prevent disease and save lives. The short was theatrically screened and won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. As a U.S. government work, the film is in the public domain.

Animation · Educational

The Big Cat is a 1949 outdoor adventure directed by Phil Karlson and set in the Utah canyon country during the Great Depression. A young man (Lon McCallister) returns to his mother's birthplace in the high country and finds the community terrorized by a marauding mountain lion and by a bitter feud between two families. Preston Foster and Forrest Tucker play the older men at odds, and Peggy Ann Garner is the girl between them. Karlson, later known for his tough 1950s noir, brings real tension to the wilderness scenes and the climactic hunt. The film was released by United Artists and is in the public domain.

Adventure · Drama

The cocky son of a champion racer killed at the Indianapolis 500 fights his way onto the track to redeem his father's name, alienating his loved ones along the way. Mickey Rooney stars in this independent racing drama, which features Hattie McDaniel's final screen appearance. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Drama · Sport

Umberto Scalli (Timothy Farrell) runs an illegal drug ring out of a women's health spa, peddling "bennies" and sleeping pills to teenagers and socialites alike while keeping one step ahead of the judge determined to shut him down. A classic post-war exploitation picture, The Devil's Sleep was directed by W. Merle Connell and produced by George Weiss, who later financed Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda. It is the first of Farrell's three turns as the shady Scalli, and features Lita Grey, Charlie Chaplin's former wife, as the crusading judge. The film was never registered for copyright and is in the public domain.

Crime · Drama

A bumbling medicine-show assistant is stranded in a small European town and mistaken for the feared Inspector General, whose arrival the corrupt officials dread. They try to bribe and silence him, while he falls for a local woman. Danny Kaye shines in this musical comedy adapted from Gogol. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Musical

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

A bag of stolen cash is thrown into the back seat of a couple's car by mistake, and the wife, hungry for a better life, decides to keep it, dragging her husband into a spiral of deceit and murder. Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea star in one of the bleakest noirs of the era. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Noir · Crime · Thriller

A batch of freshly printed counterfeit bills traced to imprisoned counterfeiter Tris Stewart sends the U.S. Treasury Department scrambling, so agents engineer his escape and turn him loose — betting he will lead them to the engraving plates. Stewart plays both sides, rekindling things with his girlfriend Meg while undercover agent John Downey closes in. Lloyd Bridges is the slippery counterfeiter, with Barbara Payton as Meg and John Hoyt as the agent on his tail. Richard Fleischer directs this lean semi-documentary noir in the style of T-Men, shot on location around Los Angeles. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Crime · Noir · Drama