Musical Films

Musicals in the public domain are a mix of studio features, short subjects, and independent productions. The genre was expensive to produce, which means fewer public domain titles than in comedy or drama, but the ones that are here tend to be interesting. The collection includes early sound musicals from the transition era, when studios were still figuring out how to record music on film, and later B-musicals made for the bottom half of double bills. A lot of the short subjects entered the public domain through non-renewal, since they were treated as disposable when they were released.