El Brendel

A 1930 American pre-Code science fiction musical comedy directed by David Butler, notable for its imaginative portrayal of New York City in 1980. The film follows a man from 1930 (El Brendel) who is struck by lightning and revived by scientists 50 years later in a world where airplanes have replaced cars, numbers have replaced names, pills have replaced food, and babies come from vending machines. He befriends J-21 (John Garrick), who can't marry the girl of his dreams (Maureen O'Sullivan) until he proves himself on a rocketship expedition to Mars. The film was a lavish production for Fox, budgeted at over $1 million, and was one of the first science fiction musicals. The film entered the public domain via non-renewal of its copyright.

Sci-Fi · Comedy · Musical

A wagon-train epic shot on location across seven states, The Big Trail follows a party of settlers from the Mississippi to the Pacific Northwest, led by the young scout Breck Coleman. Raoul Walsh shot the film in Fox's experimental 70mm Grandeur process, and the wide frame gives the landscapes and the wagon-train set pieces a scale the standard 35mm version could not match. The film is John Wayne's first leading role, at 23; he plays the kind of plainspoken, decent hero he would spend the rest of his career refining. Tyrone Power Sr., in his final film, plays the villain. The film's widescreen version was little-seen at the time and the picture flopped, but it survives as a landmark of early sound spectacle. Published in 1930, it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.

Western · Adventure