Mischa Auer

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

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

Drama · War

A Pre-Code "old dark house" horror film directed by Frank R. Strayer. Dr. Ted Clayton (Rex Lease) accompanies his fiancee Ruth (Vera Reynolds) to her father's remote mansion, where they find a household of sinister characters, including the creepy servant Hanns Krug (Mischa Auer). When Ruth's father dies mysteriously, a series of terrifying events unfold in the darkened corridors. The film follows the familiar formula of the era: a group of people trapped in a creepy house at night, with something lurking in the shadows. Made on a minimal budget by Action Pictures, it was later re-released in 1938 by Astor Pictures. The film is in the public domain.

Horror

A flapper from the wrong side of the tracks falls for the son of her department store's owner, but must prove she's more than just a good time girl. A Vitaphone-synchronized silent comedy starring Colleen Moore, directed by William A. Seiter. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy · Romance