Richard Arlen

William Wellman's part-talking drama about a young woman who kills her abusive stepfather and goes on the run dressed as a boy, joining a band of hoboes riding the rails. Louise Brooks, in her best American role, plays the girl; Wallace Beery is Oklahoma Red, the hobo king who takes her in; Richard Arlen is the farm boy who throws in with her. The film was made in the transitional sound period and uses synchronized music, sound effects, and a few spoken passages rather than full dialogue. Wellman shot much of it on location with real trains and real transients, giving it a grit that most studio films of the year did not have. Brooks would leave for Germany and make Pandora's Box shortly after, and her American career never recovered. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Drama · Crime

A 1929 pre-Code circus drama starring Clara Bow as a bareback rider caught between two men. Directed by Lothar Mendes, the film follows Patricia, a circus performer in love with tightrope walker Larry Lee, who is already partnered with the older Zara Flynn. When Larry leaves the circus for a society woman, Patricia and Zara are left to pick up the pieces. This was Clara Bow's second talking picture and the first Hollywood film for Kay Francis, who would become one of the biggest stars of the 1930s. The production used 48 aerial ballet artists and 200 clowns for its circus sequences. Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Romance

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

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

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

A pre-Code proto-noir directed by Josef von Sternberg, notable for its pioneering use of early sound technology and expressionistic visuals. George Bancroft plays Thunderbolt Jim Lang, a condemned gangster on death row who plots to kill the young man (Richard Arlen) in the next cell for stealing his girlfriend (Fay Wray). Bancroft received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor at the second Academy Awards ceremony in 1930. The screenplay was written by Jules Furthman with dialogue by Herman J. Mankiewicz. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Drama

Wings is the film that won the very first Academy Award for Best Picture, and it remains the only fully silent film to take the top prize. Directed by William A. Wellman, a former World War I fighter pilot, it follows two young American aviators who enlist in the Army Air Corps and become combat pilots in France, bound by friendship and divided by their love for the same woman. Clara Bow plays the hometown girl waiting back home. The aerial dogfight sequences were shot with real planes and real pilots, hundreds of them, and they still rank among the most thrilling ever filmed. Gary Cooper appears briefly in an early role that helped launch his career. The film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

War · Drama · Romance · Silent