A Farewell to Arms (1932) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film A Farewell to Arms (1932).
A Farewell to Arms is a 1932 American pre-Code romance drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper, and Adolphe Menjou. Based on the 1929 semi-autobiographical novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, with a screenplay by Oliver H. P. Garrett and Benjamin Glazer, the film is about a tragic romantic love affair between an American ambulance driver and an English nurse in Italy during World War I. The film received Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Art Direction.
In 1960, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the last claimant, United Artists, did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.
The original Broadway play starred Glenn Anders and Elissa Landi and was staged at the National Theatre September 22, 1930 to October 1930.[5][6]
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Father's Little Dividend (1951) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Father's Little Dividend (1951).
Father's Little Dividend is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie is the sequel to Father of the Bride (1950).
The sequel was well received by both audiences and critics and was nearly as financially successful as the first film. According to MGM records, the film earned $3,122,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1.5 million elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $2,025,000.
Originally released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film entered the public domain in the United States in 1979 because MGM failed to renew the copyright registration.
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66
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The Emperor Jones (1933) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film The Emperor Jones (1933).
The Emperor Jones is a 1933 American pre-Code film adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play of the same title, directed by iconoclast Dudley Murphy, written for the screen by playwright DuBose Heyward and starring Paul Robeson in the title role (a role he played onstage, both in the US and UK), and co-starring Dudley Digges, Frank H. Wilson, Fredi Washington and Ruby Elzy.
The film was made outside of the Hollywood studio system, financed with private money from neophyte wealthy producers. It was filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios with the beach scene shot at Jones Beach Long Beach, New York.
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65
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Hook, Line and Sinker (1930) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Hook, Line and Sinker (1930).
Hook, Line and Sinker is a 1930 American pre-Code slapstick comedy directed by Edward F. Cline from a screenplay by Ralph Spence and Tim Whelan. It was the third starring vehicle for the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey (Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey), and also featured Dorothy Lee. It would be one of the largest financial successes for RKO Pictures in 1930.
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51
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Half Shot at Sunrise (1930) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Half Shot at Sunrise (1930).
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Gulliver's Travels (1939) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Gulliver's Travels (1939).
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53
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The Gorilla (1939) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film The Gorilla (1939).
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51
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Go for Broke! (1951) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Go for Broke! (1951).
Go for Broke! is a 1951 black-and-white war film directed by Robert Pirosh, produced by Dore Schary and starring Van Johnson and six veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The film co-stars Henry Nakamura, Warner Anderson, and Don Haggerty in its large cast.
The film dramatizes the real-life story of the 442nd, which was composed of Nisei (second-generation Americans born of Japanese parents) soldiers.
Fighting in the European theater during World War II, this unit became the most heavily decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the United States Army, as well as one of the units with the highest casualty rates. This film is a Hollywood rarity for its era in that it features Asian Americans in a positive light, highlighting the wartime efforts of Japanese Americans on behalf of their country even while that same country confined their families in camps.
As with his earlier film script for Battleground, in which Van Johnson also starred, writer-director Robert Pirosh focuses on the average squad member, mixing humor with pathos, while accurately detailing equipment and tactics used by American infantry in World War II. The contrast of reality versus public relations, the hardships of field life on the line, and the reality of high casualty rates are accurately portrayed with a minimum of heroics.
In 1979, the film entered the public domain in the United States because Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer failed to renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.
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74
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Fear and Desire (1952) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Fear and Desire (1952).
Fear and Desire is a 1952 American independently-produced[3] anti-war film directed, produced, and edited by Stanley Kubrick, and written by Howard Sackler.[4][5] With a production team of fifteen people, the film, which originally premiered at the Venice Film Festival under the title Shape of Fear, was Kubrick's feature directorial debut. Though the film is not about any specific war, it was produced and released at the height of the Korean War.
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Dixiana (1930) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Dixiana (1930).
Dixiana (1930) is a lavish American pre-Code comedy, musical film directed by Luther Reed and produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The final twenty minutes of the picture were photographed in Technicolor. The film stars Bebe Daniels, Everett Marshall, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Joseph Cawthorn, Jobyna Howland, Ralf Harolde, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (in his film debut) and Dorothy Lee. The script was adapted by Luther Reed from a story by Anne Caldwell.
This is the film in which composer Max Steiner received his first screen credit for orchestration. Additionally, it was Wheeler & Woolsey's third film; however, as they were not yet an official "team", they were still billed separately.
At the end of 1958, the film entered the public domain in the United States because RKO did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.
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52
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D.O.A. (1950) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film D.O.A. (1950).
D.O.A. is a 1950 American film noir directed by Rudolph Maté, starring Edmond O'Brien and Pamela Britton. It is considered a classic of the genre. A fatally poisoned man tries to find out who has poisoned him and why. It was the film debuts of Beverly Garland (as Beverly Campbell) and Laurette Luez.
Leo C. Popkin produced D.O.A. for his short-lived Cardinal Pictures. Due to a filing error, the copyright to the film was not renewed on time, causing it to fall into the public domain: it was subsequently remade as Color Me Dead (1969), D.O.A. (1988), and Dead On Arrival (2017).
In 2011, the Overtime Theater staged a world-premiere musical based on the classic film noir. D.O.A. a Noir Musical was written and adapted by Jon Gillespie and Matthew Byron Cassi, directed by Cassi, with original jazz and blues music composed by Jaime Ramirez and lyrics by Ramirez and Gillespie. The new musical played to sold-out audiences during its five-week run, and received two ATAC Globe Awards in 2012 for "Best Adapted Script" and "Best Original Score."
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The Devil Bat (1940) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film The Devil Bat (1940).
The Devil Bat is a 1940 black-and-white American horror/howcatchem film produced by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) and directed by Jean Yarborough. The film stars Bela Lugosi[4] along with Suzanne Kaaren, Guy Usher, Yolande Mallott and the comic team of Dave O'Brien and Donald Kerr as the protagonists. It was the first horror film from PRC.
Foreword
"All Heathville loved Dr. Paul Carruthers...the doctor found time to conduct certain private experiments — weird, terrifying experiments."
Dr. Paul Carruthers (Bela Lugosi), a chemist and physician in the small town of Heathville, is offered a $5,000 bonus from his employers for his contributions to the company, a pittance compared to the million dollars in income the company earned from his work. (His employers argue that he took a buyout early in the company's history instead of retaining his partnership stake.) Embittered and insulted, he seeks revenge and develops a system in which ordinary bats are enlarged to massive size, training them to be drawn to a new, pungent aftershave he is testing. He cleverly distributes the lotion to his enemies as a "test" product.[6]
Once they have applied the lotion, the chemist then releases his Devil Bats in the night, targeting the families of his employer's owners. The bats succeed in attacking and killing one of the owners and two of his sons. A hot shot reporter from the Chicago Register, Johnny Layton (Dave O'Brien) gets assigned by his editor (Arthur Q. Bryan) to cover and help solve the murders. He and his bumbling photographer "One-Shot" McGuire (Donald Kerr) begin to unwind the mystery with some comic sidelights.
In the climactic closing scene, Layton dumps a sample of the aftershave on Carruthers, leading the bat to attack and kill its own master. Mary, the last surviving member of her family, runs into Johnny's arms.
Following its theatrical release, The Devil Bat fell into public domain and since the advent of home video, has been released in countless truncated, poorly edited video and DVD editions.
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Detour (1945) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Detour (1945).
Detour is a 1945 American independent film noir directed by Edgar G. Ulmer starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage. The screenplay was adapted by Martin Goldsmith and Martin Mooney (uncredited) from Goldsmith's 1939 novel of the same title, and released by the Producers Releasing Corporation, one of the so-called Poverty Row film studios in mid-20th-century Hollywood.
In 1992, Detour was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The film, which today is in the public domain and freely available for viewing at various online sources, was restored by the Academy Film Archive in 2018. In April that year, the 4K restoration premiered in Los Angeles at the TCM Festival. A Blu-Ray and DVD was released in March 2019 from the Criterion Collection.
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Disorder in the Court (1936) | Full Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Disorder in the Court (1936).
Disorder in the Court is a 1936 short subject directed by Preston Black starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 15th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.
Disorder in the Court is one of four Columbia Stooges shorts that fell into the public domain after the copyright lapsed in the 1960s, the other three being Malice in the Palace (1949), Sing a Song of Six Pants and Brideless Groom (both 1947). Consequently, these four shorts frequently appear on budget video compilations and streaming services.
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Dementia 13 (1963) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Dementia 13 (1963).
Dementia 13, known in the United Kingdom as The Haunted and the Hunted, is a 1963 independently made black-and-white horror-thriller film, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Roger Corman. It was Coppola's feature film directorial debut. The film stars William Campbell and Luana Anders with Bart Patton, Mary Mitchell, and Patrick Magee. It was released in the United States by American International Pictures during the fall of 1963 as the bottom half of a double feature with Corman's X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes.
Although Coppola had been involved in at least two sexploitation films previously, Dementia 13 served as his first mainstream "legitimate" directorial effort. Corman offered Coppola the chance to direct a low-budget horror film in Ireland using funds left over from Corman's recently completed The Young Racers, on which Coppola had worked as a sound technician. The producer wanted a cheap Psycho copy, complete with gothic atmosphere and brutal killings, and Coppola quickly wrote a screenplay with Corman's requirements. Although he was given total directorial freedom during production, Coppola found himself at odds with Corman after the film was completed. The producer declared it unreleasable and demanded several changes be made.
In 2017, Coppola's company, American Zoetrope, restored the film's director's cut under the supervision of James T. Mockoski, with editing by Robert Schafer, sound restoration by Jim McKee of Earwax Productions, and color supervision by Chris Martin of Mission Film and Design.
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The Deadly Companions (1961) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film The Deadly Companions (1961).
The Deadly Companions is a 1961 American Western and war film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Steve Cochran, and Chill Wills. Based on the novel of the same name by A. S. Fleischman, the film is about an ex-army soldier who accidentally kills a woman's son, and tries to make up for it by escorting the funeral procession through dangerous Indian territory. The Deadly Companions was Sam Peckinpah's motion picture directorial debut.
After her young son is killed in a bank robbery, the widowed dance-hall hostess Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara) is determined to bury him beside his father in Siringo, now deserted and located in Apache territory. Yellowleg (Brian Keith), the ex-army Northern sergeant who accidentally killed her son, decides to help take the body across the desert to be buried, whether Kit wants help or not. He forces the other two bank robbers - Turk, a Confederate deserter; and Billy, a gunslinger - to accompany them.
After Billy attacks Kit, Yellowleg throws him out of their camp. Turk then deserts. Yellowleg and Kit become closer during the journey to Siringo. After arriving at the long abandoned settlement, they discover that Turk and Billy have followed them, leading to a gunfight among the three men.
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Danger Lights (1930) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Danger Lights (1930).
Danger Lights is a 1930 American Pre-Code drama film, directed by George B. Seitz, from a screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman. It stars Louis Wolheim, Robert Armstrong, and Jean Arthur.
The plot concerns railroading on the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road), and the movie was largely filmed along that railroad's lines in Montana. The railway yard in Miles City, Montana, was a primary setting, while rural scenes were shot along the railway line through Sixteen Mile Canyon, Montana. Additional footage was shot in Chicago, Illinois (where the Milwaukee Road was headquartered until 1986, when it went out of business). The film was the first ever shot in the new Spoor-Berggren Natural Vision Process.
In 1958, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.
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Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full length classic film Cyrano de Bergerac (1950).
Cyrano de Bergerac is a 1950 American adventure comedy film based on the 1897 French Alexandrin verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. It uses poet Brian Hooker's 1923 English blank verse translation as the basis for its screenplay. The film was the first motion picture version in English of Rostand's play, though there were several earlier adaptations in different languages.
The 1950 film was produced by Stanley Kramer and directed by Michael Gordon. José Ferrer received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring performance as Cyrano de Bergerac. Mala Powers played Roxane, and William Prince portrayed Christian de Neuvillette.
The film lapsed into the public domain in the mid-1980s. In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."
The film was produced on a significantly lower budget than most costume dramas, because the producers were afraid that it would fail at the box office (it did). The sparseness of the sets is concealed by camera angles and by the lighting. Darkness is frequently used to hide the fact that the production design was not especially elaborate.
The film was one of the first to employ the then-new Western Electric magnetic sound recording system, which would become commonplace by 1953 and which was a necessity for stereo sound recording and reproduction.
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The Dance of Life (1929) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film The Dance of Life (1929).
The Dance of Life is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film. It is the first of three film adaptations of the popular 1927 Broadway play Burlesque, with the others being Swing High, Swing Low (1937) and When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948). The film was directed by John Cromwell (who also appeared in the film with a small part)[1] and A. Edward Sutherland. Hal Skelly appeared in the lead role as Ralph “Skid” Johnson after playing the same role in the Broadway version at the Plymouth Theater. He took part in the production for fifty two weeks before leaving his role to take part in the film. Charles D. Brown, Ralph Theodore and Oscar Levant also appeared in the Broadway production.
The Dance of Life was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, and included Technicolor sequences, directed by John Cromwell and A. Edward Sutherland.
In 1957, the film entered the public domain (in the USA) because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.
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Conspiracy (1930) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Conspiracy (1930).
Conspiracy is a 1930 American pre-Code mystery melodrama film produced and distributed by RKO Pictures and directed by Christy Cabanne. It is the second adaptation of the play The Conspiracy by Robert B. Baker and John Emerson and stars Bessie Love and Ned Sparks.
After their father is killed, brother and sister Margaret and Victor Holt devote themselves to bringing down the drug gang responsible for his death. Victor rises to become an attorney in the district attorney's office, and eventually Margaret wangles her way into becoming the secretary for James (Marco) Morton, the head of the drug ring. When Morton discovers Margaret's true identity, he contrives a plot to lure her brother into a trap and kill him.
Margaret learns of the plot and rushes to save her brother. In the ensuing melee, she kills Morton in her attempt to save Victor, who is also seemingly killed. Afraid of being convicted of murder, she flees the scene. In hiding, she becomes friends with a mystery author, Winthrop Clavering, and a reporter, John Howell, the truth about the murder is revealed, and it is discovered that Victor was not killed, but is being held prisoner by the drug ring. Victor is rescued, and Margaret and John develop a romantic relationship.
In 1958, the film entered the public domain in the U.S. because the copyright claimants did not renew the copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.
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59
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Check and Double Check (1930) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Check and Double Check (1930).
Check and Double Check is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film produced and released by RKO Radio Pictures, based on the Amos 'n' Andy radio show. The title was derived from a catchphrase associated with the show. Directed by Melville W. Brown, from a screenplay by Bert Kalmar, J. Walter Ruben, and Harry Ruby, it starred Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll in blackface, in the roles of Amos Jones and Andy Brown, respectively, which they had created for the radio show. The film also featured Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra.
In 1958, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. Because of the film's copyright-free status, film merchants copied C&C Television prints of Check and Double Check for the home-movie market, and later for home video. Because Check and Double Check is no longer exhibited in public, fans of Gosden and Correll can only see the film in private showings.
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Charade (1963) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Charade (1963).
Charade is a 1963 American romantic screwball comedy mystery film produced and directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The cast also features Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass, and Jacques Marin. It spans three genres, suspense thriller, romance and comedy.
Charade was praised by critics for its screenplay and the chemistry between Grant and Hepburn. It has been called "the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made". It was filmed on location in Paris and contains animated titles by Maurice Binder. Henry Mancini's score features the popular theme song, "Charade".
In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
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Carnival of Souls (1962) | Full Length Classic Film
Watch the full-length classic film Carnival of Souls (1962).
Carnival of Souls is a 1962 American psychological horror film produced and directed by Herk Harvey and written by John Clifford from a story by Clifford and Harvey, and starring Candace Hilligoss. Its plot follows Mary Henry, a young woman whose life is disturbed after a car accident. She relocates to a new city, where she finds herself unable to assimilate with the locals, and becomes drawn to the pavilion of an abandoned carnival. Director Harvey also appears in the film as a ghoulish stranger who stalks her throughout. The film is set to an organ score by Gene Moore.
Filmed in Lawrence, Kansas, and Salt Lake City, Carnival of Souls was shot on a budget of $33,000, and Harvey employed various guerrilla filmmaking techniques to finish the production. The film is loosely based on the French short An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961), an adaptation of the 1890 story of the same name by Ambrose Bierce, and Harvey was inspired by the visual style of filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman and Jean Cocteau. Carnival of Souls was Harvey's only feature film, and did not gain widespread attention when originally released as a double feature with the now mostly forgotten The Devil's Messenger in 1962.
Since the 1980s, the film has been noted by critics and film scholars for its cinematography and foreboding atmosphere. The film has a large cult following and is occasionally screened at film and Halloween festivals.
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