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Public Domain Greats

By: Nathan Heigert

From the silents of Griffith, Keaton and Chaplin, to neglected noirs and the low-budget bliss of Roger Corman, even a Coppola and a Ferrera (plus nearly every one of Hitchcock’s British films)—all free for download or streaming (though, naturally, not in Criterion quality) at www.archive.org

Buster Keaton
One Week
The General
Sherlock Jr.
The Goat
The Boat
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The Playhouse
The Navigator
Three Ages
Convict 13
Daydreams
The Love Nest
The Frozen North
The Paleface
Cops
The Electric House
The Balloonatic
The Scarecrow
Neighbors
My Wife’s Relations
College
The Cameraman
Speak Easily
Film

Arbuckle & Keaton:
Back Stage
The Bell Boy
The Butcher Boy
Coney Island
The Cook
Good Night Nurse
His Wedding Night
Out West
The Rough House

Alfred Hitchcock
The 39 Steps
The Woman Alone / Sabotage
The Lady Vanishes
Blackmail
The Lodger
Secret Agent
The Manxman
Rich and Strange
Jamaica Inn
Under Capricorn
The Skin Game
The Ring
Easy Virtue
The Farmer’s Wife
Murder!
Downhill

Charlie Chaplin
The Immigrant
One A.M.
The Adventurer
A Burlesque On Carmen
The Fireman
The Pawnshop
The Floorwalker
Tillie’s Punctured Romance
Making a Living
Kid’s Auto Race
The New Janitor
The Property Man
A Night in the Show
The Rink
The Cure
Behind the Screen
The Vagabond

D.W. Griffith
Abraham Lincoln
The Adventures of Dollie
The Avenging Conscience
The Birth of a Nation
Broken Blossoms
The Burglar’s Dilemma
A Corner in Wheat
The Country Doctor
Death’s Marathon
The Girl and Her Trust
The House of Darkness
Intolerance
The Mender of Nets
The Mothering Heart
The Musketeers of Pig Alley
Orphans of the Storm
Those Awful Hats

Georges Méliès
Cinderella
The Devilish Tenant
The Eclipse
The Hilarious Posters
The Impossible Voyage
The Infernal Cauldron
Jeanne D’Arc
The Living Playing Cards
The Man with the Rubber Head
The Monster
The One-Man Band
A Terrible Night
A Trip to the Moon

Les Vampires
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

#
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

A
Africa Screams
Algiers
The Amazing Mr. X
Algie, the Miner
And Then There Were None
Angel and the Badman
The Atomic Submarine
At War with the Army

B
The Battle of Midway
Battleship Potemkin
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
The Black Pirate
Blood on the Sun
A Bucket of Blood

C
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Carnival of Souls
Creature from the Haunted Sea
Cyrano De Bergerac

D
Dementia 13
Der Golem
Detour
Dickson Experimental Sound Film
D.O.A.
Doomed to Die
The Driller Killer
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

E
Electric Hotel
Escape From Sobibor

F
Falling Leaves
A Farewell to Arms
The Fatal Glass of Beer
The Fatal Hour
Father’s Little Dividend
Faust
The Flying Deuces
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Frankenstein
The Front Page

G
Great Guy
The Great Train Robbery

H
Haxan
His Girl Friday
The House On Haunted Hill
How Awful About Allan
The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I
The Intruder
In Which We Serve
The Iron Mask

L
Lady Windermere’s Fan
The Last Man on Earth
The Last of the Mohicans
The Last Time I Saw Paris
Last Woman on Earth
Life with Father
The Little Princess
The Little Shop Of Horrors
The Lost World

M
M
Made for Each Other
Manos: The Hands of Fate
Man with the Movie Camera
Mark of Zorro, The
Meet John Doe
Mesa of Lost Women
The Most Dangerous Game
Mr. Wong, Detective
Mr. Wong in Chinatown
Mud and Sand
My Favorite Brunette
My Man Godfrey
The Mystery of Mr. Wong

N
Nanook of the North
Nazi Concentration Camps
Never Weaken
Night of the Living Dead
Night Tide
Nosferatu
Nothing Sacred
Not of This Earth

O
Of Human Bondage
Our Town
The Outlaw

P
Panic in the Streets
The Phantom of the Opera
Plan 9 from Outer Space
The Private Life of Henry VIII

R
Rain
Reefer Madness
Robin Hood
Roundhay Garden Scene
Royal Wedding

S
The Sadist
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Scarlet Street
She Done Him Wrong
She Gods of Shark Reef
The Sheik
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
Sita Sings the Blues
Ski Troop Attack
The Slippery Pearls
The Smallest Show on Earth
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Something to Sing About
The Southerner
A Star is Born
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
The Stranger
A Study in Scarlet

T
T-Men
The Terror
They Made Me a Criminal
The Thief of Bagdad
Things to Come
Three Songs About Lenin
Till the Clouds Roll By
The Time of Your Life
A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire

W
The Wasp Woman
White Zombie

 

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W2

18Jan12

I know this may be silly to some, but I had no idea how many truly great films are available. Woot!

Isabel Ferreira likes this

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Lis

25Nov11

Great list, thank you!

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Nathan Heigert

9Feb11

A film can lose its copyright ownership (1) if it was released before 1923 (thus, all of Melies' films, and most of Griffith's); (2) if the owner failed to renew the copyright: this applies, because of a court ruling, only to movies released before 1964 (most of the 1923-63 films entered the public domain in this way); (3) if the film was produced by the U.S. government (e.g. Nazi Concentration Camps); and, lastly, if the film was released without a copyright notice somewhere within the work (as with Night of the Living Dead). In 2019 all copyrighted films released in 1923 will become public domain; in 2020 all films released in 1924 will, and so forth.

adrianmendizabal and 9 others like this

Nancarrow, chanandre, Louise_Dietrich, herb shellenberger, WhatsUpWill, Arisa, Bruno Leal, Arian Raeisi, Surrealism Man

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Jeffrey Hunter

8Feb11

How and when does a film become part of the public domain?

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