Public Domain films on Blu-ray Thread

[Egbert Souse]

Might want to separate public domain releases from titles properly licensed.

For example, Criterion licensed Charade and My Man Godfrey from Universal. Shout! Factory licensed House on Haunted Hill, Last Man on Earth, and The Brain that Wouldn't Die. For that matter, Criterion's editions of Carnival of Souls and Night of the Living Dead were also licensed.

[GeoffOliver]

[Rzzzz]

Originally Posted by AFFanAttic

I'm really surprised that nobody's released Reefer Madness on blu-ray outside of a Rifftrax Live recording. So this probably only halfway counts.



An infamous novelty of a film where the movie posters and other ironic references hold more market value than the film itself?

There is this....

[goathead1]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

How could I forget this one I actually have the Thunderbean blu-ray!

Actually it seems that most of Thunderbean's releases are PD also!

[goathead1]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

Excellent resource. It seems murky and unsettled.

updated first posts to clarify things.

[El_Fez]

Dont forget this guy:

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

Might want to separate public domain releases from titles properly licensed.

For example, Criterion licensed Charade and My Man Godfrey from Universal. Shout! Factory licensed House on Haunted Hill, Last Man on Earth, and The Brain that Wouldn't Die. For that matter, Criterion's editions of Carnival of Souls and Night of the Living Dead were also licensed.

Yeah, I agree. The list should be separated between “official releases” and “unofficial releases.” Another example would be Orson Welles’ The Stranger. Film Chest and Kino’s releases are unofficial, but Olive Films’ release was officially licensed from MGM (who holds ancillary rights to the film and the masters). Also The Scar (AKA Hollow Triumph). Kino’s release is officially licensed from Paramount. All other releases (such as Film Detective’s releases) are not.

An easy way of telling would be to look at the back package under the copyright information, which would say something like “under exclusive license from...” Also, studio logos would be a giveaway too. Also, if it’s been remastered from the original camera negative, that also almost certainly means it’s an official release. Unofficial public domain releases like to tout something like “Remastered from rare print.”

[AFFanAttic]

Originally Posted by Rzzzz

There is this....

Thaaat's the kind of cheap looking novelty title featuring Reefer Madness that I would have expected maybe four or five of.
My fault for only searching this website for reefer madness and not checking amazon for "reefer madness blu-ray".

[t_rav]

Please don’t forget this properly licensed classic:

[Egbert Souse]

I know the list is probably being worked on, but these titles listed as "unlicensed" were indeed licensed:
Cyrano de Bergerac (Olive Films) - Paramount/Republic
The General (Kino first edition) - Douris UK (now Cohen Media)
Made for Each Other (Kino) - Disney/ABC
The Screaming Skull (Shout! Factory) - MGM
Topper (VCI) - RHI/Sonar Entertainment
Topper Returns (VCI) - RHI/Sonar Entertainment
The Wasp Woman (Shout! Factory) - New Horizons

And these listed as licensed were not:
Nothing Sacred (first "Selznick Estate" edition, only the 2K remaster was licensed)
A Star is Born
The General/Three Ages (Kino/Lobster) - remasters licensed from Lobster Films

[goathead1]

Yeah I'm pretty much checking them all myself which is kind of difficult since most of them I don't have.

Any help is appreciated. And here all this time I thought I was the only one with a strange fascination for public domain movies

[GeoffOliver]

When I was younger, I actually enjoyed getting $1 DVDs with public domain films and cartoons and I got two of Mill Creek’s giant 50 movie sets. Dollar Tree had so many, they were actually selling them for 50 cents. I hardly watched them though because I quickly realized the quality was usually abysmal (unwatchable in some cases), and I usually sought out better copies on YouTube. It is how I discovered gems like Night of the Living Dead, House on Haunted Hill, White Zombie, The Giant Gila Monster, and others. Once upon a time, I used to think the public domain was a good thing for a movie’s home video prospects, but now I think it hinders it because it’s more difficult for public domain films to get decent releases with enough money and effort put into good transfers. Kino at least does their best for their unofficial PD releases.

[goathead1]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

When I was younger, I actually enjoyed getting $1 DVDs with public domain films and cartoons and I got two of Mill Creek’s giant 50 movie sets. Dollar Tree had so many, they were actually selling them for 50 cents. I hardly watched them though because I quickly realized the quality was usually abysmal (unwatchable in some cases), and I usually sought out better copies on YouTube. It is how I discovered gems like Night of the Living Dead, House on Haunted Hill, White Zombie, The Giant Gila Monster, and others.

I know what you mean, the pride of my public domain collection is three of the four 250 movie packs from Mill Creek. Quality varies but I couldn't beat the price at the time (about $20 a pop!).

Once upon a time, I used to think the public domain was a good thing for a movie’s home video prospects, but now I think it hinders it because it’s more difficult for public domain films to get decent releases with enough money and effort put into good transfers. Kino at least does their best for their unofficial PD releases.

Agreed.

[Jobla]

DEMENTIA 13 and THE TERROR are considered PD, but MGM holds the vault elements and generally doesn't make those available to other companies. The one exception is that Coppola's American Zoetrope company utilized the MGM elements for DEMENTIA 13 to create a 4K restoration in 2018. That new edition has been screened in a few film festivals.

Judging by its release on dozens of el cheapo labels, it would appear that THE SWORD OF LANCELOT (1963) has gone PD. It was a Universal release in the states, but was probably a British production that Universal aquired via negative pickup.

Most home video copies of LANCELOT are full-frame eyesores. However, there was a German PAL DVD which appeared to be legit, in the original CinemaScopoe and with excellent color. All US releases of it have been of poor quality.

[Slob]

The Bob Hope films, Road to Bali, Road to Rio, Lemon Drop Kid and Son of Paleface all have several PD releases on VHS and DVD.
Universal/Paramount gave Shout access to their vault materials for their Bob Hope Collections on DVD. This was their first release not from PD prints.
The Kino BDs are also from the studio's elements.

Another Hope movie in PD is Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell. Don't know if it has a BD release.

[obscurelabel]

For what it's worth, there is a report that Beat the Devil is not public domain.

https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/archives/2016_08.html (search for "Beat the Devil")

"Grover [Sony's Grover Crisp] insists the film is NOT in the Public Domain."

[GeoffOliver]

Some movies have questionable PD status. House on Haunted Hill allegedly is not because Warner did at least attempt to renew the copyright in the late 80s through its soundtrack. Either way, its copyright is NOT being enforced at all. Then there’s Hitchcock’s British films of the 1920s and 1930s. They are apparently not PD, even though they’ve been treated as such with little regard for copyright. Mill Creek even released a cheap boxset (with awful old transfers).

One of the strangest PD films is Nancy Drew... Reporter (1939) with Bonita Granville. The other three films in that series are still copyrighted, but only that one fell into PD hell. Then there’s the random episodes of Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents that slipped into the public domain (but not the whole shows). Unofficial DVDs always have to change the theme songs.

[AFFanAttic]

Is there somehow a particular cut of Deep Red that fell into the public domain? Or were publishers cheating and taking advantage of some precarious rights situation a while back ago?
I used to have a DVD double feature of "The Deep Red Hatchet Murders" that also featured Satanic Rites of Dracula. I've seen it in other sets as well, and I've always been a little confused about that.

Larry Cohen's God Told Me To might be another one that publishers took advantage of for a little while.

Does it just sometimes happen that a company that holds the rights to a film goes under or something, and cheapie producers run with it until ownership limbo has been sorted out?

[goathead1]

Originally Posted by obscurelabel

For what it's worth, there is a report that Beat the Devil is not public domain.

https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/archives/2016_08.html (search for "Beat the Devil")

"Grover [Sony's Grover Crisp] insists the film is NOT in the Public Domain."

The version released by PD specialists is 89 minutes while the restored Twilight Time version is 94 minutes. Looks like a situation similar to Beneath The Twelve Mile Reef where they reinserted lost footage allowing it to finally become copyrighted.

Note that the Film Detective version is 89 minutes.

[goathead1]

Originally Posted by Slob

The Bob Hope films, Road to Bali, Road to Rio, Lemon Drop Kid and Son of Paleface all have several PD releases on VHS and DVD.
Universal/Paramount gave Shout access to their vault materials for their Bob Hope Collections on DVD. This was their first release not from PD prints.
The Kino BDs are also from the studio's elements.

Another Hope movie in PD is Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell. Don't know if it has a BD release.

The Road to Rio appears to be copyrighted.