Archive.org's feature film collection
August 5, 2006 1:48 AM   Subscribe

Full films for legal download: Archive.org has a large number of movies with expired copyrights for download. My favorite is 1936's Things To Come. Other nifty things include classic feature films like Battleship Potemkin and His Girl Friday, and shorts such as Max Fleicher's Superman, Three Stooges and Buster Keaton.
posted by jiawen (21 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hope this isn't a dupe. I thought I'd seen something similar here before but couldn't find it.
posted by jiawen at 1:49 AM on August 5, 2006


Worth it just for Fleicher's Superman. Those are genius on film!
posted by PenDevil at 2:02 AM on August 5, 2006


Cheers jiawen, I've lost count of the number of times I've watched His Girl Friday, and now I'm going to watch it again. 260 wondrous words per minute!
posted by jack_mo at 2:28 AM on August 5, 2006


the best media in life is free
posted by caddis at 3:02 AM on August 5, 2006


free movies
posted by caddis at 3:03 AM on August 5, 2006


I love archive.org.

They actually fulfill the promise of the "digital library" which normal libraries are too scared to try.
posted by beerbajay at 3:38 AM on August 5, 2006


How is a 1940 film in the public domain? Are all the films from then public domain, or did someone just screw up the renewals on "His Girl Friday"?
posted by smackfu at 6:52 AM on August 5, 2006


Man, Clark Kent is a dick to Lois.
posted by verb at 7:35 AM on August 5, 2006


Fleicher's Superman:

Clark Kent was brought up in an orphanage.
posted by feelinglistless at 7:43 AM on August 5, 2006


smackfu: This has happened all over Hollywood. That's why It's A Wonderful Life turned up on all kinds of cable stations sparking its re-evaluation. Charade is another notable example because someone forgot to put a copyright notice on the print. Full exp at Wiki.
posted by feelinglistless at 7:51 AM on August 5, 2006


Definitely a dupe, but since there's no easy way to search for the occurrences of URLs I couldn't give you a link without investing something more than the five minutes I've already spent.

(My takeway: Dupe-pileons are stupid because despite opinions to the contrary, it's actually not easy to tell if something is a dupe.)
posted by lodurr at 9:37 AM on August 5, 2006


As I understand it, pretty much teh entire Ealing Studios catalog (which includes most of Alec Guiness's early [brilliant] comedic work) is in the public domain, simply because nobody ever realized how valuable the intellectual property would be when the studio was going under.
posted by lodurr at 9:38 AM on August 5, 2006


Great post! Great thread! Good work Jiawen!

Some of my favorite MeFi FPPs have been dupes. If I'd seen this before, I'd forgotten and neglected to bookmark it.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:45 AM on August 5, 2006


Excellent post, thanks.
posted by LarryC at 9:50 AM on August 5, 2006


...Ooh! Night of the Living Dead!

"Originally titled "Night of the Flesh Eaters," the filmmakers decided that "Night of the Living Dead" would be a better title, and so it was changed. However, the copyright code was accidentally cut when the new title was put on the print, and thus, the film has fallen into the public domain."

The copyright and patent laws make no sense to me at all, never have, and probably never will. But hey, Romero's loss is our gain. One of the best flicks in the history of cinema. I have it on videotape, but my VCR doesn't work anymore, so this is great!
posted by ZachsMind at 9:50 AM on August 5, 2006


Romero spun the gaffe pretty nicely, too, IMO: He treated it as promotion for her his sequels and remakes. (He always struck me as kind of a class act, George did.)
posted by lodurr at 10:38 AM on August 5, 2006


pretty much teh entire Ealing Studios catalog (which includes most of Alec Guiness's early [brilliant] comedic work) is in the public domain

So if I find The Man in the White Suit and Passport to Pimlico and the like online, they're legal? Any idea where one might suit those Ealing films?
posted by pracowity at 12:12 PM on August 5, 2006


Actually, it's "Fleischer". Grr. That's what I get for posting in the wee hours.
posted by jiawen at 12:57 PM on August 5, 2006


Man, that Superman sure knows how to punch the shit out of a electro-beam. Get it, Superman!
posted by graventy at 1:37 PM on August 5, 2006


Or, an electro-beam.
posted by graventy at 1:37 PM on August 5, 2006


Excellent post and thread. Thanks.
posted by nickyskye at 5:14 PM on August 5, 2006


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