Public Domain Movies - Feature Films

Forbidden Paradise


Forbidden Paradise is a 1924 American silent drama film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, produced by Famous Players-Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on a 1922 Broadway play, The Czarina, by Edward Sheldon, who adapted the Hungarian-language book by Melchior Lengyel and Lajos Bíró. The play starred Doris Keane, in one of her last stage roles, as Catherine the Great. Basil Rathbone costarred with Keane. The film stars Pola Negri as Catherine the Great and Rod La Rocque in the Rathbone role. Clark Gable makes his second appearance on film.

Peter Pan


Peter Pan is a 1924 American silent adventure film released by Paramount Pictures, the first film adaptation of the 1904 play by J. M. Barrie. It was directed by Herbert Brenon and starred Betty Bronson as Peter Pan, Ernest Torrence as Captain Hook, Mary Brian as Wendy, Virginia Browne Faire as Tinker Bell, Esther Ralston as Mrs. Darling, and Anna May Wong as the American Indian princess Tiger Lily.

Beau Brummel


Beau Brummel is a 1924 American silent film historical drama starring John Barrymore and Mary Astor. The film was directed by Harry Beaumont and based upon Clyde Fitch's 1890 play, which had been performed by Richard Mansfield, and depicts the life of the British Regency dandy Beau Brummell.

Several years after Barrymore's death, his daughter Diana Barrymore was shown a special screening of this film as she had never seen her father in any of his silent films.

The Iron Horse


The film is about the construction of the American first transcontinental railroad. It depicts Irish, Italian, and Chinese immigrants, as well as African Americans, as the men who did the backbreaking work that made this feat possible. The primary villain is an unscrupulous businessman who masquerades as a renegade Cheyenne. It culminates with the scene of driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869.

The Freshman


The Freshman is a 1925 comedy film that tells the story of a college freshman trying to become popular by joining the school football team. It stars Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Brooks Benedict, and James Anderson. It remains one of Lloyd's most successful and enduring films.

The film was written by John Grey, Sam Taylor, Tim Whelan, and Ted Wilde. It was directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor.

Buster Keaton’s Go West

Buster Keaton

Go West is an American silent movie starring Buster Keaton.

Keaton portrays Friendless, who travels west to try to make his fortune. Once there, he tries his hand at bronco-busting, cattle wrangling and dairy farming, eventually forming a bond with a cow named "Brown Eyes." Eventually he finds himself leading a herd of cattle through Los Angeles.

Plot
A drifter identified only as "Friendless" (Keaton) sells the last of his possessions, keeping only a few trinkets and a picture of his mother. The money buys him only some bread and a sausage then is gone.

Pretty Ladies


Pretty Ladies is a 1925 American silent comedy-drama film starring ZaSu Pitts and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film is a fictional recreation of the famed Ziegfeld Follies. Directed by Monta Bell, the film was written by Alice D. G. Miller and featured intertitles by Joseph Farnham. Pretty Ladies originally featured musical color sequences, some in two-strip Technicolor. However, the color sequences are now considered lost.

The Unholy Three


The Unholy Three is a 1925 American silent film involving a crime spree, directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney. The supporting cast features Mae Busch, Matt Moore, Victor McLaglen and Harry Earles.

The film was remade in 1930 as a talkie. In both the 1925 and the 1930 version, the roles of Professor Echo and Tweedledee are played by Chaney and Earles respectively. The films were based on the novel of the same name by Tod Robbins.

Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde


Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde is a 1925 silent, black-and-white comedy film, directed by Scott Pembroke and Joe Rock (also the producer).

The film itself is both a spoof of the previous Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films (e.g. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)) and the well-famed 1886 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The film stars Stan Laurel as the title characters.

Sally of the Sawdust


Sally of the Sawdust is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring W. C. Fields. It was based on the 1923 stage musical Poppy. Fields would later star in a second film version, Poppy (1936).

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