Public Domain Movies - Drama & Romance

His Girl Friday

romance, comedy

Hilarious romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Russell is rough and tumble reporter looking to get out of the news racket by marrying and becoming a house wife after her divorce from newspaper publisher Grant. Just when she is about to leave town with her husband-to-be the still lovesick Grant drafts her to cover one final breaking news sensation. Along with plenty of laughs and fast paced dialog this film provides a witty and cynical look at news business. There is a slight audio sync problem in the first couple minutes of the film.

House on Haunted Hill

Drama, horror, Thriller

Frederick Loren has invited five strangers to a party of a lifetime. He is offering each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in a house.

The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.

Suddenly

crime, Drama, Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates, Kim Charney

"Three gunmen, who have been hired to assassinate the President, hold a family hostage while waiting for their target. Interesting B film which focuses on psychopathic killer well-portrayed against type by Frank Sinatra." - noir expert Spencer Selby | Cast: Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates. 77 min.

My Man Godfrey

screwball, comedy, romance

Ditzy socialite with a heart of gold, Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) finds "forgotten man" Godfrey Smith (William Powell) in a scavenger hunt. Eventually Godfrey is taken in as the family butler for the Bullocks and screwball antics and romance ensue.

The Stranger

Drama, Film-Noir, mystery, Thriller, pdmovies

Set Connecticut after World War II, The Stranger is a cat and mouse game between Wilson (Edward G. Robinson), a member of the Allied War Crimes Commission and Franz Kindler (Orson Welles), a Nazi who has assumed the false identity of Dr. Charles Rankin. To complete his new intelligentsia disguise, Kindler marries Mary Longstreet, daughter of a Supreme Court justice.

The Phantom of the Opera

silent, Drama, horror, pdmovies

At the Opera of Paris, a mysterious phantom threatens a famous lyric singer, Carlotta and thus forces her to give up her role (Marguerite in Faust) for unknown Christine Daae. Christine meets this phantom (a masked man) in the catacombs, where he lives.

The Iron Mask

Adventure, Romance

A swashbuckling Alexandre Dumas adventure featuring Douglas Fairbanks. You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page.

Penny Serenade

romance, comedy, pdmovies

Touching romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. Find out more about this film at its IMDB page.

Bronenosets Potyomkin (Battleship Potemkin)

silent, Drama, History, war

Considered one of the most important films in the history of silent pictures, as well as possibly Eisenstein's greatest work, Battleship Potemkin brought Eisenstein's theories of cinema art to the world in a powerful showcase; his emphasis on montage, his stress of intellectual contact, and his treatment of the mass instead of the individual as the protagonist. The film tells the story of the mutiny on the Russian ship Prince Potemkin during the 1905 uprising.

Scarlet Street

Film-Noir, Drama, black comedy, fritz lang

German director Fritz Lang is best known for the highly influential films from relatively early in his career, especially Metropolis (1927) and M (1931). But he also had a brief Hollywood heyday during the mid 1940s, when he made some of his best films. Scarlet Street has been claimed by film noir. This attribution is understandable. The lighting is dark, with heavy use of shadows. The characters are all shady as well. Kitty is certainly a femme fatale, although hints are dropped that she is an inherently decent person who has become completely corrupted by Johnny.

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