Public Domain Day - 2021

On January 1st, the creative works of 1925 entered into public domain.  Here are a few classic films that are now public domain items:

The original Stella Dallas with Ronald Colman, Belle Bennett, Lois Moran, Alice Joyce, Jean Hersholt, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

King Vidor's The Big Parade starring John Gilbert.

The Freshman with Harold Lloyd, which we covered here.

Go West, with Buster Keaton.

The Gold Rush with Charlie Chaplin

The Unholy Three with Lon Chaney.

The biggest convenience to classic film writers of the annual Public Domain Day is knowing that all works of a certain year have now passed into public domain and that makes it easier to remember than having to research individual titles to see which ones are and which aren't due to failure to renew the copyright under the last century's various copyright extensions.  Some titles of the many produced in 1925 were already in public domain, but now they all are free to use.

Here's a link to last year's Public Domain Day post for films of 1924.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Memories in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century. Her newspaper column on classic films, Silver Screen, Golden Memories is syndicated nationally.  Her new book, a collection of posts from this blog - Hollywood Fights Fascism - is available here on Amazon.

Starring the U.S. Capitol Building

The United States Capitol Building has seen its share of tumult and triumph in a couple of hundred years, and certainly in the past couple of weeks.  James Stewart, seen here in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), which we covered in this previous post, points us to that magnificent structure, rich in history, beauty, and symbolism.  It was not destroyed two weeks ago, and nor was our democracy.  We have a remarkable and sometimes astounding ability for renewal in this country.  Sometimes it feels so good, it's like a Capra movie.

Blog goes dark

 

The blog goes dark today in observation of the fascist insurrection that is, to be realistic, not over.  The dirty rabble that desecrated the Capitol Building are a dramatic visual for the television cameras, but they are the least of our worries. Traitors need to be rooted out in government as well as law enforcement, perhaps also the military, as the unfortunate thug who was shot and killed had been an Air Force veteran. For her to betray her oath to the Constitution, something other than duty and honor was clearly more appealing to her. There must investigations, certainly.  But there must also be trial and punishment on a scale such that our allies and enemies alike will know that democracy is still safe in our hands and we can be trusted to defend it. 

At one point, one traitor climbed the building and removed an American flag, replacing it with a "Trump" flag. A fascist is not loyal to his country, but to his dictator. 

Let's not allow that to ever happen again.