Leona Helmsley?
Those studio execs were right. Ya just can’t miss with a good ol’ Leona Helmsley joke. The kids just eat that stuff up.
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“Taxes are for the little people.”
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The straight man can be loveable and endearing. Look at Kermit the Frog. Mickey never quite got that either.
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Which should mean “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise”, “Stout-hearted Men” and “Lover, Come Back to Me” from that show are also now PD.
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I had thought that The Roman Hat Mystery, the first Ellery Queen novel was becoming PD this year but, alas, not until next.
It’s not like I don’t have all of them anyway (including an autographed one).
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From the Broadway show Blackbirds of 1928, which also included these two tunes:
and
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In other cheesy news, looks like this was inevitable.
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One great movie that fell into Public Domain today that is unlisted is The Wind starring Lillian Gish. Definitely worth a look.
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Someone please explain this how this modern world makes any sense anymore and do it within the context of this story:
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Following that up, I watched a bunch of these last year for my blog project. A lot of these movies are worth a peek for film buffs:
The Cameraman - One of my favorite Keaton movies and one of my favorite romantic comedies.
The Circus - It gets lost in the shuffle of Chaplin’s work, what with being sandwiched in between The Gold Rush and City Lights and all, but I love this one. It’s an all-encompassing Chaplin production that shows off everything he offered in top form.
The Docks of New York - Of the Von Sternberg films I’ve seen so far, this one is my favorite. Its a very engaging working class drama.
Four Sons - Pretty decent, but I think John Ford fans can and have already found better.
Gallopin’ Gaucho - Probably the least of Mickey’s first three cartoons. Kinda humdrum.
In Old Arizona - Is notable for being the first talkie picture to adapt sound technology to outside environments. It’s a slow paced rascally outlaw evading capture movie that was flashier at the time than it is today. Features a lot of brown face, including the Oscar winning lead.
The Last Command - Another Von Sternberg movie, and another with an Oscar winning lead performance. Emil Jannings is pretty terrific and the movie is visually striking. Some storytelling hiccups along the way.
Lilac Time - If Wings was the Top Gun of the 1920’s, then Lilac Time was the Iron Eagle. There’s a funny slapstick sequence in a runaway plane though.
Our Dancing Daughters - Joan Crawford drama about socialites and their complicated relationships with the opposite sex. Pretty solid.
Plane Crazy - Is probably the most entertaining of Mickey Mouse’s first three shorts, as it was animated as a silent slapstick short and didn’t cater to being a synchronized sound dance presentation.
Sadie Thompson - This is an oddly sex positive movie starring Gloria Swanson (she was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Janet Gaynor). It’s worth a watch, but the ending is missing from all prints (though it has been crudely reconstructed with stills).
Skyscraper - Nothing to see here.
Steamboat Bill, Jr. - Iconic climax sells this Buster Keaton comedy. I love The Cameraman more as a movie, but this one is a showstopper.
Steamboat Willie - Hey look, it’s this one!
Street Angel - One of the movies Janet Gaynor won her Oscar for. It’s the weakest of the three, but it has its moments, and it’s worth it for Gaynor’s performance.
Tempest - Romance set during the Russian Revolution. Those wanting more visual fire will be best off with The Last Command, but the lead performances are quite good in this one.
West of Zanzibar - Lon Chaney kicks ass in this movie. I wasn’t too into the movie as a whole, but god damn that man was a treasure.
White Shadow in the South Seas - Interesting drama about how colonialism is a bit of a plague. Won an Oscar for cinematography, which is partually shot documentary like. Animal lovers beware, because there is a lot of footage of natives hunting animals.
Films I enjoyed from 1928 that aren’t listed include The Wind, Lonesome, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Crowd, and Show People.
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A 78 of the music from The Circus and an original antique poster from The Circus are amongst my father’s Chaplin memorabilia collection which we have yet to figure out what to do with. I’ve never actually seen it, but I’m not a huge Chaplin buff. My father made sure I saw the most important Chaplin films, but I just never found him all that funny. He could be insightful at times, though. The ‘look up’ speech at the end of Modern Times is incredible.
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So far I have seen Steamboat Willie proclaim himself to be gay, trans, a communist, in favor of unions, and in favor of piracy.
eta: Also a comic reuniting him with his beloved Gatsby.
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Well, he’s been keeping stuff bottled up for a long time.
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I think Chaplin is funnier in his later shorts (for First National in 1918-1923), which I like better than the films. I’d definitely file the feature The Kid from the same period under “insightful” as well. In addition to Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., Harold Lloyd’s Speedy just entered the public domain; due to two separate 1928 releases it’s his last silent film and his first partially-sound film.
One note is that this is for the public domain in the United States. While Hitchcock’s The Farmer’s Wife, Champagne, and Easy Virtue just entered the US public domain yesterday, they won’t enter the UK public domain until at least 2050 (70 years after Hitchcock’s death in 1980).
Since Warner’s Foxy character has all of his adventures in the public domain, can anyone sue me for using him?
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Fun fact: for countries with a copyright length of ‘life plus 50’, all of JRR Tolkien’s works are now PD.
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Mickey Mouse retelling of The Hobbit when?
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First they’re going to make a hundred bad horror movies about Mickey Mouse. Because it was such a gold mine idea when they did it last year with Winnie-the-Pooh.
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I watched the Rifftrax version of the Charlie Chan movie Dark Alibi last night. It made me think that surely the character of Mr. Chan must be PD by now, (EDIT to add–but I guess not until next year). I’m surprised some one one – some one Asian, mind you – hasn’t taken a stab at reclaiming that character.
In the books, as I understand, he doesn’t speak the pidgin English the movies chose to use. In fact, the excerpt included on the Wikipedia page is rather eloquent and expresses sentiments I would think a modern Asian writer/director/actor might be interested in exploring in more depth:
It overwhelms me with sadness to admit it … for he is of my own origin, my own race, as you know. But when I look into his eyes I discover that a gulf like the heaving Pacific lies between us. Why? Because he, though among Caucasians many more years than I, still remains Chinese. As Chinese to-day as in the first moon of his existence. While I – I bear the brand – the label – Americanized… I traveled with the current… I was ambitious. I sought success. For what I have won, I paid the price. Am I an American? No. Am I, then, a Chinese? Not in the eyes of Ah Sing.
— Charlie Chan, speaking of a murderer’s accomplice, in Keeper of the Keys , by Earl Derr Biggers
I think a good and interesting Charlie Chan movie could be made today, but perhaps the movie history of the character has made it just too toxic.
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He doesn’t look anything like Munchie.
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There have been attempts, the last one I remember hearing about was mid-2000’s with a gener-swapped take played by Lucy Liu. I think Charlie Chan is one of those characters that has become so stigmatized by now that any attempt to reintroduce him will take some good scrubbing. Not impossible, but it’ll take boldness and elbow grease.
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