PDE’s 5 Movies You Didn’t Know Were Public Domain

Okay, well, one is well known if you follow PDE here on Steemit but the other nine, I am sure you did not know were public domain. Almost positive. Pretty sure anyhow. I have a strong feeling you did not know these movies were free to enjoy. Anyhow, on with the list. You can watch each one right here in this article – that is the power of public domain entertainment.

Image Source: Pixabay

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way, Night of the Living Dead. This classic is one of those accidental public domain releases as the movie was not intended for this category.

If you like zombie slashers, then you are in for a treat as George Romero’s take on the genre is ground breaking and different. These zombies are not your every day zombies. No, Romero’s zombies are much more horrifying in that they exhibit many intelligent aspects – something not often attributed to the undead.

They are dangerous, they work together, and they are hungry for brains.

Who doesn’t like a good old style western starring John Wayne? How about a comedy, and yes, it is public domain, starring the Duke himself?

Mclintock is the story of John Wayne, playing George Washington “G.W.” McLintock. Wayne’s character is recently separated from his wife and living on his ranch. Playing chess and throwing his hat onto weather vanes are just a couple of McLintock’s favorite activities. There is a lot going on with the story of this one and astute viewers may be able to catch the cues to Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Let’s get animated with this next one. Gulliver’s Travels holds the distinction of being the first cell animated feature film by an American studio other than Walt Disney and the first such film for Paramount Pictures.

The old saying, “They don’t make them like they used to” holds true for Gulliver’s Travels. This is a true classic and one that holds up quite well even though technology has progressed light years ahead of what was used to make this movie.

Considering dinosaur movies are all the rage these days, let’s check out a classic from the silent film era. This one will throw your kids off if they have never seen a silent film before.

The Lost World is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s book of the same name. This is a great one for fans of the giants of the Earth from days gone by.

Telling the story of a group of explorers on their quest to prove that dinosaurs still walk the Earth. As with most expeditions like these things go wrong rather quickly and that is when the action picks up.

Finally, we have Plan 9 from Outer Space - arguably the worst film ever made. It is also billed as the last appearance in a film by Bela Lugosi – though ironically, he never knew it was footage to be used here as it was filmed for another film.

This movie is all about aliens that have a crazy plan, literally called “Plan 9”, to stop the people of Earth from creating a doomsday weapon. This weapon is feared to be big enough that it could destroy the universe.

How do the aliens plan to stop earthlings from creating this weapon? By raising the dead to cause chaos in hopes that the earthlings will then listen to reason. Um. Yeah.