And Then There Were None

The film was released in 1945 by Popular Pictures and distributed through 20th Century Fox. Under the 1909 Copyright Act, US films of this era were protected for an initial term of 28 years and required a renewal filing in the 28th year to extend copyright protection. For a 1945 film, the renewal window closed on December 31, 1973. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal registration for this film. While the original screenplay (registered in 1944) or the underlying source material by Agatha Christie may have maintained their own copyrights, the cinematographic work itself entered the public domain in the United States in 1974 due to non-renewal. This film's public domain status is well-documented in secondary film references, including Hurst/Baer's Film Superlist, and is supported by its wide presence in public domain DVD collections (e.g., Alpha Video) and archive.org uploads that have remained legally undisturbed for years. Because the film is a US production, URAA restoration (which only applies to foreign works) does not apply.