Public Domain
Angel Puss
1944 · Warner Bros. Pictures · Dir. Chuck Jones
A little black boy is hired to kill a cat, but the feline escapes and proceeds to play tricks on the kid, pretending he's a ghost come back to haunt his "killer". One of the “Censored 11” banned from TV syndication by United Artists in 1968 for racist stereotyping.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Angel Puss was a Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones, released on April 15, 1944. As a film released between 1928 and 1963, US copyright law required the owner to file a renewal with the Copyright Office during the 28th year of the initial term to extend protection for a second term. In this case, Warner Bros. (the original claimant) failed to renew the copyright in 1971 or 1972.
A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries confirms that while other Looney Tunes shorts from the 1943–1944 season were renewed, 'Angel Puss' was not. This omission is widely attributed to the film being part of the 'Censored Eleven,' a group of cartoons withheld from distribution by United Artists and later Warner Bros. due to their use of offensive racial stereotypes. Because the copyright was never renewed, the film entered the public domain in the United States upon the expiration of its first 28-year term in 1972.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford University Copyright Renewal Database
- Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE)
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1940-1949)
- IMDb: Angel Puss (1944)
- Wikipedia: Censored Eleven
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.