Public Domain
Arizona Gang Busters
1940 · Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) · Dir. Sam Newfield
Arizona Gang Busters is another pre-WWII saber-rattler that finds a band of renegade gunmen, under the pretense of developing an irrigation project for the reclamation of arid desert land, using airplanes and parachute jumpers to gather valuable military information for a European power.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Arizona Gang Busters was released in 1940 by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a manual renewal with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of their first term to maintain protection. If no renewal was filed, the work entered the public domain after its initial 28-year term.
A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal registration for this title. Like many Poverty Row westerns from PRC, the copyright was allowed to lapse. The film was originally registered for copyright on September 16, 1940 (LP9934), but the lack of a renewal filing in 1967 or 1968 confirms its public domain status.
Furthermore, the film is widely available on public domain aggregations and archive.org, and is listed in the Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1940-1949) as a non-renewed work.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (https://exhibits.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals)
- Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures 1912-1939 and 1940-1949
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (Hurst/Baer)
- IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032219/)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.