Public Domain
Bar-Z Bad Men
1937 · Republic Pictures · Dir. Sam Newfield
Jim Waters arrives at Ed Parks' ranch to find Parks' cattle herd mysteriously increased. Hamp Harvey has been losing cattle and he suspects Parks. But the culprit is Harvey's foreman Brent who gets his orders from the town's leading citizen Sig Barstell. Barstell wants Harvey's ranch and after trying to frame Harvey by killing Parks, Waters takes over and goes after both the killer and the rustlers.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Bar-Z Bad Men was originally released on January 20, 1937. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published in the United States between 1928 and 1963 entered the public domain if their copyright was not renewed with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of the first term.
A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal record for this title. While Republic Pictures was a major studio that renewed many of its 'A' features, many of its B-westerns and lower-budget programmers fell into the public domain due to clerical oversight or lack of perceived commercial value at the time of renewal. The film is widely cited in public domain catalogs, including the Hurst Film Superlist, as having failed to renew its copyright. It is currently distributed by several public domain specialty labels such as Alpha Video.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (Checked 1964–1966)
- Hurst, Richard Maurice. Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1920-1939)
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films (1931-1940)
- Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), Motion Pictures 1912-1939
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.