Name: Conspiracy
Director: Lew Landers
Released: 1939

Conspiracy

1939 · RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. · Dir. Lew Landers

American Steve Kendall, a freighter's radio officer, discovers seaman Carlson sending an unauthorized message ashore as the ship approaches his war-poised homeland. Carlson is shot in cold blood when he jumps ship and Kendall, implicated in the espionage, swims ashore to avoid arrest. A woman he meets at the dock hides him in her apartment, where he learns Carlson was her brother, and they both work in a sabotage ring. Nedra is a singer at Tio's Cafe, and she approaches Tio for help when both the saboteurs and the secret police try to capture Steve.

Confidence

Why this status applies

The film 'Conspiracy' (1939), directed by Lew Landers and starring Allan Lane and Linda Hayes, was registered for copyright by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. on August 11, 1939, under registration number LP9087. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a manual renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of the initial term to extend protection to a second term. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the University of Pennsylvania's Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) online database, and David Pierce's 'Motion Picture Copyrights and Renewals 1950-1959' (which also indexes late RKO renewals) shows no renewal record for this title. RKO famously allowed a significant portion of its B-movie catalog from the late 1930s to lapse into the public domain by failing to file renewals in the mid-to-late 1960s. Because the 28-year window for renewal expired in 1967 without a filing, the copyright lapsed and the film entered the public domain in the United States.

Why this status applies

Supporting facts