Corsair

The film 'Corsair' (1931), directed by Roland West and starring Chester Morris, was originally registered for copyright by Feature Productions, Inc. on October 24, 1931, under registration number LP2576. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a proactive renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of their first term to maintain protection for a second term of 67 years. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no record of a renewal filing for this title. The copyright would have needed to be renewed in 1958 or 1959. Because no renewal was filed, the copyright expired at the end of its first 28-year term, and the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 1960. Regarding the 'Colorized' aspect mentioned in the prompt: while a modern colorization process can theoretically create a new 'derivative work' copyright for the colorized layer specifically (if it meets the threshold of original creative expression), the underlying black-and-white film remains in the public domain. Most colorized versions of 1930s public domain films were produced by third-party distributors (such as Hal Roach Studios or Legend Films) and do not affect the public domain status of the original cinematography and story.