Public Domain
Country Gentlemen
1936 · Republic Pictures · Dir. Ralph Staub
After being run out of town after town for trying to sell worthless stock, two con artists breeze into the small town of Chesterville, where they find themselves accused of kidnapping a young boy to whom they offered a ride. When that misunderstanding is cleared up, the two conmen hatch a plot to unload all their worthless paper on the gullible citizens of Chesterville.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published in the United States between 1928 and 1963 required a copyright renewal filing with the Library of Congress during their 28th year of protection to extend copyright to a second term. Country Gentlemen was originally registered by Republic Pictures Corp. on October 30, 1936 (LP6744).
I conducted a search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) covering the renewal window of 1963–1964. No renewal record was found for this motion picture. The film's presence in several public domain film catalogs and its availability on the Internet Archive without takedown notices further corroborate its status. Because the mandatory renewal was not filed, the work entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 1965.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures 1912-1939 (Library of Congress)
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (https://exhibits.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals)
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (Hurst/Baer)
- IMDb - Country Gentlemen (1936)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.