Public Domain
Excuse My Dust
1920 · Famous Players-Lasky / Paramount Pictures · Dir. Sam Wood
A top race-car driver leaves the sport to get married and settle down, because his new wife doesn't want him to race anymore. However, not long afterwards his wife takes their infant son and leaves him to go to San Francisco. The husband gets word that his son is seriously ill in San Francisco, but he has no way to get there. Just in the nick of time, however, the racer's father-in-law just happens to have developed a new car for a cross-country race--to San Francisco!
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The film 'Excuse My Dust', starring Wallace Reid, was released by Famous Players-Lasky (Paramount) in March 1920. Under the current United States copyright law (17 U.S.C. § 304), all works published or registered before January 1, 1929, have entered the public domain regardless of renewal history.
As a 1920 release, the work's maximum statutory copyright term of 95 years expired no later than the end of 2015. However, since it precedes the 1929 cutoff, it is definitively public domain in the U.S. The film is currently preserved in the Library of Congress and other archives, commonly marked as public domain in film databases like the AFI Catalog and Silent Era.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures 1912-1939
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films (1893-1993)
- Silent Era: Excuse My Dust (1920)
- 17 U.S.C. § 304
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.