Hell's Five Hours

The film 'Hell's Five Hours' was released by Allied Artists in 1958. Under the US Copyright Act of 1909, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal of copyright with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of the first term to remain protected. For a 1958 release, the renewal window opened in 1985 and closed on December 31, 1986. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the US Copyright Office online records (which cover renewals from 1978 onward) shows no renewal registration for this title. Furthermore, 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain 1950-1959' by David Pierce and D. Richard Baer confirms that the copyright for this production was not renewed. The film is widely known in the industry as a public domain title and is frequently distributed by budget labels such as Alpha Video and Sinister Cinema that specialize in royalty-free content. Because the mandatory renewal was not filed, the work entered the public domain in the United States in 1987.