Public Domain
His Girl Friday
1940 · Columbia Pictures · Dir. Howard Hawks
Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit and settle down with a new beau, but, as Walter knows, she has a weakness: she can’t resist a juicy scoop.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
His Girl Friday was released by Columbia Pictures in 1940. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal filing with the U.S. Copyright Office during the 28th year of the first term to extend protection for a second term. The original copyright was registered on January 5, 1940 (LP9332) by Columbia Pictures Corp.
Research in the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) confirms that no renewal was filed for this film during its 28th-year window (1967–1968). Consequently, the copyright expired, and the film entered the public domain in the United States in 1968. While the underlying stage play 'The Front Page' by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur remained under copyright for a longer duration, the film elements of 'His Girl Friday' itself are legally public domain.
The film's public domain status is widely documented in legal databases and film history scholarship. It is frequently cited as one of the most famous examples of a major studio film entering the public domain due to a clerical failure to renew, and it is widely distributed by various public domain labels such as Alpha Video and Mill Creek Entertainment.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (Motion Pictures 1912–1959)
- U.S. Copyright Office Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), 1940 and 1967-1968 volumes
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain 1894-1939 / 1940-1949 (Baer/Hurst)
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Internet Archive - His Girl Friday (Multiple PD uploads)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.