Public Domain
Jack and the Beanstalk
1952 · Exclusive Productions / Warner Bros. · Dir. Jean Yarbrough
Two down-on-their-luck loafers take a job babysitting, with a bedtime story of the titular tale turning into a wacky Abbott and Costello-faced musical retelling involving stolen cows, terrible giants, and the heroic boy with an opportunistic butcher in a castle above the clouds.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The 1952 version of Jack and the Beanstalk, starring Abbott and Costello, is a well-documented public domain work. The film was originally registered for copyright by Exclusive Productions, Inc. (LP1611, April 30, 1952). Under the 1909 Copyright Act, works from 1952 required a renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during their 28th year of protection to extend copyright into a second term. For this film, the renewal window was open in 1979 and 1980.
Searches of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the US Copyright Office online records (which cover renewals from 1978 onward) show no renewal filed by Exclusive Productions or any successor in interest. While Warner Bros. originally distributed the film and maintains some materials, the underlying copyright lapsed in 1980 due to non-renewal. This status is widely recognized in the film industry; the film appears in various public domain catalogs and is legally distributed by numerous value-label distributors like Alpha Video and Mill Creek.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
- U.S. Copyright Office Online Catalog (cocatalog.loc.gov)
- Hurst, Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1950-1959)
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.