Name: Legion of Missing Men
Director: Hamilton MacFadden
Released: 1937

Legion of Missing Men

1937 · Monogram Pictures · Dir. Hamilton MacFadden

Bob Carter, a member of the Foreign Legion, is glad to see his brother, Don, for the first time in ten years but is sorry that Don has joined the Legion. Bob, Don and Bob's buddies, Muggsy and Bilgey, go to a café and there Don falls for Nina, a singer in love with Bob. Bob doesn't know this and thinks she is Garccia's girl, and warns Don to have nothing to do with her. Don disregards the warning and Garcia discovers Nina and Don together and provokes Don into hitting him. Don is arrested and thrown into the company brig. Nina, with the aid of an Arabian sheik, Ul Ahmed, helps Don escape. Bob, Muggsy and Bilgey follow but are captured and taken to Ul Hamid's headquarters. The sheik tortures Don to force Bob to work some captured machine guns for him. Ah Hamid and his tribe attack the fort, but Bob manages to turn the machine guns against his captors, and the fort is saved.

Confidence

Why this status applies

The film 'Legion of Missing Men' was released in 1937 and registered for copyright by Monogram Pictures Corp. on July 19, 1937 (LP7361). Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a manual renewal filing during the 28th year of their first term to extend protection for a second term. For a 1937 release, this renewal window occurred in 1964 or 1965. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal record for this title. Monogram Pictures was undergoing significant corporate transitions during the mid-1960s, and many of its B-movies from this era were allowed to lapse into the public domain through non-renewal. Because the 28-year registration period expired without a renewal filing, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 1966. The film's public domain status is further corroborated by its inclusion in numerous public domain film collections and its presence on the Internet Archive without copyright challenges from a successor in interest.

Supporting facts

Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) 1937, Volume 34, Part 1, Group 3: Motion Pictures

Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (covering CCE volumes 1950–1977)

Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894–1939) by D. Richard Baer

AFI Catalog of Feature Films (1931-1940)