Public Domain
Manhattan Madness
1916 · Fine Arts Film Company (Triangle Film Corporation) · Dir. Allan Dwan
Steve O'Dare, a young New Yorker who has gone off to Wyoming to be a cowboy, returns to New York to sell some cattle. He bores his friends with tales of the exciting Western life, so they plot to trick him with a mock abduction. But although Steve falls for the gag, he ends up turning the tables on his friends.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Under current US copyright law, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain. Manhattan Madness was originally released on September 10, 1916, by the Triangle Film Corporation and stars Douglas Fairbanks. Its original copyright was registered to the Fine Arts Film Co. on September 8, 1916 (LP9081) and later renewed in 1944.
However, because the film reached the end of its statutory protection period—calculated as 95 years from publication for works of this era—it expired in 2011 at the latest. Furthermore, as a pre-1928 work, it falls under the 'cutoff rule' where no further renewals can extend its life. It has been in the public domain for over a decade and is widely available on archive.org and from various public domain film distributors.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Library of Congress, Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures, 1912-1939
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- IMDb
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain 1894-1939 (Hurst)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.