Fetch!
Poor Little Peppina poster
Public Domain

Poor Little Peppina

1916 · Famous Players Film Co. · Dir. Sidney Olcott

Holding a grudge against Robert Torrens and his wife, who live in Italy, a member of the Mafia kidnaps their infant daughter Lois. Fifteen years later, after having been raised by Italian peasants, Lois, now called Peppina, dresses as a boy and stows away on a ship to America in order to avoid a marriage to a particularly loathsome count. While aboard ship she befriends Hugh Carroll, an assistant district attorney, who arranges first-class transportation for the "boy." In New York, she once again meets her kidnapper, who fled to America after the crime. He forces Peppina to maintain the masculine disguise and to pass counterfeit bills for him, for which she is arrested. Peppina gladly exposes the kidnapper's operation to the authorities, one of whom, Hugh, recognizes her as the "boy" he met on the ship. Then, once the kidnapper has been apprehended, Peppina is reunited with her parents, after which she and Hugh, who has finally discovered that she is female, get married.

Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —

Why this status applies

Poor Little Peppina, starring Mary Pickford and produced by the Famous Players Film Company, was released in the United States on February 21, 1916. Under the United States copyright law, any work published or registered before January 1, 1928, has reached the end of its statutory copyright term and has entered the public domain. This film passed into the public domain on January 1, 1992 (at the conclusion of its 75-year term under the law at that time, which was not extended by subsequent copyright acts for works of this specific age). No renewal research is necessary because the pre-1928 rule is absolute regardless of renewal status.
— Cited Sources —

Supporting facts

  • Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures 1912-1939
  • AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  • IMDb: Poor Little Peppina (1916)
  • U.S. Copyright Office - Circular 15a: Duration of Copyright

Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.