The Big Night

The Big Night (1951), directed by Joseph Losey and starring John Drew Barrymore, was registered for copyright by Philip A. Waxman Productions, Inc. on December 5, 1951 (LP1427). Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a manual renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of the initial term to extend protection for an additional 47 years. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the US Copyright Office online records, and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal registration for this title. Based on the original 1951 registration, the renewal window opened in 1978 and closed in 1979. Because no renewal was filed, the copyright expired at the end of its first 28-year term. This specific film is widely documented in public domain research catalogs such as the 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain' (Hurst) and 'Motion Picture Copyrights and Renewals, 1950–1959' (Pierce). The film's presence on numerous public domain distribution labels and its availability on the Internet Archive without takedowns further corroborate its public domain status due to non-renewal.