Public Domain
The Bride of the Nile
1911 · Selig Polyscope Company · Dir. Enrico Guazzoni
La Sposa del Nilo (1911) was a proto-epic, where you could sense the Italian filmmakers (Enrico Guazzoni in this case) gearing up to the gigantic imaginings of Cabiria and Quo Vadis just a few years on. The film wanted to impress you with its stateliness and scale; at time the central action (a young virgin is drowned to appease Isis and ensure that the Nile floods) became lost in the crowded frame – but that just reminded you that early cinema audiences look that much more intently at what was going on, and picked up on details that our lazier eyes sometimes miss.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The film 'The Bride of the Nile' was produced by the Selig Polyscope Company and released in October 1911. As a US motion picture published prior to January 1, 1928, it fell into the public domain upon the expiration of its maximum possible statutory copyright term.
Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works were protected for an initial term of 28 years and could be renewed for an additional 28 years, totaling 56 years of protection. This would have placed the original expiration date in 1967. Even with subsequent copyright extensions (such as the 1976 Act), all works published before 1928 have since expired and entered the public domain in the United States by operation of law. No search of renewal records is necessary for works of this vintage.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures 1894-1912
- The Moving Picture World, Vol. 10 (October 1911)
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films (1893-1993)
- Hurst, Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894-1939)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.