Name: The Broken Locket
Director: D.W. Griffith
Released: 1909

The Broken Locket

1909 · Biograph Company · Dir. D.W. Griffith

George Peabody is a young man who has been giving free rein to his inclinations, the principal one being drink. One might have concluded he was lost, but there was the chance which the hand of Providence always bestows in the person of pretty little Ruth King, who had secretly loved George since their childhood days. She succeeds in persuading him from his reckless life, and he determines to cut off from his old loose companions by going out West and making a man of himself. Bidding Ruth and her mother good-bye, he realizes that he loves his little preserver and promises to return worthy of her love and confidence. They plight their troth with their first kiss and a heart shaped locket, which Ruth wears, she breaking it in two, giving George one side while she retains the other, which symbolized the reunion of their hearts with his return.

Confidence

100

Why this status applies

The film 'The Broken Locket' was directed by D.W. Griffith and released by the Biograph Company in September 1909. Under U.S. copyright law, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain regardless of whether their copyright was ever renewed. At the time of its release, the maximum term of copyright was 28 years with a 28-year renewal period (56 years total), but the enactment of the 1976 and 1998 copyright acts did not extend protection to works that were already in the public domain. Since this film was released in 1909, its initial copyright term expired in 1937, and any potential renewal term would have expired in 1965. Regardless of renewal status, its age places it well before the 1928 cutoff for automatic public domain status in the United States.

Why this status applies

Supporting facts