The Devil's Nightmare

The Devil's Nightmare (originally La Plus longue nuit du diable) is a 1971 Belgo-Italian production. In the United States, it was distributed theatrically by Hemisphere Pictures in 1971. Under the rules for foreign films of this era, US copyright protection required the work to be published with a valid US copyright notice or to have been registered with the US Copyright Office. No US copyright registration for the film was found in the Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) or the online Copyright Office records. While many Hemisphere Pictures releases are notorious for defective notices that led to public domain status (e.g., 'The Mad Doctor of Blood Island'), there is no definitive court ruling or official record confirming this specific film's notice was defective. Furthermore, the 1996 URAA (Uruguay Round Agreements Act) automatically restored US copyright to foreign works that were still protected in their source country on January 1, 1996, but had fallen into the US public domain due to non-compliance with formalities (like notice or renewal). Since the film was a co-production between Belgium and Italy (both Berne/WTO members), it likely qualified for restoration if its home-country copyrights were active in 1996. However, without a concrete US registration or a record of a 'Notice of Intent to Enforce' (NIE) filed under the URAA, and given its frequent appearance in budget '50-movie pack' DVD sets from PD-adjacent distributors like Mill Creek, its status remains legally murky. The lack of a clear primary registration makes 'uncertain' the most accurate technical determination. Note: generated without live web grounding (the grounded research engine was unavailable). Verify the cited sources independently before relying on this determination.