Name: The Last Time I Saw Paris
Director: Richard Brooks
Released: 1954

The Last Time I Saw Paris

1954 · Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) · Dir. Richard Brooks

Reporter Charles Wills, in Paris to cover the end of World War II, falls for the beautiful Helen Ellswirth following a brief flirtation with her sister, Marion. After he and Helen marry, Charles pursues his novelistic ambition while supporting his new bride with a deadening job at a newspaper wire service. But when an old investment suddenly makes the family wealthy, their marriage begins to unravel — until a sudden tragedy changes everything.

Confidence

100

Why this status applies

The film was released in 1954 and registered for US copyright by Loew's, Inc. (the corporate parent of MGM) on November 4, 1954, under registration number LP4203. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of the initial term to extend protection to a second term. For a 1954 release, the renewal window occurred in 1982. A search of the US Copyright Office records, the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, and David Pierce's 'Motion Picture Copyrights and Renewals' confirms that no renewal was filed for this film. This failure to renew caused the film to enter the public domain in the United States on January 1, 1983. This is a famous and well-documented example of a major studio film falling into the public domain due to a clerical oversight, along with films like 'It's a Wonderful Life' and 'Charade.'

Supporting facts

U.S. Copyright Office, Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips, 1950-1959

Stanford University Copyright Renewal Database (search result: no renewal found for LP4203)

Hurst, Richard M.; Baer, D. Richard (1992). Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain 1950-1959

David Pierce, Motion Picture Copyrights and Renewals 1950-1959 (Milestone, 1989)