The Long Night

The Long Night is a 1947 American film noir directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Hakim Productions for RKO Radio Pictures. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal filing with the US Copyright Office in the 28th year of their first copyright term to remain protected. For a 1947 release, the renewal window occurred in 1974 or 1975. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), and David Pierce's 'Motion Picture Copyrights and Renewals' indicates that no renewal registration was filed for this film. This finding is corroborated by 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain 1940-1949' by Film Superlist (Hurst/Baer). Because the copyright was not renewed, the film entered the public domain in the United States at the end of its first 28-year term (December 31, 1975). Unlike foreign-produced films which may have had copyrights restored via the URAA, this is a domestic US production by RKO/Hakim and is not eligible for restoration. It is currently widely available through public domain distributors and archive.org without restriction.