Public Domain
The Marriage Circle
1924 · Warner Bros. · Dir. Ernst Lubitsch
An unhappily married couple moves to Vienna, where the wife’s married best friend lives, and soon, sparks fly between the wife and the best friend’s husband.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The Marriage Circle is a silent film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was originally released in the United States on February 3, 1924. Under current US copyright law, the duration of protection for works published with a valid copyright notice between 1923 and 1928 was 95 years from the date of publication, provided the copyright was properly renewed.
However, as of January 1, 2020, all works published in the United States in 1924 have entered the public domain. The 95-year term for 1924 publications expired at the end of 2019. Regardless of whether a renewal was filed in the 1950s (which it was, by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. on June 25, 1951, under registration R79995), the maximum statutory term has now lapsed.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- U.S. Copyright Office, Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures 1912–1939 (L20000, Feb 7, 1924)
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (R79995)
- Hurst, Richard Maurice. 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain'
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The Marriage Circle (1924)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.