Public Domain
The Perfect Clown
1925 · Chadwick Pictures Corporation · Dir. Fred C. Newmeyer
A clerk is given $10,000 to deposit at the bank, but the bank is closed for the night so he tries to get to the bank president's house with the money.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The film 'The Perfect Clown,' starring Larry Semon and Oliver Hardy, was originally released in the United States on December 5, 1925. According to the United States copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1929, have entered the public domain due to the expiration of their copyright term.
Even if the film had been published later, a search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no record of a renewal filing by the original claimant, Chadwick Pictures, or any successor in interest. Films from 1925 required a renewal in their 28th year (circa 1953) to remain protected for the full 95-year term; the absence of such a filing would have moved the work into the public domain regardless of the 1929 rule. However, as a 1925 release, it is now definitively public domain by passage of time.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The Perfect Clown (1925)
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
- Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (Motion Pictures 1912-1939)
- Hurst, Richard Maurice. 'Film Superlist: 20,000 Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain'
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.