Public Domain
The Red House
1947 · Sol Lesser Productions (distributed by United Artists) · Dir. Delmer Daves
An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods.
Confidence
95
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The Red House was originally registered for copyright on February 15, 1947, by Thalia Productions, Inc. (LP850). Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works released between 1928 and 1963 required a manual renewal with the U.S. Copyright Office during their 28th year of protection to extend copyright into a second term. For a 1947 release, this renewal window was open in 1974–1975.
Comprehensive searches of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the U Penn Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), and David Pierce's 'Motion Picture Copyrights and Renewals' show no record of a renewal filing for this title. This failure to renew resulted in the film entering the public domain in the United States upon the expiration of its first 28-year term in 1975. The film's presence in numerous public domain DVD collections (Alpha Video, etc.) and its widespread availability on the Internet Archive without takedowns corroborate this status.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
- U Penn Online Catalog of Copyright Entries (Motion Pictures 1912-1939; 1940-1949)
- Hurst, Richard Maurice. Film Superlist: 20,000 Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films (1941-1950)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.