Public Domain
Through the Back Door
1921 · Mary Pickford Company / United Artists · Dir. Alfred E. Green
A young Belgian girl, raised by her longtime nanny, flees Europe at the advent of World War I and travels to America to find her real mother.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Through the Back Door is a 1921 silent comedy-drama starring and produced by Mary Pickford. Under the current United States copyright law, all works published or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before January 1, 1929, have entered the public domain.
Because this film was released in 1921, its maximum 95-year term of protection (assuming a valid renewal was filed in its 28th year) expired no later than the end of 2016. As with all American films from this era, it is now free of copyright restrictions in the U.S. due to the expiration of its statutory term. The film is widely available in the public domain via the Internet Archive and various silent film preservation sites.
Note: generated without live web grounding (the grounded research engine was unavailable). Verify the cited sources independently before relying on this determination.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 15A: Duration of Copyright
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Through the Back Door (1921)
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database (searched for Mary Pickford Company records)
- Hurst, Richard Maurice. Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain 1894–1939
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.