Welcome to Public Domain Theater, your home for the wonderful world of films that have (in the United States, at least) fallen into the public domain, and are free for everyone to see!

October has come, and Halloween is once again on the horizon. It’s the season when ghostly spirits walk the night, when witches cackle around their cauldrons, when ghouls and vampires claw their way out from beneath the graveyard soil … and when viewership of horror movies goes up something like 300%.

In the spirit of the season, we’re proud to present the 1963 horror film Dementia 13, best remembered today for being the directorial debut of Francis Ford Coppola. Yes, you read that right. Sixty years before making the star-studded, big-budget, epic passion project Megalopolis, Coppola was cranking out a cheapo proto-slasher flick for Roger Corman. And you know what, it ain’t half bad! I think this Coppola kid might have a future in show business.

Well, one big name deserves another, so to pair with this film we’ve selected a cartoon starring the beloved Popeye the Sailor Man, in a suitably Halloweeny adventure involving Popeye and Olive Oyl on a ghost ship. We call this little number “Spooky Swabs”.

So come get in the spirit of the spooky season with these ghoultastic offerings from the public domain!

Opening Cartoon:

Feature Presentation: