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!

It’s a new year, everyone, and you know what that means! As of January 1st, everything released in 1929 is officially public domain! Among the great pieces of media now free and open to the public, there’s the Dashiell Hammett detective novel Red Harvest, there’s the perennial classic song “Happy Days Are Here Again”, there’s the first year of the Buck Rogers comic strip …

And, right here on Public Domain Theater, there’s the first of many Marx Brothers movies, The Cocoanuts!

If you know the Marx Brothers filmography, you know the sort of vaudeville inspired musical comedy to expect from this picture. Admittedly, it’s rougher than their other films, clearly a product of that time when people were still figuring out how to shoot and pace a talkie. Still, with great bits like the “Why a duck?” exchange and Harpo eating anything in sight (whether or not it’s edible) it makes for a gay old time.

As for our animated short … well, last year we celebrated Mickey Mouse entering the public domain, so this year we’ll celebrate the copyright expiring on Disney’s other classic series, Silly Symphony, with the short “Hell’s Bells”. Yes, Walt Disney produced a cartoon with “Hell” in the title, and it’s all about the devils frolicking in Hell, and includes a scene of Satan getting spanked. 1929 was a different time.

So, come one, come all, and enjoy some new-old delights brought to you by the Public Domain!

Opening Cartoon:

Feature Presentation:
Watch “The Cocoanuts” on Archive.Org here