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!

This month, we have the kung fu flick The Big Fight, about a group of Chinese freedom fighters opposing the Japanese in World War II – and, if this genre has taught me anything, it’s that there’s no military struggle that can’t be solved with a martial arts tournament.

If your experience with martial arts movies is limited to classy, stylish affairs like Ip Man or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you should know that The Big Fight is not that sorta movie. This is a schlocky B-movie full of sneering, rapey, mustachioed baddies getting bloodily torn apart by the goodies. Given that, I almost don’t mind that the public domain version of the film is one that’s been cropped to 4:3 aspect ratio and is dubbed by not-all-that-good actors – I dunno, there’s something charming about recapturing the feel of watching this sort of movie at a grungy drive-in in the 70’s or on a bootleg VHS tape in the 90’s. It’s like taking a trip back in time.

Now, since our feature film is about fighting against Imperial Japan, I figured our opening cartoon should match. I’m sure there’s plenty of wartime cartoons on that same theme, let me just see here …

…

… oh no.

Okay, so, for a completely unrelated cartoon, we’ve got Betty Boop & Wiffle Piffle in “The Hot Air Salesman”. Enjoy!

Opening Cartoon:

Feature Presentation: