MovieChat Forums > Detour (1946) Discussion > what year did 'Detour' fall into the pub...

what year did 'Detour' fall into the public domain?

posted 12 years ago by edantheman
6 replies | jump to latest

I've scoured the net for dates but nothing's came up.

Help'd be appreciated.

[–] jononfire 12 years ago

If the film was originally copyrighted in the year it was made -- 1945 -- it would be protected for a term of 28 years, until 1973. Had the copyright been renewed within an allowable year from that time, it would have been extended another 67 years, or into 2041. But obviously it wasn't, so it must have passed into public domain sometime in 1974.

"Believe not what you only wish to believe, but that which truth demands."

[–] edantheman 12 years ago

'If' the film was copyrighted? You're not using that conjunction to demonstrate your uncertainty, are you?

Thanks 'if' that's the case.

[–] jononfire 12 years ago

Hard to believe that any commercial film, even in 1945 (or earlier) wasn't copyrighted for at least that initial term of 18 years. "It's A Wonderful Life" (its contemporary) was, but then someone slipped up and didn't renew, as happened in the case of quite a few films of that era.

[–] MrBlondNYC 11 years ago

According to the book The Films of Edgar G. Ulmer, the copyright was not renewed. The company that made the film went out of business and no company picked up the rights. It does not give the exact year but PRC went out of business in 1948.

George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.

[–] petrilloi 8 years ago

All PRC films became public domain when they folded in 1948. They were the bottom of Poverty Row as a company. Their films were mostly made in less than a week.

[–] petrilloi 8 years ago

It's a Wonderful Life was independently produced by Liberty Films, Capra's own company. It folded. Movies that were independently produced often went out of copyright. They could be renewed by pursuing the literary sources if any. NBC eventually renewed its copyright. All if Walter Wanger's independent films also became Public domain, like Stagecoach and Scarlet Street. That's why the existent copies are poor. No well-preserved vault materials exist for those films.