Library of The Best Free Public Domain Movies
A Woman Under the Influence - 1974
A Woman Under the Influence is a 1974 American drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes. The story follows a woman (Gena Rowlands) whose unusual behavior leads to conflict with her blue-collar husband (Peter Falk) and family. It received two Academy Award nominations, for Best Actress and Best Director. In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", one of the first fifty films to be so honored.
Alibi - 1929
Alibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C. Nugent, Elliott Nugent, and John Wray. Alternative titles include The Perfect Alibi and Nightstick. The movie is a crime melodrama starring Chester Morris, Harry Stubbs, Mae Busch, and Eleanore Griffith. Director West experimented a great deal with sound, music, and camera angles. Chick Williams, a prohibition gangster, rejoins his mob soon after being released from prison. When a policeman is murdered during a robbery, he falls under suspicion. The gangster took Joan, a policeman's daughter, to the theater, sneaked out during the intermission to commit the crime, then used her to support his alibi. The detective squad employs its most sophisticated and barbaric techniques, including planting an undercover agent in the gang, to bring him to justice.
The Browning Version - 1951
Andrew Crocker-Harris is an ageing Classics master at an English public school, and is forced into retirement by his increasing ill health. The film, in common with the original stage play, follows the schoolmaster's final few days in his post, as he comes to terms with his sense of failure as a teacher, a sense of weakness exacerbated by his wife's infidelity and the realisation that he is despised by both pupils and staff of the school. The emotional turning-point for the cold Crocker-Harris is his pupil Taplow's unexpected parting gift, Robert Browning's translation of the Agamemnon, which he has inscribed with the Greek phrase that translates as "God from afar looks graciously upon a gentle master."
Compulsion - 1959
In 1924 Chicago, Artie Strauss and Judd Steiner are friends and fellow law students who both come from wealthy backgrounds. They have few true friends as they believe all their contemporaries are intellectually inferior. Within their relationship, Artie is the dominant and Judd the submissive who says he will do whatever Artie tells him. Although Judd acts intellectually arrogant to others, he also shows signs of weakness and reticence most evident to Artie. Part of their goal in life is to experience how it feels to do everything. As such, they plot to commit what they consider the perfect crime - a kidnapping and murder - not only so that they can experience the sense of killing for killing's sake, but also taunt the law with the knowledge of it and their superiority after the fact. They believe their crime is above the law. Their murder of young Paulie Kessler is not so perfect, with evidence at the scene uncovered by one of their law school colleagues, Sid Brooks, who also works
Conspiracy - 1930
This crime melodrama is a fascinating example of how as late as 1930 some actors and directors were still learning to adapt to the medium of sound-film. It also is a good example of how a bad movie can be a lot of fun. Ned Sparks’ over-the-top performance as a crotchety old crime author steals the show. A remake of the 1914 silent “The Conspiracy.”
Detour - 1945
In New York, piano player Al Roberts (Tom Neal) laments when his singer girlfriend, Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake), leaves for Hollywood, Calif. When Al gets some money, he decides to hitchhike to California to join Sue. In Arizona, Al accepts a ride with Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald), but during a storm in a freak accident, Haskell is killed. Frightened, Al assumes Haskell's identity and car, but soon comes upon the mysterious Vera (Ann Savage), who seems to know all about his true identity.
The Heiress - 1949
Catherine, a young woman who stands to inherit her father's large fortune, falls in love when she meets Morris, who gives her the love and affection her father doesn't, and which she desperately needs. Catherine's father, believing Morris is only after the money, tells Catherine she will be disinherited if she marries him. Morris' true intentions are put to the test when he finds out about the amended will.
Lion Of The Desert - 1981
Lion Of The Desert - 1981
In 1929, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini appoints General Rodolfo Graziani as colonial governor to Italian Libya with orders to stamp-out all resistance from Libyan nationalists led by rebel guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar.
Mr. Arkadin - 1955
Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective work. Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles) says he can't remember anything before the late 1920s, and convict Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) is happy to take the job of exploring his new acquaintance's life story. Guy's research turns up stunning details about his employer's past, and as his work seems linked to untimely deaths, the mystery surrounding Mr. Arkadin deepens.
The Trials of Oscar Wilde -1960
Renowned for his flamboyant and witty persona, Irish writer Oscar Wilde (Peter Finch) clashes in court with the powerful Marquess of Queensberry (Lionel Jeffries), the father of his young lover, Lord Alfred Douglas (John Fraser). While Wilde instigates a libel case, the hearing results in the playwright's own trial and prosecution for gross indecency and sodomy. Wilde's subsequent prison stint leads to a tragic decline for the revered literary figure.