Public Domain Movies (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)

In a similar-ish vein to my previous threads like the YouTube/Vimeo/etc. finds for Original Trilogy making-ofs
and the off-topic Making-Of Documentaries - YouTube/Vimeo/etc. finds thread, I figured it’d be interesting to make a thread dedicated to public domain films that have been posted on YouTube and other video sites.

I also made a similar thread for films that are not in the public domain, but which have been released for free online by their respective copyright holders; Movies/TV officially released for free (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)

In case you are unsure about what films are PD you can check here before posting;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_in_the_public_domain_in_the_United_States
http://publicdomainmovies.net/

POSTING GUIDELINES
• Keep the thumbnail small, please. Either find a small image or simply post the YouTube thumbnail (like this). Alternatively you can PM ZkinandBonez and he’ll make one for you.
• Any additional information about the film would be appreciated, such as links to the film’s IMDb or Wikipedia page, but try to avoid posting links to separate videos about the movie unless there’s a really good reason.
• Please post relevant technical information like the runtime, video resolution, and in the case of non-English films please point out if subtitles are available (don’t post movies if they don’t have subtitles).
• Movie serials and theatrical cartoon shorts can be posted. If you want to post an entire movie serial or “season” of theatrical cartoons shorts, please share a link to a playlist and not a link to every single episode. Serials and cartoons edited together into a single video is perfectly OK, but if it is an officially released movie version then make sure that it is in the public domain as well.
• Try to not post videos that are smaller than 480p unless it’s the only version of the film you can find.
• Only post films that you know are in the public domain, not simply because you found them for free YouTube. If you are unsure about a film’s public domain status, you can check to two links posted above or PM ZkinandBonez and he’ll check it for you.
• Only post videos containing just the movie. i.e. no added intros, outros, mirrored videos, cropped videos, tweaked audio, etc. This usually means that the film is not PD and that the uploader is trying to trick the YouTube algorithm. Also, please don’t post any videos with horror host imitators and the like.

A Chronological INDEX… (click on ‘Expand’ to see the Index)

FEATURE FILMS
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920 - German, silent, horror)
• Nosferatu (1922 - German, silent, horror) scroll down
• The Lost World (1925 - silent, adventure, fantasy, sci-fi)
• The Gold Rush (1925 - silent, comedy)
• The Phantom of the Opera (1925 & 1929 re-release - silent, horror)
• The General (1926 - silent, action, comedy) scroll down
• White Zombie (1932 - horror)
• The Most Dangerous Game (1932 - horror, thriller, adventure)
• The Vampire Bat (1933 - horror, mystery)
• The Ghoul (1933 - horror)
• Charlie Chan’s Secret (1936 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• H. G. Wells’ Things to Come (1936 - sci-fi)
• The Gorilla (1939 - horror, comedy) scroll down
• Gulliver’s Travels (1939 - animated, adventure, comedy)
• The Devil Bat (1940 - horror)
• Black Dragon - (1942 - war, thriller)
• The Corpse Vanishes (1942 - horror, sci-fi)
• Bowery at Midnight (1942 - horror, crime, thriller) scroll down
• Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942 - adventure, crime)
• The Scarlet Clue (1945 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• The Woman in Green (1945 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• Captain Kidd (1945 - adventure)
• Dark Alibi (1946 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• Terror by Night (1946 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• Dressed to Kill (1946 - crime mystery) scroll down
• The Stranger (1946 - crime, film-noir)
• Dangerous Money (1946 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• The Trap (1946 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• The Chinese Ring (1947 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• The Golden Eye (1948 - crime, mystery) scroll down
• Fear and Desire (1953 - war, drama)
• The Man with the Golden Arm (1955 - drama, crime, romance, social)
• House On Haunted Hill (1959 - horror, mystery)
• The Bat (1959 - horror, mystery)
• The Little Shop of Horrors (1960 - comedy, horror)
• One-Eyed Jacks (1961 - western, drama)
• The Terror (1963) (1963 - horror)
• Dementia 13 (1963 - horror, thriller)
• Charade (1963 - mystery, comedy, romance)
• The Last Man on Earth (1964) (1964 - horror)
• Night of the Living Dead (1969 - horror)
• Horror Express (1972 - horror, adventure)

MOVIE SERIALS
• Undersea Kingdom - (1936 - sci-fi, advventure)
• The Phantom Creeps (1939 - sci-fi, horror, action)
• Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940 - sci-fi, action, adventure)
• Captain America (1944 - superhero, action, sci-fi)
• Radar Men from the Moon (1952 - action, sci-fi)

THEATRICAL CARTOON SHORTS
• The Mad Doctor (1933 - comedy, spooky)
• Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936 - comedy, adventure)
• Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves (1937 - comedy, adventure) scroll down
• Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939 - comedy, adventure) scroll down
• Superman (1941-1942 - adventure, action, sci-fi)

NOTE: If one of the videos should be deleted from YouTube/Vimeo/etc. please PM ZkinandBonez so that the link can either be replaced or labelled as defunct. Alternatively PM one of the mods.

I’ll start off with a somewhat forgotten pre-code horror/thriller that I recently discovered that has already become one of my favourite films.

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r54s3iCtnh4 - from the Cult Cinema Classics YouTube channel (1 hour 2 mins long - 1080p).

Synopsis:
A psychotic big game hunter deliberately strands a luxury yacht on a remote island, where he begins to hunt its passengers for sport.

Directed by Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack.

Cast: Joel McCrea, Fay Wray & Leslie Banks.

Trivia:
The Most Dangerous Game was filmed at night on the same sets used in King Kong (1933) with four of the same actors, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, James Flavin and Noble Johnson.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

Backup link from the PizzaFlix YouTube channel.

Definitely one of the best and most prolific films that ended up in the public domain. As was the case with most of Orson Welles’ films post Citizen Kane this was heavily edited by the studio, but it’s still a fantastic movie that’s unfortunately somewhat overshadowed by his other masterpieces.

The Stranger (1946)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3EUs0sRP6M - from the Retrospective YouTube channel (1 hour 35 mins long - 1080p)

Synopsis:
An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi.

Directed by Orson Welles.

Cast: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson & Loretta Young.

Trivia:
Welles’s third completed feature film as director and his first film noir. It is the first Hollywood film to present documentary footage of the Holocaust.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

Here are the four (out of a total of fourteen) Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce that are in the public domain. These may not be the most accurate adaptations of the Conan Doyle stories, but there’s a certain charm in these that I personally really love. Out of the four films below I recommend The Woman in Green the highest. The other three are OK, with Secret Weapon being a lot of cheesy fun as it’s literally a WWII propaganda film with Sherlock Holmes vs Nazi Germany. And if you decide to check out the non-PD ones, I’d recommend starting with The House of Fear and The Pearl of Death.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsZQNdMKbNs - from the FEATURE FILM YouTube channel (1 hour 08 mins - 720p upscale)

Synopsis:
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson must protect a Swiss inventor of an advanced bomb sight from falling into German hands.

Directed by Roy William Neill

Cast:
Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce & Lionel Atwill.

Trivia:
The fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of 14 Sherlock Holmes films which updated the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the then present day. It is a spy film taking place on the background of the then ongoing Second World War with an original premise.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

And the colourized version if you wish to dabble in such things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MylUEVqIAU4

The Woman in Green (1945)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypOpzikhDA - from the PizzaFlix Youtube channel (1 hour 07 mins long - 480p)

Synopsis:
Sherlock Holmes investigates when young women around London turn up murdered, each with a finger severed. Scotland Yard suspects a madman, but Holmes believes the killings to be part of a diabolical plot.

Directed by Roy William Neill

Cast:
Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce & Hillary Brooke.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

And the colourized version if you wish to dabble in such things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIvV20oFTFY

Terror by Night (1946)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae5KnCP6QbI - from the PizzaFlix YouTube channel (59 mis long - 480p)

Synopsis:
When the fabled Star of Rhodesia diamond is stolen on a London to Edinburgh train and the son of its owner is murdered, Sherlock Holmes must discover which of his suspicious fellow passengers is responsible.

Directed by Roy William Neill

Cast:
Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

And the colourized version if you wish to dabble in such things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBddAy-ZU-w&t=2483s

Dressed to Kill (1946)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qILka1Lz2U - from the PizzaFlix YouTube channel (1 hour 11 mins long - 480p)

Synopsis:
Sherlock Holmes sets out to discover why a trio of murderous villains, including a dangerously attractive female, are desperate to obtain three unassuming and inexpensive little music boxes.

Directed by Roy William Neill

Cast:
Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce & Patricia Morison.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

And the colourized version if you wish to dabble in such things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DFDrkAHqis

This is a Star Wars forum after all, so I figured a PD film starring both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee would be of some interest.

This film is the perfect blend of basically every shlocky concept you could possibly find in a post-Hammer horror film, and the plot is utterly bonkers. Yet somehow it all works surprisingly well. Also, despite having starred together in several horror films at this point, this is the film were Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee shared the most screen time.

Horror Express (1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LCtzLEebBI - from the FEATURE FILM YouTube channel (1 hour 27 mins long - 720p).

Synopsis:
While travelling on the Trans-Siberian Express, an anthropologist and his rival must contain the threat posed by the former’s cargo: a prehistoric ape which is the host for a lifeform that is absorbing the minds of the passengers and crew.

Directed by Eugenio Martín.

Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee & Telly Savalas.

Trivia:
The film is loosely based on the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr, which was also the source material for Howard Hawks’ 1951 RKO feature film The Thing from Another World and John Carpenter’s 1982 remake The Thing.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

This used to be a troublesome find, thank you!

Since a lot of zombie film milestones are in the Public Domain I figured I’d post three of the most important films in the genre, starting with the first feature length film to ever use the word “zombie.”

Now White Zombie is by no means a great movie, but it’s still considered a classic among many horror fans due to Bela Lugosi’s hypnotic performance as well as it’s similarities and ties to the production of Dracula made barely a year prior. The film also has a reputation among heavy metal fans as Rob Zombie borrowed the title for the name of his band in the 1980’s.

White Zombie (1932)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV3B2z0HkKA - from the Cult Cinema Classics YouTube channel (1 hour 07 mins long - 1080p)

Synopsis:
A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.

Directed by Victor Halperin.

Cast: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy & Joseph Cawthorn

Trivia:
Large portions of the film was shot on the Universal Studios lot, borrowing many props and scenery from other horror films of the era.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

And the colourized version if you wish to dabble in such things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8D1HzrMp98

Now this is a fascinating film. It’s essentially the first post apocalyptic zombie film, that is, except for the fact that the modern concept of zombies hadn’t been invented yet, so in this film a nuclear apocalypse creates a society of vampires–sensitivity to sunlight, garlic, and all. They are however more slow moving and “zombie-like” in the film than the original novel.

The Last Man on Earth (1964)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feQIhzNpBLQ - from the ARF YouTube channel (1 hour 27 mns long - 720p)

Synopsis:
When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.

Directed by Sidney Salkow & Ubaldo B. Ragona.

Cast: Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia & Emma Danieli.

Trivia:
The first of three adaptations of the 1954 novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, the second being The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston and the third in 2007 starred Will Smith and kept the original title.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

And the colourized version if you wish to dabble in such things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MGssnLkVGI

You can’t have a thread with public domain movies without talking about the public domain movie, and what is essentially the birth of the modern concept of the slow moving, flesh-eating, virus-made zombie. For better or for worse George A. Romero created an entire genre with Night of the Living Dead and had the film not have fallen into the public domain from the get-go it would probably never have become the horror classic that it has become and instead been relegated to cult classics status like most other low budget horror films of the time.

Night of the Living Dead (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA5kk8LB7BQ - from the Kurbel TV YouTube channel (1 hour 35 mins long - 720p)

Synopsis:
A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the East Coast of the United States.

Directed by George A. Romero.

Cast: Judith O’Dea & Duane Jones.

Trivia:
Night of the Living Dead entered the public domain in the United States because the original theatrical distributor, the Walter Reade Organization, failed to place a copyright indication on the prints, and at that time, United States copyright law held that public dissemination required copyright notice to maintain a copyright.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

And the colourized version if you wish to dabble in such things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuknzfKw9t4

Another Vincent Price horror classic, this time produced and directed by Wiliam Castle, a man notorious for his marketing gimmicks.

House On Haunted Hill (1959)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8W4GOf5m_4 - from the Harry Steiman YouTube channel (1 hour 14 mins long - 1080p)

Synopsis:
A millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large, spooky, rented house overnight with him and his wife.

Directed by William Castle.

Cast: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart & Elisha Cook.

Trivia:
The film is perhaps best known for a promotional gimmick used in the film’s original theatrical release called “Emergo.” In some theaters that showed the film, exhibitors rigged an elaborate pulley system near the theater screen which allowed a plastic skeleton to be flown over the audience during a corresponding scene late in the film.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

If there was ever the perfect embodiment of the “so bad it’s good” movie, this is it. I’m pretty convinced that this film have become a cult classic almost solely based on it’s fascinatingly bizarre production history (summarized in the trivia section below).

The Terror (1963)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBrTFbPfwXg - from the Cult Cinema Classics YouTube channel (1 hour 19 mins long - 1080p)

Synopsis:
A young officer in Napoleon’s Army pursues a mysterious woman to the castle of an elderly Baron.

Directed by Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola (three or four days), Jack Hale (one day), Monte Hellman (a few days), Jack Hill (a few days), Dennis Jakob (one day), & Jack Nicholson (one day).

Cast: Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson & Sandra Knight.

Trivia:
The Terror began as a challenge to shoot most of a gothic film in two days using left over sets from The Raven (1963). It turned into the longest production of producer Roger Corman’s career – an ordeal that required five directors and nine months to complete.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

As you can tell from all the films posted above, the public domain is disproportionately represented by horror and thrillers, however there are a few notable lighthearted films as well.

The first American animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is about as far from public domain as most films are likely to get, but the second is not.

Gulliver’s Travels (1939)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rehNT9wIjUg - from the Cult Cinema Classics YouTube channel (1 hour 15 mins long - 1080p)

Synopsis:
A doctor washes ashore on an island inhabited by little people.

Directed by Dave Fleischer.

Cast: Pinto Colvig & Jack Merce.

Trivia:
The Fleischer Studios’ first feature-length animated film, as well as the second animated feature film produced by an American studio after Walt Disney Productions’ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as Paramount had commissioned the feature in response to the success of that film.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

Captain Kidd (1945)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEQjqAEXHOQ - from the PizzaFlix YouTube channel (1 hour 27 mins long - 720p)

Synopsis:
The unhistorical adventures of pirate Captain Kidd revolve around treasure and treachery.

Directed by Rowland V. Lee.

Cast: Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott & Barbara Britton.

Trivia:
In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev noted that this was one of Joseph Stalin’s favorite films, and that Stalin identified with the mischievous captain.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

And the colourized version if you wish to dabble in such things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BVn4GQDFUo

Charade (1963)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07psTPdqJQA - from the Classics to Remember YouTube channel (1 hour 53 mins long - 4K)

Synopsis:
Romance and suspense ensue in Paris as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Whom can she trust?

Directed by Stanley Donen.

Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau & James Coburn.

Trivia:
It has been described as “the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made”.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

ZkinandBonez said:

Gulliver’s Travels (1939)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rehNT9wIjUg - from the Cult Cinema Classics YouTube channel (1 hour 15 mins long - 1080p)

Thanks for posting this, I had never even heard of it before but it was quite a good little film!

Although Superman is as far from the public domain as a fictional character is likely to ever be (except for Mickey Mouse perhaps) the first cartoon serial from 1941-1942 is however, as are a lot of the work by Fleischer Studios (like the Gulliver’s Travels feature I already posted). This series is perhaps most well remembered nowadays as the main inspiration for the retro style of Batman: The Animated Series in the early 90’s.

Superman (1941-1942 animated serial)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgLMH0NGvhg - from the 8thManDVD.com™ Cartoon Channel YouTube channel (2 hours 26 mins long - 720p)

A compilation of all the Superman cartoons produced between 1941 and 1942.

Directed by Dave Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel, Isadore Sparber & Dan Gordon.

Cast: Bud Collyer & Joan Alexander.

EPISODE INDEX:
The Mad Scientist
The Mechanical Monsters
Billion Dollar Limited
The Arctic Giant
The Bulleteers
The Magnetic Telescope
Electric Earthquake
Volcano
Terror on the Midway
Japoteurs
Showdown
Eleventh Hour
Destruction, Inc.
The Mummy Strikes
Jungle Drums
The Underground World
Secret Agent

Trivia:
The series was originally produced by Fleischer Studios, which completed the initial short and eight further cartoons in 1941 and 1942. Production was resumed in May 1942 by Famous Studios, a successor company to Fleischer, which produced eight more cartoons in 1942 and 1943. Superman was the final animated series initiated by Fleischer Studios, before Famous Studios officially took over production.

Wikipedia article
IMDb link to first episode

It’s hardly a proper Public Domain thread on a Star Wars forum without a Flash Gordon serial, not to mention the one with the most blatant tie to franchise.

Unfortunately I could’t find a better version of it on YouTube (the aspect ratio is somewhat cropped as well), however every episode is complete with intros and cliff-hangers, as opposed to the many movie cuts that exist of this particular serial. If you know of a better version online please send me the link in a PM.

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940 movie serial)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvNcU_eeXvg&t=2483s - from the Sci-Fi Hollywood Movies YouTube channel (3 hours 56 mins long - 1080p upscale)

Synopsis:
Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov return to the planet Mongo for an antidote to the Purple Death, a virus that is wreaking havoc on Earth. However, Ming the Merciless has other plans for them.

Directed by Ford Beebe & Ray Taylor.

Cast: Buster Crabbe, Carol Hughes & Charles Middleton.

CHAPTER INDEX:
Chapter 1: The Purple Death
Chapter 2: Freezing Torture
Chapter 3: Walking Bombs
Chapter 4: The Destroying Ray
Chapter 5: The Palace of Terror
Chapter 6: Flaming Death
Chapter 7: The Land of the Dead
Chapter 8: The Fiery Abyss
Chapter 9: The Pool of Peril
Chapter 10: The Death Mist
Chapter 11: Stark Treachery
Chapter 12: Doom of the Dictator

Trivia:
It is this Flash Gordon serial that inspired the iconic Star Wars opening crawl. Every episode after the first begins with an opening crawl to catch up the audience on the story so far.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

Fear and Desire (1953) from Akash Chandra’s YouTube Channel. One hour and fifty seven minutes. 720p. Includes interview with Stanley Kubrick.

https://youtu.be/bjJzQvjhndw

Synopsis:

After their aeroplane crashes behind enemy lines, four soldiers must survive and try to find a way back to their battalion. However, when they come across a local peasant girl the horrors of war quickly become apparent.

Trivia:

Stanley Kubrick’s debut feature after leaving Look Magazine at the age of twenty five.

Wikipedia
IMDb

The Phantom Creeps (1939 movie serial)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yxijqD8K4M&t - from the Cult Cinema Classics YouTube channel (4 hours long)

Synopsis:
A military intelligence officer and a pretty reporter try to find a scientist whose inventions can destroy the world.

Directed by Ford Beebe & Saul A. Goodkind.

Cast: Béla Lugosi, Dorothy Arnold & Robert Kent.

CHAPTER INDEX:
Chapter 1: The Menacing Power
Chapter 2: Death Stalks the Highways
Chapter 3: Crashing Timbers
Chapter 4: Invisible Terror
Chapter 5: Thundering Rails
Chapter 6: The Iron Monster
Chapter 7: The Menacing Mist
Chapter 8: Trapped in the Flames
Chapter 9: Speeding Doom
Chapter 10: Phantom Footprints
Chapter 11: The Blast
Chapter 12: To Destroy the World

Trivia:
The Rob Zombie song Meet the Creeper is based on this movie. Zombie has used robots and props based on the design of The Robot in several music videos and live shows.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

Since I’ve already posted a lot of classic horror films, I figured it made sense–although silent movies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea–to post the two films that can undeniably be said to have either a direct or indirect influence on virtually every horror film made since.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTyJAIUnYAQ&t - from the Lumiere Factory YouTube channel (1 hour 17 mins long - 1080p - Eng. subtitles)

Synopsis:
Hypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.

Directed by Robert Wiene.

Cast: Werner Krauss & Conrad Veidt.

Trivia:
Considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema and the origin of many visual tropes now associated with classic horror and film-noir.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

Nosferatu (1922)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7p3ct5hcks - from the Neil Dinsmore YouTube channel (1 hour 28 mins long - 720p)

Synopsis:
Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter’s wife.

Directed by F.W. Murnau.

Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim & Greta Schröder.

Trivia:
The film was produced by Prana Film and is an unauthorized and unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. Various names and other details were changed from the novel, including Count Dracula being renamed Count Orlok. Even with several details altered, Stoker’s heirs sued over the adaptation, and a court ruling ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed. However, a few prints of Nosferatu survived, and the film came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

The only Universal Studios classic horror film to be in the public domain, and also one of the most complicated production histories in film history. I’ve included both the 1925 and 1929 re-release (with some technicolor sequences), but there were several more versions made, some lost, some partially recovered, and even the official ones are a patchwork of different versions.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7KKxePprqc - from the Retrospective YouTube channel (1 hour 31 mins long - 1080p)

The Phantom of the Opera (1929 re-release - Carl Davis Score)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QKpWPut8iM - from the Phantom Retrospective YouTube channel (1 hour 30 mins long - 1080p)
DELETED FROM YOUTUBE

Synopsis:
A mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer.

Directed by Rupert Julian. Uncredited: Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle & Edward Sedgwick.

Cast: Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry & Mary Philbin.

Trivia:
The film remains most famous for Chaney’s ghastly, self-devised make-up (not pictured in the thumbnail above, that’s an opera mask), which was kept a studio secret until the film’s premiere. Moviegoers in 1925 reportedly fainted upon seeing the disfigurement makeup during the famous unmasking scene.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

A pretty interesting low-budget pre-code horror film which is retroactively most notable for it’s unique cast of actors known for their work in more famous classic horror films such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, and many more.

The Vampire Bat (1933)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpaI67Ng3pE&t - from the Hollywood Classics YouTube channel (1 hour 2 mins long - 1080p)

Synopsis:
When corpses drained of blood begin to show up in a European village, vampirism is suspected to be responsible.

Directed by Frank R. Strayer.

Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas & Dwight Frye.

Trivia:
Made as a “quickie” horror film, The Vampire Bat stars Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill who starred together in Doctor X the year before, and Mystery of the Wax Museum which was still in post production while this film was made. Dwight Frye was similarly well known for his horror work, having played Renfield in Dracula and Fritz the hunchback in Frankenstein. Melvyn Douglas had starred in The Old Dark House and Robert Frazer in White Zombie. The film was also predominantly shot on sets left over from Frankenstein and The Old Dark House.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

The “original” Jurassic Park. This stop-motion dinosaur film (which predates even King Kong) is something of a forgotten milestone in cinema.

The Lost World (1925)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGQfgjCXDoU - from the Classic Movie Central YouTube channel (1 hour 42 mins long - 720p)

Synopsis:
The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.

Directed by Harry O. Hoyt.

Cast: Bessie Love, Lewis Stone & Wallace Beery.

Trivia:
This was the first feature-length film to feature stop motion animation as the primary special effect. The effects were done by Willis O’Brien who would in 1933 work on the original King Kong.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

Here’s a pretty unusual sci-fi film. Not only was it rare to see non-horror sci-fi in the 1930’s (unless it was a movie serial), let alone a big budget one. But the story also spans a full century and barely focuses on any specific characters, opting instead to make its grand themes the major through-line.

H. G. Wells’ Things to Come (1936)
https://youtu.be/8xhodHavrrc?t=257 - from the Alzombie YouTube channel (1 hour 40 mins - 720p)

Although the best quality I could find, the sound is a bit odd in the version linked above. Here’s a backup link with better sound, but much lower resolution from the Great Classic Films YouTube channel;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqKGlrPAfSw&t

Synopsis:
The story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.

Directed by William Cameron Menzies.

Cast: Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman & Ralph Richardson.

Trivia:
The dialogue and plot were devised by H. G. Wells as “a new story” meant to display the “social and political forces and possibilities” that he had outlined in his 1933 story The Shape of Things to Come, a work he considered less a novel than a “discussion” in fictional form that presented itself as the notes of a 22nd-century diplomat.

IMDb link
Wikipedia article

The original Little Shop of Horrors directed by the low budget horror schlockmeister himself, Roger Corman, and one of the first feature film appearances of Jack Nicholson.

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnnTgacQo7w - from the Vintage JukeBox - Don’t Stop The Music YouTube channel (1 hour 44 mins long - 1080p)

Synopsis:
A clumsy young man nurtures a plant and discovers that it’s carnivorous, forcing him to kill to feed it.

Directed by Roger Corman.

Cast: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles & Jack Nicholson.

Trivia:
The film was shot on a budget of $28,000 (about $240,000 in 2019), with interiors being shot in two days utilizing sets that had been left standing from A Bucket of Blood (1959).

IMDb link
Wikipedia article