Five great movies you can download for free (and legally) right now
Looking for some free content to watch on your media player or PC? How about some great movies that you can legally download free-of-charge right now?
Contrary to what some people think, there are a lot of entertaining old movies, some of which have fallen into the public domain, and can now be downloaded from Internet Archive completely free of charge.
The only problem is that like now, back in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when many of these films were made, there were also many poor films made as well.
The challenge for the online film buff is to pick the gems, and not waste time with movies that have not aged well, or just weren’t very good to start with.
So here are five great movies that were great in their day, and still offer the modern viewer entertainment. Don’t be put off by the fact that they’re in black and white. What makes these movies entertaining are their tight scripts and good stories (some thing that’s missing from many modern movies).
The movies are available as 64Kb MPEG4 or 245Kb MPEG4 streams or downloads, or as MPEG1 or MEG2 downloads.
Just click on the titles to go their download page.
Year: 1935
Duration: 81 minutes
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll
Rating: Excellent
A man is suspected of murdering a spy. As police pursue him across Scotland, the real murderers become apparent.
While there have been two other movie versions of this story (based on a novel by John Buchan), Hitchcock’s version stands as the most acclaimed.
His Girl Friday
Year: 1940
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 92 minute
Directed by Howard Hawks, starring Carry Grant (pictured) and Rosalind Russell.
Rating: Excellent
Russell plays a reporter who is planning on getting out of the newspaper game after divorcing her publisher husband played by Grant. Just about as she is about to make her exit, Grant asks her to cover breaking news.
Described by one reviewer as one of the “fastest of all movies, from line to line, and from gag to gag”.
Year: 1968
Genre: Horror
Duration: 98 minutes
Directed by George A Romero, starring Judith O’Dea and Duane Jones.
Rating: Very good
One of the most influential horror films of all time. The heroine finds herself trapped in a farmhouse with an assortment of characters as flesh eating zombies attack.
A lot of old horror movies haven’t really stood the test of time. This one does, and many argue that it’s better than the 1990 remake.
Interestingly, this movie was made on a budget of $114,000, but had managed to make $30 million within ten years.
By the way, the opening scene gets my nomination for “just deserts for a real jerk” award — you’ll know what I mean when you see it.
D.O.A. (Dead on arrival)
Year: 1950
Genre: Film noir drama
Duration: 83 minutes
Directed by Rudolph Mate, starring Edmond O’Brien
Rating: Good
A man tries to find out who has poisoned him, and why, with slow acting Radium.
D.O.A is considered by many to be a classic film noir movie.
Year: 1950
Genre: Action
Duration: 96 minutes
Directed by Elia Kazan, starring Richard Widmark, Jack Palance
Rating: Very Good
In this semidocumentary film, Heath officials attempt to find a carrier of Bubonic plague on the New Orleans waterfront.
Why are some commercial films in the public domain?
Movies made before 1923 are generally in the public domain (but not restored versions, which usually contain their own updated copyright notices).
Movies made after 1923 may be in the public domain unless their copyright has been renewed. So why doesn’t every studio simply renew the copyright of its movies?
In the case of D.O.A, for example, the producer Leo C Popkin made the film for his short-lived studio Cardinal Pictures, but then didn’t renew the copyright when he had the chance in 1977.
Other times, movies fall into the public domain because someone screwed up.
In the case of Night of the Living Dead, the original theatric distributor, the Walter Reade Organization, forgot to place a copyright notice on the title of the film prints when it changed the name of the movie from Night of the Flesh Eaters to Night of the Living Dead. In 1968 copyright laws in the US required that proper notice be given.
Oh well, their loss, our gain.
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March 16th, 2008
Great post, John.
April 2nd, 2008
how can we down load these peise of crap
October 18th, 2008
is the best web site!!! thanks!! (:
November 2nd, 2008
You might also want to try some of the services listed over at Greg’s HTPC blog at http://gregtvhomeentertainment.blogspot.com/. He has some really good products listed i”ve downloaded a few and have since gained about 2,500 movies and about 200 full seasons of tv shows. Have also canceled my tv cable service needless to say.. haha :)
May 26th, 2010
My top 5 favorite zombie films in no particular order are Dawn of the Dead (1978 original), Fulci’s Zombie, Revenge of the Loving Dead, Dead Snow, and Zombie Holocaust. As you can tell, I’m a fan of Italian horror. Love the classic 80s gut munchers. Day of the Dead (again, the original!) is one of my favorites too.
December 31st, 2010
Interesting post! Thanks
May 12th, 2011
It’s nice to be able to watch all the old movies. Bowery Boys,Gary Cooper, etc. To bad they don’t make movies like these anymore.
Keep up the great work.
May 17th, 2011
Hey, Kenny boy…if they are pieces of crap ( and you should work on your spelling) Why down load them at all?
May 31st, 2011
Thanks for the posts. it’s great to know other classic movie lovers.
Visit me.
November 5th, 2011
“limpy:
May 12th, 2011
It’s nice to be able to watch all the old movies. Bowery Boys,Gary Cooper, etc. To bad they don’t make movies like these anymore.
Keep up the great work.”
Thank goodness they don’t make movies like these anymore. The stiff acting in those early films pulls me right out of the story. TV from that era featured much better acting, for some reason. IMO, of course. The exceptions to my “no old B&W movies” rule are “The Last Man on Earth” and the original “Night of the Living Dead”, as well as some Hitchcock, all of which feature much more convincing acting than most of what came around that time and before.
December 14th, 2011
Check out complete videos for no cost
December 22nd, 2011
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