The 20th Century United States of America's requirement that works must be registered to gain the benefits of copyright created several loopholes in which multiple works slipped through the cracks. I've previously covered how many pornographic works were in the public domain from creation, now here's another example.
Movie theatres, or more precisely, drive in theatres. I don't think they need much explanation, they appear in practically every piece of media set in the USA before the election of Ronald Reagan. But the connection between drive-ins and the public domain will need some elaboration. It's illegal in the United States for movie studios to own cinemas, as that would be a powerful monopoly. So that means cinemas and studios have to negotiate between themselves to show movies. Percentages of ticket sales, how long the movie will run, how many screens, will cinemas have to pay a fee etc. are all part of the bargaining.
This made independent movie production an attractive option for the owners of cinemas. Independent or self produced movies don't have the same clout, so the bargaining is more favourable for the cinema. This encouraged several cinema owners, particularly drive-in owners to experiment in producing films themselves, the benefits were obvious, they get every cent of profit.
Most of these movies were not registered for copyright, since doing so could bring unwanted attention from regulators, and there wasn't much point since the only places that would show these movies were venues that they owned. This was the age of cans of flammable film reel, long before recording of motion pictures became easy and economical.
Now a word of caution, just because a movie was produced by a drive-in cinema owner does not automatically mean the movie is public domain, some movies that proved popular were re-edited for a wider release and sometimes these versions were registered and approved.
Nevertheless, this obscure cinematic ecosystem does contain some interesting and puzzling works to find.
I will document just two examples whose public domain status is concrete.
The Giant Gila Monster
Made famous by the movie riffing comedy show Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K) this attempt to cash in on the giant monster/Kaiju craze of the 1950s was produced by Drive-in cinema chain owner Gordon McLendon and music producer Ken Curtis. The results leave a lot to be desired, but I've seen much worse thanks to MST3K, the film has a sort of time capsule charm with its strange aw-shucks attitude and crooning by its lead Don Sullivan.
In 2012, they remade the movie with Jim Wynorski as the director.
The Yesterday Machine
A Texan Sci-fi Nazisploitation flick, with one of the most outlandish synopsis I've ever encountered.
In the story, a newspaper reporter, a nightclub singer, and the singer's sister fall into the hands of a mad Nazi physicist who has developed a time travel machine with which he intends to snatch Adolf Hitler from the past, teleport him into the present, and forever bring the world under the brutal domination of the Third Reich.
Does it live up to its kuh-razy premise? Well, why don't you let me know ;)
There are more, but the issue with these regional movies is that there is not much information about them. To take The Yesterday Machine as an example, the date most commonly attributed to its release is 1963, but eagle-eyed viewers notice that it contains cars that were released in 1964. There was a copyright notice on the original film prints, but they contained no date and were ineligible, so there's no record to check.
Hopefully the internet will help shed some light on some other forgotten films.
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