I'm throwing a Holiday party for my east coast co-workers.
I'm giving everyone a flash drive with movies.
I have 2GB.
The first movie is Santa Clause Conquers the Martians. It's 600MB. I have 1.4GB remaining.
I'm considering including The General, or possibly the 1949 Batman and Robin serial.
Does anyone have a better suggestion or just *Another* suggestion?
I'm torn in a big way, because part of me loves bad movies like Teenagers from Outerspace or Robot Monster or Manos Hands of Fate.
So I want to include things like that.
But jumping in to Manos with No Context is a recipe for hating all bad movies forever.
So I should probably lean towards good movies instead. Lemme do a rundown of my favorite movies in the public domain, and see if any of them fit the brief.
Public Domain Movies I like a lot
From oldest to newest in my Recently Watched list on my server
- The Shadow Strikes (1937):
It's "THE SHADOW" in only the lightest sense of the word. It's really just a kind of light hearted mystery with the barest trappings of The Shadow.
- The Shadow Returns (1946): Another movie that alleges to feature The Shadow. Another movie that mostly doesn't.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- The Shadow Laughs:
This one isn't even about the shadow, they just took the name. It's a low budget, early talkie that appears to have been converted from silent to talkie half way through. I don't see any redeeming qualities to it.
- Star Odyssey (1979):
Italian star wars? But not really, and just bad. Rarely even bad in an entertaining way. Has some small redeeming qualities, but not enough to recommend.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Pimpernel Smith (!941):
The scarlet pimpernel does WWII? Not really. Just a british Anti-nazi thriller. It's a spy movie, and an okay one.
- The File on Thelma Jordon (1950): A stone cold film noir, with an absolutely top notch femme fatale. Good movie. (but way too dark for the holidays)
- His Girl Friday (1940):
It's the front page, but with a woman in the leading role, so it's a screwball romance comedy? Great interpretation of a Dark story
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- DOA(1950):
A man who has been poisoned tells the cops about how it happened, and why, before he dies. Decent flick.
- Nancy Drew Reporter (1939):
Fun, low budget, kids flick. There's a car with a rumble seat, there's a musical number in a Chinese restaurant, I remember the movie being surprisingly tasteful for it's age and subject matter, I remember that I liked it, but not much else.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Africa Screams (1949): Abbot and Costello do racism in the jungle. Not recommended.
- Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924): Russian science fiction. Good, a little long. Silent.
- The Brian that Wouldn't Die (1962): bad scifi horror. Fun, funny.
- Blonde Ice (1948): I don't remember this movie at all. Let me read a synopsis. ... Oh, yeah I remember now! Great, atmospheric flick. Noir, with a strong femme fatale. Tense. Bad title. Not a holiday movie.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- The Front Page (1931): The same story as His Girl Friday, but without a woman in the lead, so even darker. I liked it, but many others did not.
- Crime Inc. (1945): A man fights the mob from the newspaper! It's a decent movie. Not great, but good enough.
- Roar of the Press (1941) a pseudo-sequel to The Front Page, except not as well made, and a little less dark.
- My Favorite Brunette (1947): Bob hope sends up Sam Spade hardboilers. Excellent.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Impact (1949): Noir, drama. Man survives murder attempt, drama ensues. Mostly a courtroom drama. Pretty okay.
- Cause for Alarm (1951): A sick man terrorizes his wife, dies. The wife commits several crimes in an attempt to not get blamed for her husband's death. Surprisingly good.
- Quicksand (1950): A stone classic. One of the all time great Noir films. A man steals $20 to impress a lady, and gets mired in metaphorical quicksand.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror (1938): Basically Sherlock Holmes fights the Klan? Except it's not Holmes, and the Klan has a bedazzled snake logo. It's good, but feels like an early film.
- Shoot to kill (1947): AKA Police Reporter. A former gangster is framed for murder. His wife and a reporter try to clear him. Clumsy, but not bad.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- No Time For Sergeants (1955): A TV movie (not the movie movie that came later), only available in pretty low quality, Andy Griffith joins the army, and gives his sergeant an aww shucks hard time. Really funny, but low quality print only.
- Lady Gangster (1942): Lady robs a bank, goes to Jail. Shenanigans ensue. B- I could live without it.
- Danger on Wheels (1940): A man drives a car dangerously. He races. There's a double cross. It's okay.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- The Stranger (1946): Orson Welles directs and stars in this movie about a former nazi hiding out in Connecticut. It's an absolute classic. Just a very good movie.
- Teenagers From Outerspace (1959): ... Teenagers! From! Outerspace! There's a Lobster Monster! There's romance! There's socks OVER shoes. It's not good, but it's my favorite.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- British Intelligence (1940): mediocre spy film with Borris Karloff. Double cross on double cross. Not bad, just not good.
- Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (1948): A guy wants to be a novelist. A girl wants to run away. They meet up on a texas highway, move to Brooklyn, meet a gangster, and buy some animatronic elephants, or something. A cute, silly romcom.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Speak Easily (1932):
Buster Keaton in a talkie! He's trying to fund a play. Everyone wants to sleep with him. It's silly. It's fun.
- A Bucket of Blood (1959):
A cheap, cheap, cheap horror film. Roger Corman directs. A murderer disguises himself as an artist. It's not bad.
- King Solomon's Mines (1937):
White people go on a safari. They find an African tribe and get stuck in an ancient mine and or volcano. Honestly not bad.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Beat the Devil (1953):
Bogart stars in a send up of the kind of noir picture he made famous. I think it's a really great film, but it flopped at the time.
- Cat-Women of the Moon (1953): A secret society of Women on the Moon! With Mind Control! It's a decent movie.
- Attack of the 50 foot Woman (1958) Space Radiation make a giant woman. It's not very good! It is super silly!
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973): Sex kills! At least, it does in this movie, where everyone is topless all the time.
- Dick Tracy (1945): A feature film adaptation of Dick Tracy, really just more of a mild detective adventure. Not bad, just not remarkable.
- House on Haunted Hill (1959): Locked room horror in a haunted house. What's real? What isn't? It's kind of silly, but I enjoy it.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Robin Hood (1922):
It's Robin Hood! It's Douglas Fairbanks! It's Silent! It's pretty good!
- The General (1927): The best silent movie ever made, IMO. It's the story of the great train robbery (an event that happened in my home town during the US Civil War.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Detour (1945): One of the best Poverty Row films ever. Recently re-released in HD for the first time. It's beautiful, it's the classic tale of an unreliable narrator in a bad situation that keeps getting worse.
- The Little Shop of Horrors (1950): Another low budget Corman horror comedy. It's funny, it's horrific. I like it.
- The Mark of Zorro (1920):
Zorro! It's silent! It's pretty good.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Safety Last (1923): Harrold Lloyd's most recognizable feature. Silent. Slower than modern audiences expect, but still worth seeing.
- International Crime (1938): The Shadow! (again!) But not really! (again!) My favorite of The Shadow feature films (but not as good as the serials.)
- The Phantom Empire (1935): Gene Autry sings as bankers try to steal his ranch, and they discover an underground city full of robots!
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- The Magic Sword (1962):
Children's high fantasy adventure. It's great, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
- Menace from Outerspace: Rocky Jones Space Ranger! This is a movie made of episodes of Rocky Jones. It's pretty bad! But I love Rocky Jones, so I don't care. Better as a TV show than a Movie.
- Crash of the Moons:
Same as above, but it's a better movie.
- Yongary Monster from the Deep: Korean Godzilla, basically.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Topper Returns:
Topper is a kind of silly novel about a man getting frisky with a ghost. This is a movie in which that same man solves a murder. Eventually made in to a decent TV shows.
- The Slowest Gun in the West:
TV Movie with Jack Benny and Phil Silvers. Lampoons cowboys. Pretty good. Only available in low quality.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Plan 9 from Outerspace: Not actually the worst film ever made, but definitely in contention. Unintentionally funny, inept, etc.
- Charade: One of the best movies in the public domain. Screwball romcom with spies. Very enjoyable.
Public Domain Movies I have watched recently
- Manos: The Hands of Fate "if applied consistently, incompetence can be a style. This narrative feature film was shot with a hand-wound 16 mm camera that could only capture thirty seconds of footage at a time." With no sound on camera!
https://366weirdmovies.com/223-manos-the-hands-of-fate-1966/
One of my favorite movies ever, but unquestionably one of the worst ever finished.