Where can I download decent OLD movies? P/d!

[overloaded_ide]

Not breaking the rules here

I would like to find a source for public domain movies. Old stuff and stuff you can not buy!

3 stooges, larual and hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Keystone cops ect...

I seldom can find decent old stuff even to buy, like 3 stooges REAL movies. Anything you can buy is the same old clips of this and that. They did do real movies too. Round the world in a daze (80 days) and something where they ran into aliens I forgot the name of.

When ever I can find some old rare stuff from like "Good Times Video" the quality is as bad or worse than bad VCD's.

Most of the stuff I want to get is in the public domain now, and with crap quality, and refusal to give refunds on garbage, there is abosutely no reason to take a chance on buying it on some crap tape or disk if one could be found.

So that's what I am looking for, decent public domain films I can download. I only have a 33k conection at home, but I may have access soon to some highspeed surfing while traveling and would like to stockup

Is there any sites dedicated to keeping the public domain stuff alive? That was the best stuff anyways!

[housepig]

hard to say.

the problems are multifold.

first you have to find a decent-quality print of the film. then you have to have a good-quality telecine job done to digitize it.

with people willing to pay for GoodTimes-level crap copies, the chances of someone not only putting better versions up for download at all (bandwidth costs serious money), but doing it for free as well are pretty slim.

the best source I know for downloadable public-domain video is www.archive.org but their collection is more geared toward industrial, training, newsreel and military footage.

you might check some newsgroups - look for alt.binaries.video.silent or similar... I don't have access to that at work, otherwise I'd give you more specific groups, but I know there are specific groups for silent films, and I'm pretty sure there are groups for Laurel & Hardy films.

Also be aware that some of the things that were public domain previously may not be now, in light of the way Congress has screwed up the copyright system with extensions... thanks Disney....

almost forgot... check www.oldies.com - some good stuff, and the quality is better than some of the GoodTimes or Madacy versions of the same movies.

[DVDJunkee]

In the case of the three stooges, I have seen lots of their work on DVD at walmart in the 3.99 bin...but maybe there isnt a walmart near you.

[DivXExpert]

P2P?

[mkelley]

Netflix offers 16 Stooge DVDs, including "Go Around the World in a Daze" (and the infinitely better, "The Outlaws is Coming"). They have 9 volumes of Laurel and Hardy DVDs, plus Flying Deuces and Utopia (although not, disappointingly, "Sons of the Desert" by far their best film. I don't think this has ever been available on DVD).

Obviously if these are available for renting they are available for purchase. You just need to look a little harder.

[mkelley]

Should have also mentioned the other Stooge film you're *probably* referring to is "Have Rocket, Will Travel". It was one of my favorites as a kid (where I saw it in the theater) but it hasn't held up well.

They did do another one with a rocket in it ("Three Stooges go to Mars?") but if remember right there weren't any actual aliens in it.

[overloaded_ide]

Thanks for the fast replies guys.

I understand the problems of using the masters, but hoping maybe someone has a site were people like me could be uploading the public domaim stuff that has been recorded decently by vhs when captured from TV or similair.

Sometimes I used to be able to find a channel playng those old things and that would be better than buying goodtimes! Unfortunately at that time I had no interest in recording stuff, and now I have no interest in tv, so I don't have a dish (only thing I could do in this rural area), but I do remember watching the classics on late night tv very well!
I am checking out the links.

I have bought some of the wallmart stuff, but like I mentioned it's mostly the same clips on different disks or tapes! No real movies. 3 Stooges did tons of shorts, and the real movies were cut up into shorts also, and nearly anything I find is the 15-20 minute shorts, and always the same ones! Or something I realy hate is when they call it a stooges movie or collection and it is just a narrated documentory about the stooges using the same shorts and clips AGAIN! And those boxed sets of 3-5 dvds or VHS tapes never say whats actually on them!

I use P2P for some stuff, but not this type normally though I will give it a try if all else fails. Problem I run into alot is there are far to many people that want something but never use it. So one person shares crappy file not worth having and it spreads to 300 people who never even look at it, but got it for the name! Then I get it and find quality is crapola and the end is missing! That was why I never used Napster much, and when I did find good stuff I bought the disk to get better quality. Yea that really hurt their sales right! I haven't bought half as many disks since they trashed napster as I was buying in a few months when I did use napster.

I'll keep seaching, and if anyone finds a site please post it. or PM

[secretagent]

the library of congress has every film and book ever made.

[housepig]

the library of congress has every film and book ever made.

tell you what - get me a copy of "London After Midnight" from them and I'll pay you $10,000.

They do not have a copy of every film or book ever made, even domestically ("every" would include internationally, and would also include from the dawn of time... how many Gutenberg Bibles have they got there?)

They have a ton of stuff, and they have informational indexes of every domestic title, and many international ones... but they do not have "every film and book ever made".

[BJ_M]

they have very few movies -- many made before 1950's are lost forever .. lot of them simply burned up or got lost or fell apart ..

they do have a good collection of old phono records mainly due to a few people who took care of it ..

though there are 100,000 's of movies still in various vaults all over the place that have never been indexed yet (many are mis-marked and not labled or a reel is misplaced) ..

[DivXExpert]

This library of congress. Do you think they have film reels of the Original Star Wars films? Or do they have an online catalog so I can find out?

[BJ_M]

http://www.loc.gov/

[mkelley]

Ah, finally L&H fans have news to rejoice.

Five of their films are being given the remastered treatment (including their best feature ever, "Sons of the Desert") in an extremely reasonably priced DVD release ($15).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009YXEW/ref=ase_flipsidemovieemp/104-...v=glance&s=dvd

Available next month, this gives hope the shorts and other films will be given simliar respect. I've got my order in already.