Desk 03 · 25 films · 1930–2010
Sorted by year. Each film has a direct legal link and at least one backup. Hollywood rows marked “US public domain” are free to copy in the United States. Hong Kong copyright runs on a different clock, so those links are labeled rather than waved through.
| Year | Film | Director | Time | Why it matters | Watch | Backup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | All Quiet on the Western Front | Lewis Milestone | 133 min | The film that made Hollywood look at the First World War from the losing side. It still plays as a warning, not as a costume picture. Academy Awards for Outstanding Production and Best Director (1929/30). Added to the US National Film Registry. | Play | Archive search |
| 1930 | Animal Crackers | Victor Heerman | 98 min | Groucho hosting a country-house weekend is still the fastest way to see why the Marx Brothers broke the polite comedy of their decade. A Marx Brothers studio feature. Newly in the US public domain with the rest of the 1930 releases. | Play | Archive search |
| 1930 | Morocco | Josef von Sternberg | 92 min | A legionnaire and a cabaret singer circle each other in a film that cares more about looks and pride than about plot. Marlene Dietrich’s Hollywood debut opposite Gary Cooper. | Play | Another Archive print |
| 1930 | The Blue Angel | Josef von Sternberg | 108 min | A respected teacher walks into a nightclub and does not walk back out as the same man. It is still the model for this kind of downfall story. The film that made Marlene Dietrich a star, shot in Germany before Morocco. | Play | Archive search |
| 1934 | Goddess | Wu Yonggang | 79 min | A mother in Shanghai is pushed into street work and then punished for it. The camera takes her side, which was not the habit of the censors. Widely called the finest Chinese silent film. Ruan Lingyu’s defining role. | Play | Internet Archive |
| 1936 | My Man Godfrey | Gregory La Cava | 94 min | A scatterbrained heiress hires a “forgotten man” as a butler. The joke is on the rich household, and it still lands. A signature screwball comedy. The 1936 film was not renewed and is treated as public domain in the United States. | Play | 1080p Archive print |
| 1937 | A Star Is Born | William A. Wellman | 111 min | A rising actor and a falling star share a marriage the town will not leave alone. The remakes are famous. This is the tough first version. The original, not the later musical remakes. Treated as public domain in the United States. Wellman won the Oscar for the original story. | Play | Archive search |
| 1937 | Street Angels | Yuan Muzhi | 90 min | A singer and her neighbours try to stay decent on a poor street. Two songs do as much work as the plot, which is the point. The film that fixed Zhou Xuan’s songs in the language. A tragicomedy released as war reached Shanghai. | Play | Course module |
| 1940 | His Girl Friday | Howard Hawks | 92 min | Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell talk faster than the plot can move, which is the pleasure. A newspaper comedy that still feels quick. Selected for the US National Film Registry. The film was not renewed and is public domain in the United States. | Play | Archive HD print |
| 1941 | Meet John Doe | Frank Capra | 122 min | A newspaper invents a protest letter and then has to hire a man to be its author. The crowd scenes are the warning. A Capra feature treated as public domain in the United States after non-renewal. | Play | Archive search |
| 1942 | Prelude to War | Frank Capra | 53 min | The US Army asked Hollywood to explain the war to recruits. The film is propaganda, and it is also a clear lesson in how films argue. Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, 1943. The first film in the Why We Fight series. | Play | Second Archive copy |
| 1945 | Detour | Edgar G. Ulmer | 67 min | A piano player hitchhikes west and every lift gets worse. Proof that a great noir does not need a studio budget. Selected for the US National Film Registry. A Poverty Row noir, public domain in the United States. | Play | Archive search |
| 1946 | Let There Be Light | John Huston | 58 min | Huston filmed soldiers in psychiatric treatment and refused to make their recovery look easy. The Army buried it. The film outlasted the order. Commissioned by the US Army and then suppressed for decades. Now a canonical documentary on combat trauma. | Play | Archive search |
| 1946 | The Stranger | Orson Welles | 95 min | A war-crimes investigator tracks a man into a small American town. Welles staging a clock tower is worth the ticket alone. Welles as director and star. The film is treated as public domain in the United States. | Play | 720p Archive print |
| 1948 | Spring in a Small Town | Fei Mu | 93 min | A wife, an ill husband, and an old friend share a ruined house after the war. Almost nothing “happens”, and the film is still the one Chinese directors name. Voted the greatest Chinese film in the Hong Kong Film Awards Association poll of 2005. | Play | Project page |
| 1950 | D.O.A. | Rudolph Maté | 83 min | A man walks into a police station to report his own murder. The rest of the film is the poison working, and the structure has been copied ever since. A noir staple. Public domain in the United States. | Play | Archive search |
| 1954 | Suddenly | Lewis Allen | 77 min | Gunmen take over a house on the president’s route. It is lean, mean, and shorter than a modern pilot episode. Frank Sinatra in a small-town assassination story. Treated as public domain in the United States. | Play | Archive search |
| 1955 | Piagol | Lee Kang-cheon | 108 min | Partisan fighters in the hills are not drawn as posters. It is one of the few 1950s Korean features you can actually press play on, with the archive’s own upload. An early South Korean war film, restored and published by the Korean Film Archive. | Play | KOFA channel |
| 1960 | The Little Shop of Horrors | Roger Corman | 72 min | A florist feeds a talking plant. Jack Nicholson turns up, briefly, as a pain-loving dental patient. Cheap, and cheerfully so. Shot in a couple of days and still the source of the later musical. Public domain in the United States. | Play | Archive copy with Spanish subs |
| 1961 | Aimless Bullet | Yu Hyun-mok | 107 min | Two brothers in postwar Seoul run out of ways to stay decent. The film was too frank for the government of the day, which is why it still matters. Banned on release, then recognized as a landmark of Korean cinema. Restored by the Korean Film Archive. | Play | KOFA channel |
| 1962 | Carnival of Souls | Herk Harvey | 78 min | A woman survives a crash and then cannot quite get back into the world. The abandoned pavilion is the whole nightmare. A regional horror film that later taught a generation of filmmakers how to be eerie on no budget. US public domain. | Play | Archive search |
| 1964 | The Last Man on Earth | Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow | 86 min | Vincent Price spends his days staking bodies and his nights boarding up the house. Grim, and more influential than its reputation. The first film of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. This 1964 version is public domain in the United States. Later adaptations are not. | Play | Archive search |
| 1968 | Night of the Living Dead | George A. Romero | 96 min | Strangers board up a farmhouse and the news on the television is worse than the yard. Modern horror starts in this living room. Selected for the US National Film Registry. Public domain in the United States because the copyright notice was left off the release. | Play | Archive search |
| 1993 | Sopyonje | Im Kwon-taek | 113 min | A father, a daughter, and a dying folk art. It is the Korean film to see if you think the country’s cinema began in the 2000s. The pansori film that became a national event and the centre of Im Kwon-taek’s reputation abroad. Official restoration on the archive channel. | Play | KOFA channel |
| 2008 | Sita Sings the Blues | Nina Paley | 82 min | The Ramayana, a breakup, and 1920s jazz songs, drawn by one person. It is the rare feature you are explicitly invited to copy. The director released the film under CC0. Festival favourite and a landmark of free culture. | Play | Internet Archive |
War · Station 9.2
The film that made Hollywood look at the First World War from the losing side. It still plays as a warning, not as a costume picture.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Screwball · Station 8.0
Groucho hosting a country-house weekend is still the fastest way to see why the Marx Brothers broke the polite comedy of their decade.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Romance · Station 7.6
A legionnaire and a cabaret singer circle each other in a film that cares more about looks and pride than about plot.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Der blaue Engel
Cabaret drama · Station 8.3
A respected teacher walks into a nightclub and does not walk back out as the same man. It is still the model for this kind of downfall story.
Internet Archive (German) · SD · ads: None
神女
Melodrama · Station 8.8
A mother in Shanghai is pushed into street work and then punished for it. The camera takes her side, which was not the habit of the censors.
Chinese Film Classics on YouTube · SD · ads: YouTube ads
Screwball · Station 8.5
A scatterbrained heiress hires a “forgotten man” as a butler. The joke is on the rich household, and it still lands.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Hollywood drama · Station 7.8
A rising actor and a falling star share a marriage the town will not leave alone. The remakes are famous. This is the tough first version.
Internet Archive (1937) · HD · ads: None
馬路天使
Musical drama · Station 8.6
A singer and her neighbours try to stay decent on a poor street. Two songs do as much work as the plot, which is the point.
Chinese Film Classics on YouTube · SD · ads: YouTube ads
Newsroom comedy · Station 8.7
Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell talk faster than the plot can move, which is the pleasure. A newspaper comedy that still feels quick.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Political drama · Station 8.1
A newspaper invents a protest letter and then has to hire a man to be its author. The crowd scenes are the warning.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Wartime essay · Station 7.8
The US Army asked Hollywood to explain the war to recruits. The film is propaganda, and it is also a clear lesson in how films argue.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Noir · Station 8.2
A piano player hitchhikes west and every lift gets worse. Proof that a great noir does not need a studio budget.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Medical documentary · Station 8.3
Huston filmed soldiers in psychiatric treatment and refused to make their recovery look easy. The Army buried it. The film outlasted the order.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Noir · Station 7.9
A war-crimes investigator tracks a man into a small American town. Welles staging a clock tower is worth the ticket alone.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
小城之春
Chamber drama · Station 9.4
A wife, an ill husband, and an old friend share a ruined house after the war. Almost nothing “happens”, and the film is still the one Chinese directors name.
Chinese Film Classics on YouTube · SD · ads: YouTube ads
Noir · Station 7.7
A man walks into a police station to report his own murder. The rest of the film is the poison working, and the structure has been copied ever since.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Crime · Station 7.3
Gunmen take over a house on the president’s route. It is lean, mean, and shorter than a modern pilot episode.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
피아골
War · Station 7.4
Partisan fighters in the hills are not drawn as posters. It is one of the few 1950s Korean features you can actually press play on, with the archive’s own upload.
Korean Classic Film on YouTube · SD · ads: YouTube ads
Comic horror · Station 6.8
A florist feeds a talking plant. Jack Nicholson turns up, briefly, as a pain-loving dental patient. Cheap, and cheerfully so.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
오발탄
Postwar realism · Station 8.6
Two brothers in postwar Seoul run out of ways to stay decent. The film was too frank for the government of the day, which is why it still matters.
Korean Classic Film on YouTube · HD restoration · ads: YouTube ads
Atmospheric horror · Station 7.6
A woman survives a crash and then cannot quite get back into the world. The abandoned pavilion is the whole nightmare.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Post-apocalypse · Station 7.0
Vincent Price spends his days staking bodies and his nights boarding up the house. Grim, and more influential than its reputation.
Internet Archive · SD · ads: None
Zombie · Station 8.4
Strangers board up a farmhouse and the news on the television is worse than the yard. Modern horror starts in this living room.
Internet Archive · HD · ads: None
서편제
Music drama · Station 8.5
A father, a daughter, and a dying folk art. It is the Korean film to see if you think the country’s cinema began in the 2000s.
Korean Classic Film on YouTube · HD restoration · ads: YouTube ads
Musical animation · Station 8.0
The Ramayana, a breakup, and 1920s jazz songs, drawn by one person. It is the rare feature you are explicitly invited to copy.
Official site · HD · ads: None