Free Movies!
Want to watch movies for free? Internet Archive has public domain films you can watch on site, and downloadable files you can transfer to disc and watch at home. This great site offers a wide variety of films, from silent shorts starring comedy greats Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, to feature films such as Robert Wiene's Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1919 and 
Michael Reeves The She Beast 1966. Just a few examples of the diverse offerings silent film fans can sample are; a very nice print of Last of the Mohicans 1920, Murnau's Nosferatu 1922, and cowboy star Bob Custer in Arizona Days 1928. Pre-code film fans can see Mary Brian, Irene Rich, and Noel Francis in Manhattan Tower 1932, the beautiful ice cream blonde Thelma Todd in Klondike 1932, Monte Blue and Natalie Moorhead in The Stoker 1932, Preston Foster, Arline Judge, and Kenneth MacKenna in the entertaining low budget tale Sensation Hunters 1933, a young Lon Chaney Jr.(billed as Creighton, doing comedy, and showing off a fine physique!) and Eddie Nugent in Girl O'My Dreams 1934, Victor McLaglen larger than life in Laughing at Life 1933, Evelyn Brent and Pat O'Brien in the not too bad The World Gone Mad 1933, Bette Davis and Pat O'Brien in Hells H
ouse 1932, and scene stealing Roland Young with Lillian Gish in His Double Life 1933. Sherlock Holmes fans can download The Sign of Four 1932, and Murder at the Baskervilles 1937 both starring Arthur Wontner, A Study in Scarlet 1933 with Reginald Owen, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon 1943, and Terror by Night 1946, both featuring Basil Rathbone. The classics are also well represented and include M 1931, directed by Ftitz Lang, Things to Come 1936, My Man Godfrey 1936, the animated Gulliver's Travels 1939, His Girl Friday 1940, The Quiet One 1948, Robert Rossen's Mambo 1954, and Romero's Night of the Living Dead 1968.
Most of the Mpeg-1 and Mpeg -2 files are anywhere from 200MB to 3GB in size. Downloading a 700 MB file @ 100 kbs takes me approximately 2 hours, and a 2.5 GB file at 100kbs takes me around 8 hrs. Depending on the file size, I either transfer to a CD-R or DVD-R. I can then play the Mpeg-2 file (without converting it to
DVD) in a play anything player such as the Toshiba SD-3990. The Toshiba SD-3990 player can also read and play .avi and .jpeg files. There is an occasional corrupted file, but the majority I've downloaded are just fine. These films are in the public domain, free and legal to download. Some prints are in decent shape, but if uncut pristine quality prints are expected, then expect to be disappointed. For those looking for high quality prints, shopping at Kino, Image, Milestone, and other reputable retail video outlets would be your best bet.
Michael Reeves The She Beast 1966. Just a few examples of the diverse offerings silent film fans can sample are; a very nice print of Last of the Mohicans 1920, Murnau's Nosferatu 1922, and cowboy star Bob Custer in Arizona Days 1928. Pre-code film fans can see Mary Brian, Irene Rich, and Noel Francis in Manhattan Tower 1932, the beautiful ice cream blonde Thelma Todd in Klondike 1932, Monte Blue and Natalie Moorhead in The Stoker 1932, Preston Foster, Arline Judge, and Kenneth MacKenna in the entertaining low budget tale Sensation Hunters 1933, a young Lon Chaney Jr.(billed as Creighton, doing comedy, and showing off a fine physique!) and Eddie Nugent in Girl O'My Dreams 1934, Victor McLaglen larger than life in Laughing at Life 1933, Evelyn Brent and Pat O'Brien in the not too bad The World Gone Mad 1933, Bette Davis and Pat O'Brien in Hells H
ouse 1932, and scene stealing Roland Young with Lillian Gish in His Double Life 1933. Sherlock Holmes fans can download The Sign of Four 1932, and Murder at the Baskervilles 1937 both starring Arthur Wontner, A Study in Scarlet 1933 with Reginald Owen, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon 1943, and Terror by Night 1946, both featuring Basil Rathbone. The classics are also well represented and include M 1931, directed by Ftitz Lang, Things to Come 1936, My Man Godfrey 1936, the animated Gulliver's Travels 1939, His Girl Friday 1940, The Quiet One 1948, Robert Rossen's Mambo 1954, and Romero's Night of the Living Dead 1968.Most of the Mpeg-1 and Mpeg -2 files are anywhere from 200MB to 3GB in size. Downloading a 700 MB file @ 100 kbs takes me approximately 2 hours, and a 2.5 GB file at 100kbs takes me around 8 hrs. Depending on the file size, I either transfer to a CD-R or DVD-R. I can then play the Mpeg-2 file (without converting it to
DVD) in a play anything player such as the Toshiba SD-3990. The Toshiba SD-3990 player can also read and play .avi and .jpeg files. There is an occasional corrupted file, but the majority I've downloaded are just fine. These films are in the public domain, free and legal to download. Some prints are in decent shape, but if uncut pristine quality prints are expected, then expect to be disappointed. For those looking for high quality prints, shopping at Kino, Image, Milestone, and other reputable retail video outlets would be your best bet.
posted by jtk at 2:15 PM
10 Comments:
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thanks for the recommendations - I'm definitely checking out Manhatten Tower.
Movieflix is another good one. You can stream better quality videos but, as far as I can see, you can't keep them. But they've got loads of good silents on there.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the great tip. Now if I can get this seven year old computer to cooperate on downloading.... I'd like that Klondike film!
Youre welcome, I hope they work out for you.
Thanks! Here is another source
www.publicdomaintorrents.com/
The Mpeg-2 quality is better, but if you dont have much capacity on your old computer, you can download the mpeg-1. It might have to be converted, though.
I downloaded the whole mpg3 of 'Klondike' (it took about three hours)..then I immediatly lost the temperary file!before I could figure out a way to burn a copy. DUMB
And I have the Toshiba 3990 to play the movie's on too.
I hate when that happens. I dont know if this will help, but here's what works for me: I usually right click and save the mpeg-2(better quality) file to a designated folder. Ive also been using Internet Download Manager, a pretty good program-no spyware, and it saves file parts so broken downloads can be completed. I use the burning software that came with my DVD burner(ULead Movie Factory, but any burning software works)to then burn the downloaded file from the designated folder to a 16x DVD( I really like the Taiyo Yudens). If the file is under 700 MB, you can burn at 40x plus to a CD. The mpeg-2 plays directly in the Toshiba 3990. If you download the mpeg-1 file, it might have to be converted to mpeg-2 or avi in order to play in the Toshiba though, Im not really sure. The Toshiba 3990 also plays PAL format DVD's.
Thank you very much JTK for the useful information. I'm sure I'll try again. I have no problem downloading music and transfering it to cd-rs. Video is a new challenge for me.
Its funny how a lower priced but newer DVD-player outperforms the older more expensive players, I have two more expensive older decks that wont play my europeon music DVD's but that Toshiba 3990 works like a charm. It also plays the bootleg dvd-r's that skip and hesitate on other players.
Regards
Yep, and the Toshiba also displays all photos and jpeg files from cd's as a slideshow - and it also has a nice zoom feature.
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