Statutory US Public Domain
1926 Feature
The Blackbird
Directed by Tod Browning → • Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The Blackbird is a 1926 American silent crime film directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney. The screenplay was written by Waldemar Young, based on a story "The Mockingbird" by Tod Browning. Cedric Gibbons and Arnold Gillespie handled the set design. Makeup man Cecil Holland also played one of the old men living at the mission. Character actors Eddie Sturgis and Willie Fung appeared in several other Lon Chaney movies during this time period. The film took 31 days to shoot at a cost of $166,000. The tagline was "Lon Chaney in his successor to The Unholy Three". Stills on the internet shows Chaney in his dual role. In April 2012, the film became available on DVD from the Warner Archive collection.
Runtime
86 minutes
Aspect Ratio
4:3 Academy (Pillarbox)
Archival Copies
1 Vault Holding(s)
Classification
Pre-1929 Statutory
The Video Boneyard Vault Holdings
Archival Master Preserved in Studio Vaults
This title is cataloged and preserved across physical storage drives D: & E: in The Video Boneyard archival collection (1 vault master holding). A broadcast-grade restoration with dynamic loudness normalization is scheduled for streaming release on our YouTube channel.
⚖️ Statutory Public Domain Clearance Provenance
First published in 1926 (prior to January 1, 1929). Under United States copyright statute (17 U.S.C. § 304(b)), copyright protection has conclusively expired by operation of law. This motion picture has permanently entered the US Public Domain and is free from copyright restriction.