Okay, I admit it, I'm lost and confused! When we first started this blog, I thought it would be a couple hundred songs and we're outta here, but you folks all seemed to enjoy it, and we've had a good time doing it, so despite the odds, we just kept going!
I have held on to this one song, and had always planned that it would be the
last one, it just seems so perfect, but this isn't THE END, I guess, but just a transition!
Switching over to strictly public domain films should be great fun for all of us, and this film is a perfect example, but what a stinking grey area it is! I've already wasted too much time trying to figure that one out, seems like everybody's got a different list of what films are PD, so we're going try, but as far as I'm concerned, it's all in
"The Hands Of Fate", and just like in any cheap horror flick, well, you know what can happen!!! So, "Don't forget the silly way we met!"
"We defy you to guess the ending!!"
Okay, I admit it, I'm lost and confused! When we first started this blog, I thought it would be a couple hundred songs and we're outta here, but you folks all seemed to enjoy it, and we've had a good time doing it, so despite the odds, we just kept going! 
I have held on to this one song, and had always planned that it would be the last one, it just seems so perfect, but this isn't THE END, I guess, but just a transition!
Switching over to strictly public domain films should be great fun for all of us, and this film is a perfect example, but what a stinking grey area it is! I've already wasted too much time trying to figure that one out, seems like everybody's got a different list of what films are PD, so we're going try, but as far as I'm concerned, it's all in "The Hands Of Fate", and just like in any cheap horror flick, well, you know what can happen!!! So, "Don't forget the silly way we met!"
"We defy you to guess the ending!!"
5 comments:
Well, lessee... most cheapo horror flicks end with an big 'splosion and then the words "The End...?" Then, if the flick has made enough dough, they resurrect the monster, gather the scraps from the cutting room floor, and slap together a sequel.
I am hoping something similar happens here, guys. As you know, I have followed your blog for a long time and, besides the soundclips, I really enjoy the humor and stills, too.
Thanks so much for you work thus far. I hope you are able to continue in a spirit that you enjoy. I'm rooting for you!
Zilla
don't let The Man grind you down, man!...
i am of course referring to The Amazing Colossal Man...man.
Aw jeeze...I just find this blog NOW and what's the first post? That yr closing down! Man oh Man(os)...just my luck...I'll try to grab what I can, and I'll definitely check out whatever comes next!
Thanks?
Great blog guys!
I just wanted to let you know that I recently did my own research into the copyright status of "Manos, the Hands of Fate." It's just a weird pet project that occurred to me while working on a short film last year and wanting to use footage from The Worst Movie Ever Made but not knowing if I legally could or not.
The library at my college has copies of the copyright catalog of motion pictures. I checked the book that contains copyright registrations for the years 1960-1969 (since Manos was made in '66) and found no entries for the film's title, the film's working title "The Lodge of Sins," nor anything registered under the name Harold Warren or the distributer Emerson film enterprises. I forgot to check Norm-Iris productions and some of the other names on the credits. I'll look into that later when I go back, but at the very least there was no title matches for the film.
The movie, at least on my DVD copy, has no notification of copyright anywhere on it.
If I understand the law correctly, being made and published between 1964 and 1977, it could still have renewed copyright protection if it either was registered in unpublished form or displayed a notice of copyright. As far as I can tell, neither were done, so I think the copyright would have officially expired in 1996.
I'm not a lawyer or a legal expert, so I could be wrong, but that's the way I understand it based on my own research so far.
Of course, the music may be copyrighted separately and so still under copyright. If my college's library has the copyright catalog of music, I'll check into the songwriter and song titles (I'll have to guess them since they don't seem to be in the credits) and see if those have been renewed or not.
I'd guess this thing is probably public domain start to finish, though. It was made in the lowest standards of movie-making unprofessional ism, and I'm betting neither Hal nor anybody else working on the thing thought to confirm copyright statuses or any other legal matters. Being in obscurity for so many years, I doubt anybody ever had a mind to claim definite copyright ownership over it.
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