It Came From The Public Domain: Mill Creek Entertainment Box Sets

According to Wikipedia, public domain is defined as: Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all, if the intellectual property rights have expired, or if the intellectual property rights are forfeited.

Basically, what this means for movie fans, is that no one owns the rights to a movie, and so anyone can put out a DVD for sale of the movie. This has its ups and downs for movie fanatics. On the good side, it usually means a movie can be found fairly easily, and usually very cheaply. On the downside, usually the video or audio quality can be very inferior, because these companies release these movies so cheaply that they generally use any print they can find of a movie, with no cleaning up of the picture or sound. So, it is definitely "buyer beware" territory. One of the most prolific companies out there who are putting out public domain movies on DVD is Mill Creek Entertainment at www.millcreekent.com .

I have several box sets from this company, and they are a huge bargain when it comes to price. Large chains like Wal Mart and Best Buy carry these box sets, and you can get the packs of 50 movies for less than $20. Usually they can be found for $10-$15. There are a lot B-movie cult classics, or even true classics, to be had in these packs, as well. For instance, the Horror Classics 50 Movie Megapack is full of movies anyone should, including silent classics. See the list below:

Carnival of Souls - Candace Hilligoss
Atom Age Vampire - Alberto Lupo
Creature from the Haunted Sea - Robert Towne
Nightmare Castle - Barbara Steele
Black Dragons - Bela Lugosi
Invisible Ghost - Bela Lugosi
One Body Too Many - Bela Lugosi
White Zombie - Bela Lugosi
Attack of the Giant Leeches - Ken Clark
The Screaming Skull - John Hudson
Beast of Yucca Flats - Tor Johnson
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - John Barrymore
Blue Beard - John Carradine
The Corpse Vanishes - Bela Lugosi
Night of the Living Dead - Judith O’Dea
Doomed to Die - Boris Karloff
The Phantom of the Opera - Lon Chaney, Sr.
The Indestructible Man - Lon Chaney, Jr.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Lon Chaney, Sr.
Nosferatu - Max Schreck
Swamp Women - Mike Connors
The World Gone Mad - Pat O’Brien
The Terror - Boris Karloff
Revolt of the Zombies - Dean Jagger
The Giant Gilla Monster - Don Sullivan
The Fatal Hour - Boris Karloff
Dead Men Walk - George Zucco
The Mad Monster - George Zucco
Maniac - Bill Woods
Metropolis - Gustav Frolich
The Vampire Bat - Fay Wray
The Ape - Boris Karloff
The Monster Maker - J. Carol Naish
The Killer Shrews - James Best
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die - Jason Evers
King of the Zombies - Joan Woodbury
The Little Shop of Horrors - Jack Nicholson
Tormented - Richard Carlson
The Monster Walks - Rex Lease
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet - Tamio Kawaji
The Gorilla - The Ritz Brothers
A Shriek in the Night - Ginger Rogers
Bloodlust - Robert Reed
The Amazing Mr. X - Turhan Bay
Last Woman on Earth - Robert Towne
The Bat - Vincent Price
The House on Haunted Hill - Vincent Price
The Last Man on Earth - Vincent Price
Dementia 13 - William Campbell
Phantom from 10,000 Leagues - Kent Taylor

This is basically an instant collection of classic movies, with silent films, true classics, B-movies and cult films for less than $20. There are at least 15 movies here that anyone who is a classic horror film buff should have in their collection. The silent classics alone are worth the price. Of course, as mentioned previously, you won't find any clean up of the original prints on any of these, and you may find yourself becoming annoyed at times with the quality of a very few of those prints. Maybe 3 or 4, at most, unless you are really OCD about that type of thing. But, overall, Mill Creek does a pretty good job of finding decent prints to master their DVDs from. I haven't seen anything unwatchable yet from them, and this is not always the case with some companies putting out these type of movies. Nothing is going to be true DVD quality, but you can't expect you will get fifty movies for less than the price of a new DVD of a current film and get the same quality. It just isn't going to happen.

Mill Creek also does a pretty decent job of not duplicating titles in their various box sets. Of the three I own, I had one movie duplicated, The Amazing Transparent Man. On the negative side, the films are hit and miss when it comes to some of the other packs. For instance, their Sci Fi Classics 50 Movie Pack has some very lame films, and some films are definitely not sci fi. Low rent Quest For Fire wannabe caveman films, or sword and sandal epics hardly qualify as sci fi in my opinion. But, there are enough fun films to make it worth the price anyway. I mean, ya gotta love Gamera films, right?

On the whole, I recommend Mill Creek for those who just want to own a great bunch of films, but can't afford either the time or money to hunt them down one by one. Not to mention, they do more than just horror and sci fi packs. Westerns, war movies, and even TV shows get their own box sets. I know I will be looking for more of their movie packs to add to my collection. I would suggest going to their website and finding the ones you want, but then look elsewhere, either online or in brick & mortar stores, for the actual product. You will always find them cheaper that at Mill Creek's website. Enjoy your hunt!

Images are from www.millcreekent.com