👀 WATCH THIS SPACE! 🚨 Have plans right after the ball drops in Times Square? 🪩 Join us here! At 12:01am ET, we’ll start rolling out highlights for #PublicDomainDay2026 — iconic books, films & music newly free for reuse + where you can find them. Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai...

New on the site! Get prepped and ready for pre-Code movies on TCM in January. Thin men! Penguin pools! A surprising amount of Johnny Mack Brown! Enjoy! #tcmparty pre-code.com/pre-code-mov...

Everyone's sharing things they wrote in 2025, so here's a reminder that I wrote 31 consecutive essays on John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN during the month of October, totaling somewhere around 30k words. I'm very proud of this project, and I'd love to turn it into a book if anyone's interested!

Musical Monday: Paramount on Parade (1930) cometoverhollywood.com/2025/12/29/m...

The 🇺🇸 American pre-Code comedy film "SONS OF THE DESERT" directed by William A. Seiter, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Mae Busch and Dorothy Christy premiered #OnThisDay in 1933 at Arthur Mayer's Rialto Theatre in New York City 🎬 Hal Roach Studios 🎞 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Alice White (1933)

Sunday afternoon matinee 🎥 Now watching…

BTD - Marlene Dietrich - The Song of Songs - 1933 - Pre-War Belgian poster

The Z-Grade Marx Brothers slasher will be a sight to behold.

Happy Marlene's birthday!

Lemme guess: This year they’re removing stuff

Josef von Sternberg’s German musical comedy-drama “THE BLUE ANGEL” starring Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings and Kurt Gerron 🎬 Universum Film A.G. 🇩🇪

Spanish poster for MOROCCO (1930) Directed by Josef von Sternberg Starring Marlene Dietrich - BOTD in 1901

Early in 2025, @SawLady.bsky.social helped us celebrate “Happy Days Are Here Again” joining the public domain 🎶🪚 On January 1, 2026, another full year of media & culture becomes free to share, remix & reimagine 🎉 Join our Public Domain events ⤵️ blog.archive.org/public-domai... #PublicDomainDay

I thought I'd had enough of 2025, but there's a lovely review by Emilie Raymond of my 'captivating biography' of screenwriter and labour leader Mary C. McCall Jr in the latest issue of the JAH (@oah.org). academic.oup.com/jah/article-... @columbiaup.bsky.social

Yes, it’s a still from LOVE ME TONIGHT, a lost scene that was cut due to her skimpy outfit!

And also, again, buy yourself a copy of PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION and marvel at how kind he is to Doctor Doolittle.

“SHANGHAI EXPRESS” (1932) dir. Josef von Sternberg Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, Warner Orlando 🎞 pre-Code 🎬 Paramount Pictures

Happy Birthday to the late Marlene Dietrich, born Marie Magdalene Dietrich 124 years ago today

Wikipedia articles about 90 year old movies have no reason to be nice.

for the afternoon crowd

good morning ___ The Thin Man (W. S. Van Dyke, 1934)

I got the TCM Pre-Code book for Christmas and my niece asked me what Pre-Code was. I explained, and then she looked at the front and back covers and was like, "Ok, I understand." #FilmSky #TCMParty

It seems my wife was listening when I said I needed this book.📖 I love her! ❤️ @pre-code.com

Unwrap a pair of comedy classics in 35mm! The Marx Brothers' MONKEY BUSINESS (1931) screens today, Christmas Day 12/25, at 2:00pm with Abbott & Costello's HIT THE ICE (1943) at 3:45pm.

Helen Twelvetrees by Clarence Sinclair Bull, 1932. #botd

lol they’re showing THE SMILING LIEUTENANT the day my wife promotes, amazing timing.

Helen Twelvetrees in "Panama Flo - BOTD

Anita Page by Clarence Sinclair Bull (1931)

Ruth Hall, 1931.

December 23rd 🎄🎬 #filmsky #moviesky #cinema #movieadventcalendar

FROM THE ARCHIVES | Singer and actress Irene Ryan and comedian Bob Hope rehearse their routine for a Christmas Eve show in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1948.

Oh, you know.

Mood courtesy of Winona Ryder, Spy Magazine, 1989

Oh, what a TREAT.

On December 23 1930, a 22-year-old Bette Davis arrived in Hollywood under contract to Universal Studios. A legendary film career is born #OnThisDay

'Tis the season of the Barbara Stanwyck Christmas Cinematic Universe. 🎄

there are (at least) three backstage musicals released in 1933...here's a comparison to help ease the confusion. #TCMParty #GoldDiggersOf1933 ^JW

Tuning in just in time to have Joan Blondell break my heart. #GoldDiggersof1933 #TCMParty

I've seen over 700 Pre-Code movies, and hands down Sing and Like It (1934) has to be the funniest so far. A cast entirely made up of character actors, which may have something to do with how good it is. But the script by Marion Dix and Laird Doyle is chock full of gems I'll share in the next days.

Clara Bow in a still for No Limit (1931).

Daringly bestial pre-code perversion so shocking author Wells hated it. Superb sadism with a brilliantly depraved lead from Laughton. 1932 #horrorcommunity #horrorfamily #horrormovie #horrorfilm #horrorfan #classichorror #horroraddict #filmsky #horrorsky #mutantfam #horrorfam #monsterfam #belalugosi

I had a wonderful time interviewing @jtarnold.bsky.social recently and discussing Christmas films. You can read about it here and listen to our full interview: cometoverhollywood.com/2025/12/19/c...

Whenever I watch It's a Wonderful Life I'm always confused because it ends before they go over to Mr. Potter's, and then I remember that's just an SNL sketch.

As the year comes to a close, TCM remembers the actors, filmmakers and creatives we lost this year. Gone, but never forgotten: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF8_... Song title and artist: "In the Western Wind and the Sunrise" by Dave Simonett and the Sunrise.

Cecil B. DeMille dirigiendo a Claudette Colbert en The Sign of the Cross (1932).

Had a great time speaking with the guys at Inside the Arthouse to discuss the Netflix/Warner acquisition. So, if you want to listed to two historians and two industry insiders gab about this monumental merger, check it out. Here's the full link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zh1...

"In weaker, lesser, dumber hands, DESIGN FOR LIVING is a movie about three horny morons; in Lubitsch’s, all three characters spark and sparkle, an abundance of wit powering them through reckless indecisions." - @franhoepfner.bsky.social

Me angling to introduce BLONDE VENUS at #TCMFF: “I will put on the gorilla suit and sing ‘Hot Voodoo’, I have absolutely no dignity in this regard.”