When the movie was released in 1946, it was given a 28 year copyright term with an eligibility of a 28 year copyright renewal. A request wasn’t put in for the renewal, though, and it fell into the public domain in 1975. The movie studio saw the film as a gem and subsequently fought for the rights of the film for a decade. Had they not done that, the movie would have become another dollar movie in those large bins.
The movie was a financial box-office flop when it was released. It came in at 26th in the box-office ranks. During the time it was in the public domain, the film was showed on a variety of networks throughout the year. Today, NBC owns the rights to the film and it plays only twice a year. The royalties for the film are outrageously expensive. Copyright laws are becoming more intricate and absurd as time goes on and their length is ever growing.
