Presented is an inventory of the Republic Pictures library, as published in a company document dated April 6, 1994. Non-Republic feature films from the company’s predecessor, National Telefilm Associates, are excluded but were part of the original document, which encompassed almost 1,500 permanent features; another 300 were under lease.

The first list herein is specific to American theatrical features produced and/or released by the company between 1935–1959. Foreign features and serials are listed separately.

With the creation of Republic in 1935, absorbing Monogram Pictures Corp., Mascot Pictures Corp., Liberty Pictures Corp., Majestic Pictures Corp., and Select Productions, Inc., some sources erroneously list titles being distributed by Republic, assuming all the companies became one and the same.

Monogram’s 33 national distribution exchanges remained relatively the same except for the new name of Republic. But due to existing deals with independent state rights exchanges, Mascot, Liberty, and Majestic were obligated to continue their identities for a short time to fulfill commitments to their franchise holders.

The last picture made under the Monogram banner, “Cheers of the Crowd,” began production on May 21, 1935. However, Mascot, brought into the Republic setup in early June 1935, had a five-picture commitment with its exchanges, after which it would permanently drop its name and distribute under the Republic banner.

Mascot would begin production of its last serial, “The Fighting Marines,” in late September 1935, and its last feature, at the Talisman Studio, “Doughnuts and Society,” in early February 1936. These were made even though the company had officially started its production schedule under the Republic name at the Mascot Studio in early July 1935.

Mascot’s plant was the former Mack Sennett Studio, acquired in a bankruptcy sale of the comedian’s estate. Formally taking possession in January 1935, under a five-year lease, Mascot had purchased all of its operating equipment and furnishings, the property described as completely dilapidated.

With four stages, the 1928-built studio would become the official home of Republic in October 1935, when the various production units were amalgamated under one roof. Republic would soon build two additional stages, and purchase the studio outright in 1939.

Monogram, working mostly out of the RKO Pathé lot at the time, did not have its own studio, nor did Liberty and Majestic.

Titles copyrighted by Mascot during this transitioning period, albeit few, are excluded like those of Monogram. Note that Gene Autry’s first film for Republic, “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” completed in mid-July 1935, was planned as a Mascot title months earlier but Republic handled the copyright and distribution.

Liberty’s last-produced picture, “Born to Gamble,” completed in early June 1935, is excluded since it was copyrighted by the company, which handled distribution—like Mascot—through most of its own franchised exchanges.

The film carried the Liberty name on its print and advertising material, but was released by Republic in their newly opened New York exchange as were some Mascot titles. A few other Republic exchanges handled the film also.

“The Crime of Doctor Crespi” is included because Republic also copyrighted the film at the same time as Liberty—mistakenly according to Republic—and handled its release. The film was not made by Liberty in the first place, since it was produced independently in September 1934 at the Biograph Studio, New York.

After “Born to Gamble,” Liberty’s president, M.H. Hoffman, would briefly become a unit producer for Republic and Columbia. In 1939 Liberty’s small library of 12 features—including the aforementioned film—was acquired by Herbert J. Yates’ Consolidated Film Industries (CFI) and then by Republic, its corporate cousin.

Mascot’s library of 19 features and 20 sound serials was sold in 1945 to George Hirliman of International Theatrical and Television Corp., through negotiations with Nat Levine and CFI. Levine, who founded Mascot in 1927, had resigned the presidency of Republic in early 1937.

Mascot, Liberty and Majestic were all financed by CFI, which ended up owning a stake in their film libraries except Majestic, but no titles would be in the official Republic library itself. Monogram, too, was financed by Consolidated.

Although part of the rumor mill in 1935, Invincible Pictures Corp. and Chesterfield Pictures Corp. were not involved in Republic’s creation in any way—both companies were financed by Pathé. This myth still persists today.

In early 1934 Majestic, relying on independent pickups, formed its own production unit under the helm of Larry Darmour, Majestic Producing Corp. With the absorption into Republic, the company would continue to distribute, along with Republic, the few Darmour titles still in circulation. Majestic’s last film, “Reckless Roads,” was completed in May 1935.

With the success of the fledgling Monogram, Herbert J. Yates had his eyes on the company early on. This included a proposed plan in late 1933 to acquire the company and its main distribution system, First Division, run by Harry H. Thomas. Yates had planned to enter into a combination with Harold B. Franklin, the former head of Fox West Coast Theatres and RKO Theatres.

One other company, rarely mentioned, absorbed into Republic was Select Productions, Inc., headed by William Saal and Burt Kelly. In 1934 the company, a subsidiary of CFI, made five films in the East, at the Biograph Studio, New York.

Select’s president, William Saal, would later become the executive assistant to Herbert J. Yates, with him to the very end of Republic Pictures in 1959.

The newly reconstructed Biograph Studio, which opened for production in the Bronx on January 2, 1934, was owned by CFI, the precursor to Herbert J. Yates’ plan to enter motion picture production in a big way. The first film to be made at the modernized plant was “Frankie and Johnnie.”

While still temporarily active in the East, Select Productions then started Hollywood production in October 1934 with “Federal Agent” and then “Salvage” (released as “Burning Gold”), and in early 1935, “Go-Get-’Em, Haines” and “Racing Luck,” all starring Bill Boyd.

The films were belatedly released by Republic to cash in on Bill Boyd’s popularity as Hopalong Cassidy. All were presented under the Winchester Pictures banner, helmed by George Hirliman who also helped Herbert J. Yates oversee talent for the Biograph Studio.

Although “Forbidden Heaven” was sometimes reported as the first Republic production, “Westward Ho” was the first to be completed, on June 25, 1935, when additional scenes were filmed at the Talisman Studio after principal photography ended early in the month. The film was trade-screened on June 1.

“Forbidden Heaven” started on June 12, at the RKO Pathé Studio, and wrapped up on June 27. It was the first, however, to be planned solely as a Republic production since “Westward Ho” and “Lawless Range”—filmed back-to-back beginning on May 19 at Lone Pine, California—were in the production pipeline with Monogram.

“Westward Ho” was the first to be released generally, in late August, and “Forbidden Heaven” in late September. “Lawless Range” was tentatively planned for a July 30 release but hit the exchanges in late October. Two other Republic titles predated the release of “Forbidden Heaven”: “Two Sinners” and “Cappy Ricks Returns,” both released in September 1935.

As listed in Republic’s 1994 document, ‘T’ denotes a film available on broadcast tape, ‘F’ on 16mm film. Titles without a format designation (‘—’) were either not part of the Republic library at this time or simply not available for distribution.

The document’s origins predate 1994 since some Republic titles have expiration dates going back to 1984, when National Telefilm Associates (NTA) was renamed Republic, the dates reflecting when distribution rights expired.

Some expiration dates, though not Republic studio titles, go back to 1966, reflecting the document’s early origins.

Besides seven other cases outlined below, those that expired in 1984 were 23 titles in the Red Ryder series, which today is marketed on home video by VCI Entertainment under license from Red Ryder Enterprises, Inc. NTA’s rights expired by the end of the 1960s, and Leo A. Gutman, Inc., New York, was distributing the series to TV by at least 1980. Republic’s document listed the expiration as January 24, 1984, so the then-NTA must have reacquired the rights after Gutman.

The others with expiration dates are seven titles made independently for Republic: “The French Key,” “The Glass Alibi,” “The Pretender,” “Strange Impersonation,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Woman Who Came Back” and “Yankee Fakir,” all now owned by Films Around the World, Inc. (FAT-W).

The Republic releases “The Great Flamarion,” “Identity Unknown,” “That’s My Baby!” and “Trocadero” are now owned by FAT-W also. No expiration dates, however, were included for these indie titles because their copyrights were not renewed.

“Trocadero,” for reasons unknown, was not listed in Republic’s document but was in the NTA library in 1984, although apparently not in circulation. Even when the film came into the hands of Classics Associates, Inc., later called Films Around the World, it was not available on 16mm.

The eleven titles now with FAT-W were once owned by a former Motion Pictures for Television subsidiary, Western Television Corp., later a division of Television Industries, Inc. They were leased to NTA by the films’ new owner, Link Industries, Inc., two years before NTA purchased the Republic library in 1967.

All eleven were on TV in the early 1950s from MPTV, the largest distributor at the time. And all were produced off the Republic lot by either Walter Colmes or W. Lee Wilder under their associated company names.

Three other independent films came back to the Republic library through TV distributors: “Captain Tugboat Annie” and “Adventures of Captain Fabian” were acquired in 1952 and 1958, respectively, by M&A Alexander Productions, Inc., whose library formed a substantial part of NTA in the mid-1960s.

The third, “Macbeth,” was acquired by the Bank of America in a foreclosure suit, and released to TV by the Film Division of General Teleradio in 1955. NTA acquired the domestic TV rights in 1958, along with 29 other titles in the foreclosure—ultimately owning the films outright.

Thanks to the pre-Republic NTA and the then-independent M&A Alexander Productions, these three films made a full circle to become permanently part of the Republic library. Only “Macbeth” was lensed on the studio’s lot.

Two other independent Republic titles were in the old NTA library but were gone by 1994. “The Fabulous Suzanne” was distributed by Television Exploitation, Inc., renamed Comet Television Films, Inc. in 1953, partnering with the fledgling NTA in 1954. The film was part of a small library owned by Milton Gettinger’s P.C. Corp., which NTA continued to handle into the 1960s.

Also “Jealousy” which NTA temporarily picked up for distribution in 1956 from Acus Pictures Corp., New York., an early TV distributor, only to disappear from circulation after a few years. The company had eight features available for TV in the early 1960s, but its founder, Patrick E. Shanahan, passed away in 1964; the successor-in-interest is unknown.

“A Song for Miss Julie,” another indie filmed off the Republic lot. Like “Macbeth” this was a bank-foreclosed title, and acquired by George Bagnall & Associates, Inc., which released it to TV and theaters as a reissue in 1953. Owned by a little-known company called Pacific Films (later owned by Tele-Pac, Inc.), it was being distributed to television in the early 1960s by Prime T.V. Films, Inc.

Although tracking down TV distributors may seem unimportant, such companies often owned all negative rights, especially minor titles like these, the films no longer valued for theatrical exhibition. This at a time when home video—discounting narrow-gauge—did not exist. The distributor of one orphaned independent Republic title from the 1940s, however, has eluded me: “The Big Show-Off” was playing on TV in 1952, only to disappear by the early 1960s.

Not included in Republic’s document are 56 Gene Autry titles, the majority with copyright renewals by Republic and NTA, the remainder in the public domain. These are now owned by the Autry estate. When exactly NTA lost the rights is unknown, but the films were being distributed to TV in 1982 by Autry’s own Golden West Television, Inc.

The Roy Rogers titles in the Republic library are still owned by its successor, Paramount, but his estate also has rights. Of the cowboy’s 81 starring roles for the studio, most are in the public domain. However, in an odd case of dual ownership, even those under copyright today have been released on home video without the involvement of Paramount, advertised as “authorized by the Roy Rogers Estate.”

Films with no elements in 1994 are prefaced by an ‘X’, all but one followed by a two-letter designation. Although the others are explained below, X-RP denotes an in-house Republic production still known to be in the library in absentia, so to speak, except those with expired underlying rights, which are noted. Film elements may be incomplete or non-existent for most of them.

Comprehensive rights are far beyond the scope of what is presented here, the list more to provide a snapshot of what was available in 1994 and decades earlier.

Republic’s library remained relatively intact into the early 1980s, unlike its counterpart Monogram/Allied Artists which sold outright many of its features years before.

With its entry into the early field of television distribution in 1951, through its Hollywood Television Service, Inc. subsidiary, Republic retitled a number of films for the medium. These variants are reflected in the company document and included herein with their original titles.

A few of the new titles reflect theatrical reissues or those retitled shortly after release, but many were specifically for television, which are noted. Other non-Republic variants include three Gene Autry features that MCA-TV retitled when the company had his Republic films in the 1950s.

Reissues are noted only when the original titles have been changed for domestic release, and have been verified as true theatrical reissues, disregarding other forms of title variants. It appears that Republic generally retitled only those reissues with bigger budgets, leaving their often re-released B pictures—especially westerns—with their original titles. UK titles are also included.

By May 1957 Hollywood Television Service advertised 447 pre-1948 features available to TV, excluding the 67 titles with Roy Rogers and 56 with Gene Autry that MCA-TV—a Republic shareholder—had acquired for worldwide distribution in 1955.

Pre-1948 meant productions started before August 1, 1948, and vice versa, as per an agreement with Hollywood’s talent guilds. Republic ignored the agreement for post-1948 titles, in 1958, since corporately it had ceased motion picture production.

In early 1958, under much controversy, Republic released the first batch of its post-’48 library to TV: 203 features and 15 serials, most of it known as the Constellation Group. In April 1959, Douglas T. Yates, company vice-president, stated 461 pre-’48 titles were in distribution besides the 203 post-’48 pictures.

Douglas T. Yates’ total excluded MCA-TV’s 123 titles with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, and the 23 Red Ryders, which were all pre-’48. The Republic backlog released to TV totaled 94% with their inclusion.

Republic’s president, Herbert J. Yates, stated in early 1959 that only “about 50” post-’48 films remained in the company’s vaults. In late 1960 those would be released to TV in HTS’s Saturn Group package comprised of 30 titles.

The company’s last two post-’48 serials were released by HTS in 1963, leaving 20 of 66 cliffhangers unreleased by the company—about half of those with expired rights. The number of Republic serials in TV circulation would change very little over the years.

In the latter part of 1960, Hollywood Television Service’s library—with over 1200 titles including TV episodes, serial episodes and shorts—had 246 post-’48 and 615 pre-’48 feature films. This included the 23 Red Ryder titles and the 123 with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.

The Red Ryder series was part of the very first package of films released by HTS, in 1951, with KTTV, Los Angeles, the first station in the country to sign a deal, acquiring 127 features and 48 half-hour serial episodes. The rights to the Red Ryders eventually expired but were acquired again by HTS from Stephen Slesinger, Inc. in early 1960.

The 123 Roy Rogers and Gene Autry titles also returned to HTS the same year in a new agreement with MCA-TV, which had acquired worldwide TV rights to the films in March 1955. A long legal battle between Republic and the cowboy stars kept the films from being broadcast until the MCA-TV deal.

With 246 post-’48ers and 615 pre-’48ers, HTS had a total of 861 feature films by the end of 1960.

There are 804 of 951 theatrical feature films, both American and foreign, listed herein with TV elements—tape and/or film, including the 23 Red Ryders, which should not have been shown as such since their rights expired in 1984. This totals 860 features if the 56 Autrys with no elements are included. (The use of the word elements is specific to TV, which means 16mm or broadcast tape—not 35mm.)

The closely matching total is deceiving, however, because 13 of the titles with elements in 1994 were with three other TV distributors in 1960: Western Television, M&A Alexander Productions, and NTA (its pre-Republic years).

This means 14 more features were being distributed in 1960 compared to 1994 if one includes the Red Ryder and Gene Autry titles for comparison.

Not listed with elements in 1994 but first released by HTS between 1958–1960 were nine independent American titles: “Yellowneck,” “Hidden Guns,” “Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer,” “Journey to Freedom,” “Hell Canyon Outlaws,” “Raiders of Old California,” “Hell Ship Mutiny,” “Outcasts of the City,” and “Street of Darkness.”

Also not listed with elements in 1994 but first released by HTS in 1958 were four foreign titles: “Thunder Over Tangier,” “The Fighting Wildcats,” “Scotland Yard Dragnet,” and “International Counterfeiters.”

This accounts for 13 extra features being distributed in 1960. The 14th feature, “The Avengers,” was not listed in 1994, but was available at least into the 1970s.

HTS wasted no time with Republic’s latter post-’48 backlog, releasing many of them to TV two years after their theatrical release dates.

Another title without elements in 1994 but handled by HTS was “Bill and Coo,” first broadcast in 1955 as a “Specialty Attraction,” but the rights had lapsed by 1960. Republic’s UK distributor at the time, Eros Films, did manage a reissue in 1959.

Not listed above is “Behind City Lights,” without elements in 1994 but released by HTS in 1952, only to be pulled from circulation a couple of years later.

Two others without elements in 1994 were “Affairs of Jimmy Valentine” and “The Return of Jimmy Valentine,” both briefly released under their original titles by HTS in the early 1950s, and subsequently retitled “Unforgotten Crime” and “Prison Shadows,” respectively. They were not available from HTS in 1960, apparently pulled from circulation around the same time as “Behind City Lights.”

Hollywood Television Service announced in 1960 that it was planning to release its 850-film library to foreign television stations, the number a generalization. The company had exactly 861 titles for domestic release, including 433 available with Spanish subtitles and a lesser number with French, German, Italian, and Portuguese subtitles.

Note that what HTS had were only those features in circulation—the total would be different if John Wayne’s lost six-reeler, “The Oregon Trail,” had previously been discovered in a Kansas salt mine.

Also available from HTS at this time were 501 serial chapters—most if not all edited to 13 minutes—in three packages: Science Fiction Cliff Hangers, Jungle Adventure Cliff Hangers, and Republic’s Famous Cliff Hangers. In addition there were four TV series: “Stories of the Century,” “Frontier Doctor,” “Stryker of Scotland Yard,” and “Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe.”

A few in-house Republic productions have never been released to TV or any other media since their theatrical runs: “The Harvester” and “Michael O’Halloran,” both based on novels by Gene Stratton-Porter. Also “Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case,” now owned by Kit Parker who, after securing the underlying rights, has found no useable film elements. He also owns “Mr. District Attorney,” which has never been released to TV but is available on home video.

Although the four films above were made in-house and released to TV at one time, as mentioned none were in Republic’s 1994 document, probably because of poor elements or underlying rights issues.

Of the independent titles from Republic, only two have disappeared from circulation since their theatrical runs: “A Gentle Gangster” has not seen the light of day since, although the British Film Institute has elements; and “Deerslayer,” not to be confused with the 1957 version which was purchased by NTA from 20th Century-Fox in 1960.

The Republic library and other films acquired by NTA are housed at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, where their online catalog can be searched to see what elements exist in their holdings.

Although excluded from Republic’s original document, the initial copyright claimant as registered with the US Copyright Office is listed for each film along with its renewal number. Copyrights renewed other than by Republic’s corporate entities—Republic Corp., National Telefilm Associates, Inc., Repix, Inc.—are italicized.

Of the few films never registered, most have Republic copyright statements on the prints. The law at this time allowed a film to be registered within 28 years of its release, and Republic belatedly registered some of its last films within the deadline, also registering for renewal in the same 28-year window.

In almost all cases, however, films were registered upon their initial release.

In rare cases Republic was the registered copyright claimant but a different one appeared on the print. And some independent films, where Republic’s rights lapsed, had new credits for TV distribution, inserting entirely different copyright claimants. These are not noted.

No guarantee is implied for documenting every copyright renewal, though confidence prevails that all have been accounted. This is not a legal document—some renewals could be missing.

Even without renewal a film may have underlying rights protected by copyright. “Hell Ship Mutiny,” for example, has some of its music under copyright even though the film itself was never registered.

Theatrically released features culled from serials are included, and any renewals listed are specific only to the condensed versions. These are noted as ‘from serial’ but do not always reflect the chapter play’s original name.

No serials were listed in the Republic document, but included were the 26 retitled and condensed 100-minute features the company released to television in March 1966. These are included in a separate list following the serials.

Colorized films in Republic’s document are excluded.

The year for each film was not included either. These have been based on a film’s premiere or release date (i.e. its first showing to the general public), but note that it was not uncommon for Republic to hold back some films for six months or more before distribution.

All films are black and white unless noted. Those in Naturama, Republic’s 2.35:1 widescreen format, or any other anamorphic format are also noted. Republic’s first three-color Trucolor film was “Honeychile,” and it is assumed that all subsequent titles in the format were the same.

A brief chronology of the Republic library:

The following have been used to denote films existing or missing in the 1994 Republic library:

X-CW: Commonwealth-released titles. Commonwealth Pictures Corp. and Commonwealth Film and Television, Inc., and its parent, Guaranteed Pictures Co., Inc., were companies that later had rights to all the Republic films made by Consolidated Film Industries’s subsidiary, Select Productions, Inc. Commonwealth also had reissue and TV rights for two of the three 1934-filmed Select Productions released by RKO: “Woman in the Dark,” retitled by Commonwealth as “Woman in the Shadows,” and “People’s Enemy,” retitled for theaters by Guaranteed as “Racketeers.” These were filmed at CFI’s Biograph Studio, New York, as were two of the six released by Republic, “The Crime of Doctor Crespi” and “Frankie and Johnnie.” A third RKO-released Select production, “Gigolette,” disappeared from circulation in the 1960s. Commonwealth’s film library was eventually taken over by Teleprompter Corp.

X-FW: Films Around the World titles, whose elements were listed for all except one but the titles expired in early 1984.

X-GA: Gene Autry titles.

X-HT: Independent and foreign titles released by Hollywood Television Service/NTA where Republic’s domestic rights eventually lapsed. Of the ten American features noted as such, domestic TV rights had expired by the end of the 1960s for nine of them, but Republic still retained foreign rights for these in some countries through its subsidiary, Republic Pictures International Corp.

X-RP: In-house Republic titles, those by Republic Productions, Inc., still known to be in the library in absentia, except those with expired underlying rights.

X-RR: Red Ryder titles, whose elements were listed for all but the rights expired in early 1984.

X-SP: Supreme Pictures Corp. titles which Republic also released to TV but such rights were subsequently handled by Teleprompter Corp. in the 1970s, perhaps earlier. TV rights to the 16 other titles produced by Supreme stayed with Republic, so why eight of them changed hands is unknown; perhaps a temporary agreement. Only two of Republic’s Supreme titles were released in the UK, but they were handled there by Colmore Distributors Ltd., and not the studios’s contracted distributor, British Lion. So the head of Supreme, A.W. Hackel, obviously had additional rights, notably the 24 films being reissued in 1946 by Bell Pictures Corp. in a localized deal that included only three New York exchange territories. All the films produced by Supreme are noted.

Other titles with no elements in 1994 simply have an ‘X’, and all prefaced as such are not part of Paramount’s current library, through its Melange Pictures subsidiary. Following American Features is a list of most of the films prefaced by ‘X’, with production companies and additional notes.

Also included is an inventory of 16mm titles in 1979 and 1985, with a check mark (✓) denoting a title available from Republic; an ‘×’, not available from Republic but was from a non-affiliated distributor, i.e. not a Republic title; and ‘–’, not available on narrow-gauge from any company. Almost all of Republic’s 16mm library was distributed by Ivy Films, NTA/Republic’s official non-theatrical distributor since 1971.