It Happened on Fifth Avenue

I stumbled upon It Happened On 5th Avenue in 1988. It was broadcast on a small local channel during the Christmas season and I've never seen it since. Requests for AMC or TCM to rebroadcast this wonderful movie have gone unanswered. I've searched the web for any information I can find and there just doesn't seem to be much out there. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) thankfully has an entry for the film. There you can find a little more of the specific details as well as a few user reviews (including mine).

The film was produced by Monogram Pictures and distributed by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation, as their first release. Allied Artists filed for bankruptcy in 1979 and was purchased by Lorimar Productions in 1980. As near as I can tell, Lorimar teamed up with Warner Bros in 1988. Warner Brothers was of course, purchased by Time Inc. and became Time/Warner, and then AOL/Time/Warner. So, apparently, Warner Brothers had the last known rights to this film. Judging from the small video production houses that produce VHS copies of the film (with absolutely no copyright information), I can only assume that it is now in the public domain.

I received this email from Barry Maxwell, a free-lance writer who has a passion for classic film. I asked him if he knew if the original print of IHOFA still exists:

"I did notice in the AFI Catalog of motion pictures for the 1940s (published about 2 years ago), that they had viewed the film as part of their review process. Since the AFI normally accessed the prints they viewed directly from the studios, this would tend to imply that at least the studio still has the original film or a viewable print of it in its archives."