Africa Screams (1949). A Feature Length Comedy Film In The Public Domain.

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Africa Screams (1949).

Plot
Diana Emerson (Hillary Brooke) is in the book department of Klopper's Department store looking for a copy of the book Dark Safari, written by the famed explorer Cuddleford. Buzz Johnson (Bud Abbott) overhears Diana saying that she will pay $2,500 for a map that is inside that book. He devises a plan to pass off his friend Stanley Livington (Lou Costello) as a great explorer who accompanied Cuddleford on the expedition described in the book. With claims that he can reproduce the map, the two men go to Diana's home that very night. They agree to accompany her on an African expedition, and when Bud overhears that Clyde Beatty has been offered $20,000 to lead the expedition, he feels that the map is worth considerably more than $2,500.
They travel to Africa, along with Diana's team of explorers, including Harry (Joe Besser), 'Boots' Wilson (Buddy Baer), 'Grappler' McCoy (Max Baer (boxer)) and Gunner (Shemp Howard), a nearsighted professional hunter. The boys learn that the true expedition is for diamonds rather than exploration, and Buzz plans to renegotiate the deal. Unfortunately Stanley cannot reproduce the map, as he has never seen it, and the two attempt to bluff their way around the jungle.
Eventually Buzz and Stanley find a trail of diamonds, which lead straight to a cannibal village, where the residents intend to roast the two. Fortunately, they are rescued by a gorilla who has taken a liking to Stanley.
The next day, the cannibal tribe meets with the rest of the expeditionary team, where the chief offers several diamonds in exchange for Stanley ("Chief have sweet tooth," explains his translator.). They start to chase Stanley all over the place while Buzz buries the diamonds. The expeditionary team, along with the tribal warriors, are finally frightened away by a giant gorilla (Charles Gemora), whose existence had been denounced as a myth earlier in the film. Stanley rushes to find Buzz, only to discover that Buzz, having lost the diamonds, has had enough and is abandoning his friend. Meanwhile, the friendly gorilla from before digs up the diamonds that Buzz has hidden and gives them to Stanley offscreen.
Some time after returning to the United States, Stanley owns the department store, along with the gorilla, and Buzz works for them as the elevator operator.

Cast
Bud Abbott as Buzz Johnson
Lou Costello as Stanley Livington
Clyde Beatty as himself
Frank Buck (animal collector) as himself
Max Baer (boxer) as Grappler McCoy
Buddy Baer as Boots Wilson
Hillary Brooke as Diana Emerson
Shemp Howard as Gunner
Joe Besser as Harry
Burton Wenland as Bobo

Production
Africa Screams was filmed from November 10 through December 22, 1948 at the Metromedia Square in Los Angeles.

Africa Screams marked the first time that Abbott and Costello worked with Hillary Brooke and Joe Besser; both actors would later become part of the ensemble cast for the duo's television series The Abbott and Costello Show. The film also marked the only time that Joe Besser and Shemp Howard appeared together in a film; Besser would replace Howard as one of the Three Stooges following the latter's death in 1955.

As this film is in the public domain in the United States, there have been at least a dozen DVD releases from a variety of public domain companies over the years.

https://publicdomainmovie.net/movie/africa-screams

The film was purchased in 1953 by Robert Haggiag, an independent distributor in New York. Haggiag failed to renew the copyright because he had lost interest in the film, and it fell into the public domain in 1977. Author and film historian Bob Furmanek contacted Haggiag in the late 1980s and obtained the original nitrate stock. Most of the original camera negative had decomposed, but the nitrate fine grain was still serviceable and Furmanek transferred it to 35mm for preservation.

The film entered the public domain in 1977. This film is in the public domain and has been released multiple times on VHS and DVD by several companies. Bob Furmanek launched a Kickstarter project to raise funds to restore the film on Blu-ray on December 1, 2019 and reached his original $7,500 goal in about 29 hours. The Blu-ray version was released in June 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Screams

This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1928 and 1963, and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. For further explanation, see Commons: Hirtle chart and the copyright renewal logs.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Africa_Screams.ogv

Movie Source: Internet Archive (archive.org)