Movies you can watch free — and legally

You don't need a subscription to watch a lot of genuinely good films. Some of cinema's landmarks are free because they're in the public domain, and there are big, legal, ad-supported libraries on top of that.

Public-domain classics worth your evening

• Night of the Living Dead (1968) — Romero's genre-defining zombie film, free and legal to stream or download.
• Nosferatu (1922) — the original silent vampire masterpiece.
• His Girl Friday (1940) — one of the fastest, funniest screwball comedies ever made.
• Charade (1963) — Hepburn and Grant in "the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never made."
• Early Hitchcock, Chaplin shorts, and film-noir — a surprising amount is public domain. The Internet Archive hosts thousands of these to stream or download for free.

Free, legal, ad-supported catalogues

• Tubi, Pluto TV, Plex, the Roku Channel, Freevee — real film and TV libraries, free, funded by a few ads. No card, no sign-up needed to start.
• Your public library — a library card gets you free streaming through Kanopy and Hoopla, including plenty of arthouse and award-winners.

Free-but-legal services show ads or use your library card — they never ask for a card number to "unlock" free films.