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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 772

By the Law

192678 minSoviet Union
DramaCrimeAdventure

Synopsis

A gold-mining party in the Yukon is shattered when a resentful member kills two companions. The surviving couple restrain him but disagree about what justice requires. Isolated by the weather, they must live beside their prisoner while deciding whether to wait for legal authority or take responsibility for a punishment they may not be entitled to impose.

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Video edition
Wikimedia Commons
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified.
This copy runs
78:29
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: not identified. No subtitle track in this language.

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · «Госкино» · Public domain

Cast

DirectorsLev Kuleshov

Inspirations

The film adapts Jack London's story The Unexpected. Kuleshov and Viktor Shklovsky concentrate the conflict into a small group and a restricted setting, making confinement and moral disagreement the main sources of tension.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Wikipedia — film referenceWikidata — film identity and credits

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 12, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

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