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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 485

Home, Sweet Home

191455 minUnited States

Drama Biography

Video edition: YouTube
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: English.
This copy runs: 55:00
Subtitles: No subtitle track in this language

Languages and subtitles

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Synopsis

A young man leaves his family for a theatrical career and gradually loses the stability of his earlier life. Memories of home inspire a song that outlives his difficulties. Its melody then connects separate stories of people facing their own crises, offering a recurring appeal to affection, belonging and return.

Cast

Earle Foxe

Henry B. Walthall

Dorothy Gish

the sister of Payne's sweetheart

Lillian Gish

Payne's sweetheart

DirectorsD. W. Griffith

Historical context

D. W. Griffith uses a fictionalised account of songwriter John Howard Payne as the opening of an episodic film. The song Home! Sweet Home! serves as the link between the biographical framework and the later moral dramas.

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 reference Internet Archive — catalogue record Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain — US term reference

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

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Availability checked on September 10, 2026.

Photograph credit

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

Earle Foxe — Unknown author · Public domain
Henry B. Walthall — Tower Magazines, Inc., photographer unknown · Public domain
Dorothy Gish — Bain News Service, publisher.; This image is available from the United States Library of Congress 's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ggbain.32540 . This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing . · Public domain
Lillian Gish — Bain News Service; Uploaded by Calliopejen ; Edited by jjron . · Public domain

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