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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 539

The Whistle

192160 minUnited States
Drama
Video edition
YouTube
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: English.
This copy runs
59:29
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

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Synopsis

After dangerous factory conditions kill his son, a worker kidnaps his employer's child and raises him in a life of labour. Years later, an unexpected encounter brings the two households together again. The employer's generosity and his wife's attachment to the boy force the grieving father to weigh revenge against the damage he is continuing to cause.

Cast

DirectorsLambert Hillyer

Historical context

William S. Hart's industrial melodrama connects workplace safety to a private cycle of retaliation. Its focus on a child made to bear an adult's grievance gives the labour conflict a moral consequence beyond the original accident.

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 referenceDuke 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.

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