1921 saw William S. Hart trying to diversify from his usual "good bad man" persona. It didn't really matter because whatever he did was alright with the critics who claimed this movie was "one of the finest contributions William S. Hart has given to the screen". The film before, "O'Malley of the Mounted" had him as a Canadian mounted policeman, this one, "The Whistle" was infinitely better and dealt with labour unrest with the factory's whistle symbolically featuring throughout the movie.
Robert Evans (Hart) is more of a pal to his son George. They work together in the factory owned by Henry Chapple who is careless of work place safety, happy to cut corners to bring contracts in under budget. Even his wife (Myrtle Stedman) urges her husband to give Robert's boy a chance as she remembers a time when the three of them were friends. When young George is caught and killed in a faulty conveyor belt Robert decides to leave town. He stops to chat to a bridge operator who complains that because of Chapple's meanness he has had to work a 15 hour shift through his tiredness. Chapple's car crashes into the river but unbeknownst to the on- lookers, Robert has saved the little boy - and vows to God he will take the place of the son he lost and work beside him on the factory floor!!! Years later finds them both working at a huge aquaduct - that is soon to be visited by the owner - Mr. Chapple!!!
Meantime good old Robert Kortman plays a particularly thuggish character (what else??) who is itching to put Robert out of circulation and he does for a while. Robert is shot and the Chapples, who sorrowfully remember Robert's little boy, want to do everything they can to help him, which means the best medical treatment and looking after his "nephew" while he recuperates. Little do they realise......
It wouldn't be a Hart movie without one of "those" titles - "sunlight shining through years of misery on a mother's face" - the happiness on Mrs. Chapple's face when she realises she will have the little boy to take care of. Evans almost tells them the truth until an elderly woman who has just lost her husband in a factory floor accident, tells him that the faulty conveyor belt has still not been fixed!!!
Hart's films around this time were often centred away from the wide open spaces and on home and family. He was hoping to settle down himself and thought he had found the right girl in Winifred Westover (out of all the actresses he proposed to she was the only one who said yes!!) but within a year of his marriage she had left him and he was never to know married domestic happiness.
Robert Evans (Hart) is more of a pal to his son George. They work together in the factory owned by Henry Chapple who is careless of work place safety, happy to cut corners to bring contracts in under budget. Even his wife (Myrtle Stedman) urges her husband to give Robert's boy a chance as she remembers a time when the three of them were friends. When young George is caught and killed in a faulty conveyor belt Robert decides to leave town. He stops to chat to a bridge operator who complains that because of Chapple's meanness he has had to work a 15 hour shift through his tiredness. Chapple's car crashes into the river but unbeknownst to the on- lookers, Robert has saved the little boy - and vows to God he will take the place of the son he lost and work beside him on the factory floor!!! Years later finds them both working at a huge aquaduct - that is soon to be visited by the owner - Mr. Chapple!!!
Meantime good old Robert Kortman plays a particularly thuggish character (what else??) who is itching to put Robert out of circulation and he does for a while. Robert is shot and the Chapples, who sorrowfully remember Robert's little boy, want to do everything they can to help him, which means the best medical treatment and looking after his "nephew" while he recuperates. Little do they realise......
It wouldn't be a Hart movie without one of "those" titles - "sunlight shining through years of misery on a mother's face" - the happiness on Mrs. Chapple's face when she realises she will have the little boy to take care of. Evans almost tells them the truth until an elderly woman who has just lost her husband in a factory floor accident, tells him that the faulty conveyor belt has still not been fixed!!!
Hart's films around this time were often centred away from the wide open spaces and on home and family. He was hoping to settle down himself and thought he had found the right girl in Winifred Westover (out of all the actresses he proposed to she was the only one who said yes!!) but within a year of his marriage she had left him and he was never to know married domestic happiness.