Back Pay (1922)
Melodrama | 12 February 1922
Cast:
Seena Owen, Matt Moore, J. Barney Sherry [ More ]Director:
Frank BorzageWriter:
Frances MarionCinematographer:
Chester LyonsProduction Company:
Cosmopolitan ProductionsThe Summary for this unviewed film is based on reviews in the 4 Feb 1922 Exhibitors Herald, 19 Feb 1922 FD, and 25 Feb 1922 Exhibitors Trade Review.
The 13 Apr 1921 FD announced that director Frank Borzage “is now directing” Back Pay, and a studio chart in the 16 Apr 1921 Camera noted that the film was in its first week of production. Two months later, an item in the 18 Jun 1921 Exhibitors Herald reported that Ethel Duray had been added to the cast.
As part of a public relations junket, fifty members of the Theatre Owners Chamber of Commerce and their wives visited the International Film Studios at 127th Street and Second Avenue in New York City, where Back Pay was being filmed, according to the 4 Jun 1921 Exhibitors Herald.
Advertising for the film described “Hester Bevins” as a young woman with a “crepe de chine soul,” a reference to having a taste for expensive Chinese silk, as well as the luxury life that goes with it. The 7 Jan 1922 Exhibitors Trade Review was probably quoting or paraphrasing a Paramount press release when it described the story of Back Pay as “the perennial struggle within a girl’s breast between sheltered simplicity of a small town and the glitter, gaiety and luxury that are to be had in the big city.”
The film’s release date was 8 Jan 1922. It opened at the Rivoli Theatre on Broadway in New York on 12 Feb 1922, surrounded by a ballet number, a recitation of ...
The Summary for this unviewed film is based on reviews in the 4 Feb 1922 Exhibitors Herald, 19 Feb 1922 FD, and 25 Feb 1922 Exhibitors Trade Review.
The 13 Apr 1921 FD announced that director Frank Borzage “is now directing” Back Pay, and a studio chart in the 16 Apr 1921 Camera noted that the film was in its first week of production. Two months later, an item in the 18 Jun 1921 Exhibitors Herald reported that Ethel Duray had been added to the cast.
As part of a public relations junket, fifty members of the Theatre Owners Chamber of Commerce and their wives visited the International Film Studios at 127th Street and Second Avenue in New York City, where Back Pay was being filmed, according to the 4 Jun 1921 Exhibitors Herald.
Advertising for the film described “Hester Bevins” as a young woman with a “crepe de chine soul,” a reference to having a taste for expensive Chinese silk, as well as the luxury life that goes with it. The 7 Jan 1922 Exhibitors Trade Review was probably quoting or paraphrasing a Paramount press release when it described the story of Back Pay as “the perennial struggle within a girl’s breast between sheltered simplicity of a small town and the glitter, gaiety and luxury that are to be had in the big city.”
The film’s release date was 8 Jan 1922. It opened at the Rivoli Theatre on Broadway in New York on 12 Feb 1922, surrounded by a ballet number, a recitation of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” and the revival of a 1915 Charlie Chaplin comedy short called Burlesque on Carmen, the 18 Feb 1922 and 25 Feb 1922 issues of Exhibitors Trade Review noted. The latter listed mostly favorable reviews from New York newspaper critics, who commented on the film’s delicate treatment of the heroine’s financial relationship with the wealthy “Charles G. Wheeler.” The 19 Feb 1922 FD deemed the story “modified considerably to conform to censorship requirements,” but “leaves no doubt…what is intended and still fulfills the demands of those who decide what is permissible and what isn’t.”
One review mentioned a “photographic trick” the director used “to put over an effect of blindness whenever Matt Moore’s pitiful soldier is on the screen.” Another stated that subtitles were “taken for the most part from the [Fannie] Hurst original story.”
The Vitaphone Film Company remade Back Pay in 1930 (see entry).
Despite her love for grocery store clerk Jerry Newcombe, Hester Bevins cannot bring herself to settle down as his wife in their humdrum hometown. Moving to New York City, she falls in with a “fast crowd” and becomes the mistress of wealthy Wall Street businessman Charles G. Wheeler, who moves her into a luxury Riverside Drive apartment. During an automobile trip with Wheeler, and friends Kitty and “Speed,” she visits her hometown and discovers that Jerry, now the manager of a general store, remains devoted and longs for her return. With the coming of the World War, he enlists in the army and ships off to France. Hester reads in a newspaper that Jerry is a war hero, but has been seriously wounded. She rushes to the army hospital, where the blind and delirious soldier calls her name. A surgeon confides that Jerry has only weeks to live. Over Wheeler’s objection, Hester moves Jerry into her New York apartment and marries him to make his final days happy. After Jerry dies, Hester has visions of his spirit calling her back to a more upright life. She leaves the Riverside Drive apartment, gets a job, and rents a furnished room. At night, Jerry’s spirit comforts ...
Despite her love for grocery store clerk Jerry Newcombe, Hester Bevins cannot bring herself to settle down as his wife in their humdrum hometown. Moving to New York City, she falls in with a “fast crowd” and becomes the mistress of wealthy Wall Street businessman Charles G. Wheeler, who moves her into a luxury Riverside Drive apartment. During an automobile trip with Wheeler, and friends Kitty and “Speed,” she visits her hometown and discovers that Jerry, now the manager of a general store, remains devoted and longs for her return. With the coming of the World War, he enlists in the army and ships off to France. Hester reads in a newspaper that Jerry is a war hero, but has been seriously wounded. She rushes to the army hospital, where the blind and delirious soldier calls her name. A surgeon confides that Jerry has only weeks to live. Over Wheeler’s objection, Hester moves Jerry into her New York apartment and marries him to make his final days happy. After Jerry dies, Hester has visions of his spirit calling her back to a more upright life. She leaves the Riverside Drive apartment, gets a job, and rents a furnished room. At night, Jerry’s spirit comforts her.
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