Back Pay
About Back Pay
Hester Bevins, played by Seena Owen, will not marry the grocery clerk Jerry Newcombe and settle in town. In New York she lives in a Riverside Drive apartment kept by Charles G. Wheeler. A drive home shows her that the town has forgotten her, except Jerry, now the store manager. He enlists, is wounded in France, and comes back blind, wearing the Distinguished Service Cross, with three weeks to live. Hester gets Charles's permission, marries Jerry, and nurses him in the apartment until he dies still planning their future. She cannot stand the rooms Charles pays for. Visions of Jerry drive her out. She rents a poor room.
Cast & crew
More about Back Pay
Frank Borzage directed. Frances Marion adapted Fannie Hurst's story. Chester A. Lyons photographed it. Paramount distributed it. Matt Moore and J. Barney Sherry are in the cast. A 1930 remake, also called Back Pay, stars Corinne Griffith. The 1922 film survives.
Themes
Background
Jerry's wound and the Distinguished Service Cross come from service with the American Expeditionary Forces.
Look
Chester A. Lyons shot the town, the Riverside Drive apartment, and the hospital.
Preservation
The 1922 film survives.
Notes
- Kitty and Speed are Hester's companions in the New York apartment.
- The surgeon tells her Jerry has three weeks. She uses that time as his wife.
Scenes
- Hester finds Jerry blind in the army hospital, calling for her.
- After his death she walks out of the apartment Charles keeps.
Influenced by
- Fannie Hurst's story Back Pay
Influenced
- Back Pay (1930)
