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Back Pay (1930); William A Seiter
Topic Started: Jan 17 2014, 03:45 AM (226 Views)
Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Sapient Balconeer
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This was a strange film with a title that makes more sense after the last reel. Hester (Corinne Griffith) lives in Demopolis and she's admired by Gerald (Grant Withers) but she admires only one thing--MONEY. Gerald works in a department store and his salary isn't enough to keep Hester with him; he tells her he has a friend in Nashville and he could make 150 dollars there, but Hester isn't interested because the 150 dollars is a monthly salary instead of her perceived weekly pay, and Hester states that Nashville isn't big enough to turn around in. That's funny, because Nashville is a big city now and you still can't turn around in it, you'd have to loop the block to get to a spot you've passed.

Hester lights out for New York and latches onto a wealthy, older gentleman. To give you an idea of Hester's money wants, she spends over $1100.00 on a clothes-shopping spree. This film has a good ending for me, but it's only a so-so release. I'm on a film group on Facebook and someone posted a poster of a Corinne Griffith film about a day after I watched this, and I was able to say, hey, that's Corinne Griffith from Back Pay. Woo Hoo.

This film comes in at just under an hour. Someone posted on IMDb that the Turner copy is 56 minutes but the copyright length was 63. You ain't missing much. I thought the era of the film was about current to it's release but WWI breaks out. Title cards are used to advance the story, like when Hester leaves Demopolis, it's with one man but she's next shown with the wealthy man, and that is explained with a title card.

The film is worth one look.
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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Frank Hale
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If this is the one where Grant Withers goes blind, I found it a trifle icky.

I'm not sure about the copyright business. I have a copy of the Library of Congress Catalogue and it's listed only as 7 reels. I don’t remember feeling that the film was missing something.

I gather you find Corinne Griffith interesting since you've mentioned her a couple of times. I don’t know very much about her, but she seems to have a following at Nitrateville. As I recall the DVD box said this is her only surviving talkie. I saw "The Divine Lady" a few years ago but can’t remember a thing about it other than that it's an early version of "That Lady Hamilton".

My last comment is that, since we know and love Mr. Withers from serials, westerns, and Mr. Wong pictures, it's a bit strange to see him as a romantic lead in some of these early Warners. "Dancing Sweeties", in which he plays a nut about dance contests, is as weird as you might expect from the title.
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Yes, this is where Mr. Withers' eyesight is gassed from him.

This is the 1st time I can recall seeing Ms. Griffith, and I mentioned her in the other thread because she popped up on Facebook a day or two after I watched this. Very weird. This film is nothing special, but it's worth one viewing.
It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong."
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panzer the great & terrible
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Griffith was one of the silent stars who didn't make it in the sound era. She was decidedly easy on the eyes in her first silents.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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