I Will Repay on AllMovie

I Will Repay was based on The Municipal Report, a short story by O. Henry. Fifteen-year-old Corinne Griffith stars as Southern Belle Virginia Rodney, the best friend of elderly Azalea Adair (Mary Maurice). The wife of an alcoholic Army officer, Azalea is forced to write magazine stories to support her family. Since Azalea writes under a nom de plume, her publisher has no way of locating her, so he appoints handsome Mr. Kendall (Arthur Donaldson) to locate the elusive authoress. Only momentarily distracted by the beautiful Virginia, Kendall manages to find Azalea and to pay her a fifty-dollar advance. Alas, Azalea's husband finds out about the transaction and swipes the money to buy liquor. Not long afterward, the husband is found strangled to death. Kendall eventually learns that the murderer was Uncle Caesar, a former slave who killed the drunkard out of loyalty to Azalea, his one-time owner. Kendall discreetly destroys the evidence that would tie Uncle Caesar to the murder and heads back North, with Virginia (whose "role" in the proceedings has been marginal indeed) by his side. I Will Repay was released back-to-back with another Corinne Griffith vehicle, Who Goes There?; both films were directed by William P.S. Earle.