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Of Frank Borzage's nine directorial efforts for the year 1918, Who Is to Blame? was adjudged the best of the batch by the editors of the trade magazine Variety. Set in Japan, the film starred Asian leading man Jack Abbe as Taro Sam, a humble rickshaw boy. Taro worships American heiress Tonia Marsh (Lillian West) from afar, but she is in love with lawyer Grant Barton (Jack Livingston). When the relationship between Tonia and Grant is threatened by scandal, it is Taro Sam who tries to set things aright. The film's sensitive portrayal of Far-Eastern life was far removed from the "Yellow Peril" nonsense exemplified in the subsequent Frank Borzage effort The Curse of Iku.