AllMovie

Having enjoyed great success with Humoresque in 1920, director Frank Borzage tackled yet another Fannie Hurst tear-jerker less than a year later. Back Pay stars the elegant Seena Owen (Griffith's Princess Beloved in Intolerance) as Hester Blevins, who escapes her humdrum small town in favor of the excitement of the big city. Years later, she learns that a childhood boyfriend (Matt Moore) has been blinded in the war and is dying. She brings the boy to New York and marries him despite protestations from her new "fast" crowd. When the boy dies, Hester leaves her rich lover (J. Barney Sherry) to settle down with a nice steady job. As sappy as it got, Back Pay was hugely successful, especially with women -- who made up a majority of the film-going public -- and was remade nine years later starring the "Orchid Lady," Corinne Griffith.