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Back Pay (1922) has been released thru a Kickstarter campaign. The film stars Seena Owen and Matt Moore and was remade as a talkie starring Corinne Griffith and Grant Withers. No disk, but the film has been uploaded (which I downloaded) and will be on YT in 6 months. Nice print, tint, no music track.

Terrific film directed by Frank Borzage. A real star performance by Seena Owen and a nice performance by Matt Moore.

I watched it myself today and concur - this is an excellent film! As a matter of full disclosure, I'm a Borzage fan, a melodrama fan, and a Borzage melodrama fan, so odds were this was going to be up my alley. And it didn't disappoint. Direction and photography were top-notch. While you didn't have the extreme close-ups and expressionist lighting that you'd find in the late silent era Borzages, this one definitely felt like a Borzage film in all other ways.

And Seena Owen's performance was somewhat of a revelation. I've only seen Owen in QUEEN KELLY, and well, she did do a good job whipping Gloria Swanson - but can't say too much else for that performance. Here she was quite excellent.

My friend Sidney, who worked with Seena Owen on the 1944 film Rainbow Island, tells me she pronounced her first name as SHEENA. Who knew?

Well, I'm still working on figuring out how to pronounce Bebe Daniels. Thought it was Bee-Bee until I watched the trailer to 42ND STREET, where it was pronounced Beeb....

Jess McGrath wrote:Well, I'm still working on figuring out how to pronounce Bebe Daniels. Thought it was Bee-Bee until I watched the trailer to 42ND STREET, where it was pronounced Beeb....

It's BEE BEE and always was. Ask Ben Lyon.

I just acquired this lobby card from Back Pay (1922) showing Seena Owen. I've not heard of the Kickstarter for this film, and I can't seem to find a link for it on the Internet.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13 ... silent-cin" target="_blank" target="_blank

Back Pay was a bonus. Still haven't seen the main thrust of the campaign, The Pride of Palomar. If I remember right, the project owner posted an upload of Back Pay since the main project was stalled. But I might be misremembering this.

drednm wrote:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13 ... silent-cin" target="_blank" target="_blank

Back Pay was a bonus. Still haven't seen the main thrust of the campaign, The Pride of Palomar. If I remember right, the project owner posted an upload of Back Pay since the main project was stalled. But I might be misremembering this.

Update that talked about delay & Back Pay upload here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13 ... ts/1751230

I had remembered seeing that Kickstarter. Thanks for giving the context of why that movie got uploaded.

Thanks. I wasn't able to back the project when it was announced. I wonder if it is possible to back it now...

Some of the backer categories seem to still be open.

It won't let me select any contribution amount, but it says that a thousand DVDs will be produced. I sent a message to the guy that started the project.

If I remember right, Jess McGrath was the Kickstarter contact..... His posts are above.

drednm wrote:

Jess McGrath wrote:Well, I'm still working on figuring out how to pronounce Bebe Daniels. Thought it was Bee-Bee until I watched the trailer to 42ND STREET, where it was pronounced Beeb....

It's BEE BEE and always was. Ask Ben Lyon.

You can hear him say it (and sing it) here- and very charmingly:

I wish I could take credit for this Kickstarter, but it's not me! It's someone with an Irish name though... Patrick McInerney, who is on Kickstarter as "r/TrueFilm".

Jess McGrath wrote:I wish I could take credit for this Kickstarter, but it's not me! It's someone with an Irish name though... Patrick McInerney, who is on Kickstarter as "r/TrueFilm".

Oops, sorry about that.....

I have the download since I was part of the KS campaign. How do you guys watch a silent film without a score. My brain just gets too distracted and the whole experience feels kind of dull. Still, the print (what I sampled of it) looked quite nice.

I usually try to find some appropriate "needle drop" music, classical or vintage jazz, depending on the subject matter.