User Reviews

The five-reel photoplay, "The Devil's Pay Day," is another Bluebird production founded on a printed story. "The Toll of Vengeance," written by George Hively, was the source of the scenario made by Fred Mynton. The story is dramatic, and, once given momentum, moves steadily onward to its regrettable end; but it is a tale which has often been told, and its treatment, in the present instance, never rises above the commonplace, if such a term should be used in connection with the tragedy of two misspent lives, of a woman betrayed by the man that won her honest affection. The moral tone of the play is beyond cavil and the acting of it has been entrusted to a competent cast, but the touch of authority which drives the lesson of a play home to every heart is missing. Like his leading character, the author has too often followed the line of least resistance, and, consequently, fails to make the most of his opportunities. "The Devil's Pay Day" is another version of that familiar theme, an unequal match. The wealthy city man that marries a country girl and quickly tires of her has been the leading male character in many a drama. In this case, he secures a divorce, marries again, is lured back to his first wife's side through motives of revenge, kills the man who is now her protector, and falls dead while a jury is weighing the evidence against him. The drama justifies its title, and as stated in the preceding paragraph, is excellently acted by Franklyn Farnum, Leah Baird, Gertrude Astor, Charles Perley, Countess Du Cello and Seymour Hastings. - The Moving Picture World, February 3, 1917