{{short description|1917 film}} {{For|the mobile payment app in Hong Kong|PayMe}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = Pay Me! | image = Pay Me! (1917) - 3.jpg | caption = Trade advertisement | director = Joe De Grasse | producer = Universal Pictures | writer = Joe De Grasse (story)<br>Bess Meredyth (screenplay) | starring = Lon Chaney<br>Dorothy Phillips | cinematography = King D. Gray | distributor = Universal Film Manufacturing Company | released = {{film date|1917|9|1}} | runtime = 5 reels (50 minutes) | country = United States | language = Silent (English intertitles) }}
'''''Pay Me!''''' is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and starring Lon Chaney, Dorothy Phillips, and William Stowell.<ref name="silentera">{{cite web |url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/P/PayMe1917.html |title=Progressive Silent Film List: ''Pay Me!'' |access-date=June 26, 2008 |work=silentera.com |archive-date=July 5, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705162815/http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/P/PayMe1917.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the United States, the film is also known as ''The Vengeance of the West''.<ref name="silentera"/> The screenplay was written by Bess Meredith, based on a story by Joe De Grasse. This film was Universal Pictures' first "Jewel Production" release (big budget). Once considered to be a lost film,<ref name="LOC">{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.8204/default.html |title=Pay Me! |access-date=January 11, 2015 |work=American Silent Feature Film Survival Database}}</ref> an incomplete (23-minute) print was rediscovered in the Gosfilmofond archive in Russia in 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rewizor.ru/cinema/reviews/dvadtsat-vtoraya-vstrecha-s-arhivnym-kino-v-belyh-stolbah/ |title=Двадцать вторая встреча с архивным кино в "Белых Столбах" |work=rewizor |access-date=February 26, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://cinemafirst.ru/author/henrymay/ |title=ПААТАШВИЛИ Леван Георгиевич |work=cinemafirst |access-date=February 26, 2019 |archive-date=February 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226180757/http://cinemafirst.ru/author/henrymay/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> A still exists showing Lon Chaney in the role of the villainous Joe Lawson.<ref name="Mirsalis">{{cite web|url= http://lonchaney.org/filmography/95.html|title=Pay Me|last=Mirsalis|first=Jon C.|access-date=December 22, 2020|website=Lonchaney.org}}</ref>
Like many American films of the time, ''Pay Me!'' was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors refused to issue a permit for this film because it portrayed a story of murder, abduction, and immorality.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Official Cut-Outs by the Chicago Board of Censors |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=5 |issue=15 |page=33 |date=October 6, 1917 |url=https://archive.org/stream/exhibitorsherald05exhi#page/n730/mode/1up}}</ref>
==Plot== Hal Curtis and Joe Lawson, partners in a mine, have a disagreement. Lawson strangles Curtis and accidentally shoots Curtis' wife. He deserts his own wife and child and elopes with Hilda Hendricks, a weak girl of the town. As they are leaving, they hear a baby's cry and find Curtis' little daughter in the arms of her dead mother. Hilda takes the child.
Seventeen years pass. Lawson has changed his name to White and owns a dance hall in the heart of lumber country. The men call him "Killer" White. Marta, his partner's child, has grown to womanhood and a lumberjack named Mac Jepson has fallen in love with her. He is chagrined at finding Marta dressed in a sleazy costume, running the roulette wheel in Killer's bar. Curtis wanders into camp and, recognizing Hilda, asks where his daughter is. Hilda points her out to him and he becomes enraged, vowing vengeance on the Killer.
He is backed by the young lumberjack, who is none other than the son Lawson had abandoned. A fight follows and just before Lawson can kill Curtis, a shot rings out and Lawson drops. Hilda holds the gun. Before dying, Lawson tells Marta that she is not his daughter, and the two young people leave together.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Reviews: ''Pay Me!'' |journal=Exhibitors Herald |volume=5 |issue=10 |publisher=Exhibitors Herald Company |date=September 1, 1917 |location=New York |page=26 |url=https://archive.org/details/exhibitorsherald05exhi}}</ref>
==Cast== * Lon Chaney as Joe Lawson * J. Edwin Brown as Martin (as Eddie Brown) * William Clifford as Hal Curtis * Evelyn Selbie as Hilda Hendricks * Tom Wilson as 'Mac' Jepson * Dorothy Phillips as Marta * Claire Du Brey as Nita * William Stowell as Bill The Boss * John George as Bar Patron * Dick La Reno as Bit Role (uncredited)
==Reception== "PAY ME is a strong, virile drama. It smacks of the melodramatic in its every scene. There is action in every line. The exhibitor can book this picture without a hesitancy. His patrons will be satisfied.....The climax reached is well conceived and put over with a punch.....Dorothy Phillips, who is featured, doesn't get much opportunity to impress her audience that she is really the star. As a matter of fact, Lon Chaney, William Stowell or Evelyn Selbie vie with her for honors. These do unusually good work in character roles." --''-Motion Picture News''<ref>Blake, Michael F. (1998). ''The Films of Lon Chaney''. Vestal Press Inc. p. 75.{{ISBN|1-879511-26-6}}.</ref><ref name="Mirsalis"/>
"Lon Chaney makes the bad man of the plot a little too palpable, but is forceful nevertheless." ---''Moving Picture World''.<ref name="Mirsalis"/>
==See also== *Lon Chaney filmography *List of rediscovered films
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category|Pay Me!}} *{{IMDb title|id=0008417|title=Pay Me!}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pay Me}} Category:1917 films Category:1917 drama films Category:1917 American films Category:1917 English-language films Category:1910s rediscovered films Category:American black-and-white films Category:American silent feature films Category:English-language drama films Category:Films directed by Joseph De Grasse Category:Films with screenplays by Bess Meredyth Category:Rediscovered American films Category:American silent drama films Category:Universal Pictures films Category:Censored films