The Payoff

Joe McCoy (James Dunn) is a reporter and he thinks he has a happy marriage. However, when Joe gets a promotion to his own sports column, his wife's real colors eventually show through. While he's out covering various sporting events, she's gambling away everything Joe earns and then some. To make it worse, she racks up a stack of i.o.u.s with the same notorious gambler and racketeer who Joe's been exposing in his columns! She's also been sleeping with the guy! Joe doesn't know the latter part and when he learns about her owing the gambler over $5000 (a HUGE sum back in 1935), he has no choice but to lay off the gambler in his column. As a result, the column is dull and Joe is fired. Now that he's no longer earning money and a bum, his wife promptly leaves him! All in all, Maxine (Claire Dodd) is a despicable and easy to hate woman....and you keep wondering how long it will be until Joe wakes up and realizes he's been used.

Despite being a relatively cheaply made B-movie, this one manages to be better than you'd expect due to a decent script and some nice acting by Dunn and Dodd. It's really worth seeing and is entertaining throughout.