User reviews

Lee Tracy plays Brad McKay a smart mouthed reporter loved, or at least respected by both the police and the criminals. When a reforming special prosecutor, who's work he had been covering, is killed McKay is thrust in to the thick of things since its assumed that he may have a clue as to who might have killed the man. Tracy, an expert at playing fast talking wisenheimers, is in great form here delivering a steady stream of pontifications and wise cracks that not only amuse but also bamboozle the people around him giving him room to solve the case. I really liked this film a great deal since its a rare that a B-movie of this type had so many witty lines and comedic comebacks, it's almost like being hit by a machine gun of jokes. Tracy is aided by a great cast of character actors who manage to make their roles into something more than pieces to be moved around the chess board. If there is real weakness in the movie its that it becomes pretty clear who the bad guy is much too early in the film (the problem is simply that there really isn't anyone else it could be).It's not fatal but it sort makes what happens a foregone conclusion. Despite its short comings this is a movie that you're going to watch for, especially if you like great dialog and witty exchanges.

Lee Tracy pretty easily carries the show in this fast-moving drama featuring fast talking and a set of familiar supporting characters ranging from the cub reporter to the police inspector needing help to the shady club owner to the girl whose father is in trouble. Evelyn Brent is the one other somewhat interesting character—as the wise female on the wrong side of the law, she's a challenge for Tracy to try and pull over to his side.

Tom Brown is the publisher's son who doubles as the cub reporter trying to learn the business; he's not particularly exciting but eager and fresh-faced and he does throw one punch. Tina Thayer as the daughter of the missing suspect doesn't have much to do and isn't given much to say, but she wears a worried look the best she can. Many other familiar faces populate the rest of the cast—the usual assortment of cops, crooks and reporters.

Oh, the plot? It's fairly complex, actually, having to do with a murdered special prosecutor investigating corruption and a $100,000 payoff that gets chased around for most of the picture.

The script is full of snappy dialog, some of it having to do with the plot, some just clever filler (Brown asks Tracy what they're going to do now, to which Tracy responds, "Slight pause for station identification."). Tracy also tells Brent in the first moments after their meeting, "After one drink, I propose," which adds a little nicely-calculated tension to their future encounters.

Worth a look for those of us who like rapid-fire dialog and don't mind a few clinkers or clichés.

Hot-shot newspaper reporter Lee Tracy is involved in a poker game when a prosecutor is murdered. Tracy was reporting on the DA's latest investigation, so he's called in for help. Instead he has to clear the prime suspect, John Maxwell, because he was also part of the poker game when the murder happened. Maxwell tells Tracy to look into the prosecutor's assistant Forrest Taylor, as he was on the take. Soon after Tracy meets Taylor's daughter Tina Thayer, and Maxwell ends up dead in Tracy's apartment. Tracy and Taylor need to find out the truth soon before more people end up dead, being targeted themselves as well by Maxwell's partner, casino owner Jack La Rue.

A mystery/crime programmer done at PRC, the plot is overly complex and convoluted, and relies too much on conveniences and plot holes. But it also uses a most effective means to deal with this, it moves at a quick pace, so there's little room to think about the previous scene, as the current scene demands attention.

Lee Tracy ('High Tide', TV's 'Martin Kane') was once a big name, but in the 40s he was a has-been, and relegated to these low-budget features. His talent for fast & sharp talking works well here, as it fits the character perfectly. Tina Thayer is also quite decent as the demure but determined daughter who wants to find out the truth about her father. She went into a different career, ending her short acting career. Jack La Rue ('The Story Of Temple Drake') also had a decent career in the 30s before losing steam. These has-been actors were a gift for the poverty row studios tho, as they offered decent acting skills and somewhat recognizable names.

While IMDb classifies this movie as film noir, it is only remotely noir-ish. It is a much more straight-forward crime/mystery that also lacks the noir visuals. Director Arthur Dreifuss (a couple of Boston Blackie movies) does what needs to be done to get the story onto film and DoP Ira Morgan (lensing such classics as 'Criminal Investigator' and 'Sensation Hunters' aka 'Club Paradise') manages to sneak in a few decent shots, but all in all they handled the material as routinely as possible. Given it's a PRC production and they probably had no budget or time to experiment with setups, they can hardly be blamed. It's decent enough, but then again I am partial to these movies. 6-/10

Lee Tracy once again returns to the role of the fast talking newspaper reporter for PRC's The Pay Off. Tracy could do this role in his sleep, but fortunately put a great deal of conviction into his performance.

The murder of a special prosecutor and the disappearance of his assistant with $100,000.00 in pay off money is the kind of story Tracy can sink his teeth in. He's also got an assistant in this story, young Tom Brown has been told by his publisher father Robert Middlemass to learn the newspaper business from Tracy.

The Pay Off falls into Tracy's hands in the form of a key to bus locker terminal. As for the assistant, Tracy uses it for bait to flush out the bad guys including the mysterious Mr. Big. By this time Brown and Tina Thayer the daughter of the assistant have fallen in love.

As for Tracy he gets to out fox a sly fox of a hit woman in Evelyn Brent. His scene with her when she thinks he's dying of a gunshot wound is the best in the film.

Jack LaRue has a good part as a lizard like gambling club owner who will make your skin crawl.

Tracy's career took a downward skid when he got fired from MGM off the Viva Villa set. For the next dozen or so years he caught on with a lot of low budget studios, but I will say he gave as much conviction to his parts with places like PRC to those films he did with MGM in his top years.

The Pay Off is a good example of that.

And Lee Tracy's thing was playing fast talkers. He was the original Hildy Johnson in The Front Page on Broadway.

Here he's Brad, a fast-talking reporter again, looking into the murder of the Special prosecutor. A gambler is suspected, but he has an air-tight alibi. The publisher of his paper sends Brad to cover the murder along with his son Guy (Tom Brown).

It's evident to Brad that the gambler, Moroni, did the murder. But he can't prove it. Moroni tells Brad that the prosecutor was getting a payoff, and that his assistant killed him. The assistant's daughter (Tina Thayer) says that her father is in danger from Moroni. Moroni is murdered. Brad knows there is someone above Moroni.

This is one of those one-hour-plus second features that seems like it lasts a lifetime. It was no surprise who was above Moroni either, thanks to the dialogue.

It wasn't great, but Tina Thayer was very pretty.

Lee Tracy was a big Broadway star who, though a character actor in films, played a lot of leads. He went back to Broadway after a scandal diminished his film career, but returned to win an Oscar nomination for The Best Man in the '60s, for which he won a Tony award. Nowadays, of course, the scandal would have garnered a ton of publicity.

There really isn't much of a mystery here, but if you like this type of film, which was common in the '40s, you may enjoy this.

When the film begins, the reporter Brad McKay (Lee Tracy) is doing what most reporters seem to do in films when they're not on assignment-- he's playing poker with the boys. While this is taking place, across town someone is ventilating the District Attorney's head with a .38 slug...so at least we know that the guys playing poker weren't responsible. But who is? And, like most B-crime films, it's inevitably that the fast-talking reporter knows infinitely more than the stupid cops...so it will be up to him to solve the case.

This film is an interesting comedown for Tracy. Back in the 30s, he made films for several big studios, including Columbia and MGM. However, after a series of public embarrassments, Tracy's film work consisted of working for the crappiest studios...and it didn't get any crappier than PRC...who made this film. However, for a PRC film it's much better than usual...thanks mostly to Tracy as well as a halfway decent script...very unusual for PRC! Not a brilliant film but worth seeing and among the best PRC films I've seen. In other words, it surprisingly did not suck!

I agree with many of the previous comments about "The Payoff", although I'm just not that enthusiastic about it.

The film is a page straight out of the part-crime-mystery / part-comedy genre of the day. It's true that the dialog is snappy and if you're in the mood it can be quite engaging.

But it's also true that "The Payoff" is really more of a theatrical-style of presentation than film. Lee Tracy immediately goes over the top, and stays there, with a very stage-style performance. Too loud, too gestural, too self-entertaining, just plain "too". The other characters are mostly cliché, too.

I wouldn't avoid The Payoff if you enjoy 40's urban crime features. It's a terrific feature if you're home sick and need to fill an hour. But I wouldn't go to any extraordinary measures to see it, either.

Lee Tracy fans rejoice! "The Payoff" (1944) is absolutely essential must viewing for Lee Tracy's legion of fans, so I'm giving it a "Recommended" tag even though it's only available on a very good VintageFilmBuff DVD which you'll need to track down. Admittedly, two of the support players, namely the diminutive but mysterious Tina Thayer (even IMDb can tell us very little about her) and the wonderful Evelyn Brent do get a bit of a look-in, but it's plainly a Lee Tracy vehicle specifically designed for Lee Tracy fans – and for Lee Tracy fans only. Lee has twice as many lines as all the rest of the cast put together and two hundred times more close-ups than Tom Brown. (If memory serves me correctly, Tom has one). True, the lines are third-rate compared to those hatched up for Tracy in "Blessed Event" (1932), but self-indulgent Lee makes the most of them anyway. Arthur Dreifuss is credited as the director here, but I can't for the life of me figure out what Arthur did. Tracy needed no coaching and he simply talks right into the camera. Maybe Dreifuss shot the 10% of the movie in which Tracy doesn't appear? If so, he didn't do a very good job.

Lee Tracy is no good-looking guy, but he sure can talk. As an ace reporter he needs not trumps to carry the whole game all the way home with a vengeance. There are a lot of casualties on the way of this stormy whirlpool of intrigues, but there is a charming woman also, who actually helps Dick Tracy on the way although she actually also shoots him down when things get too nervy. But this mess too is just an ordinary winding up of general corruption, money being the game and the object of everyone's greed, and everyone dying to get it, some actually shooting their ways out for the mere sport of it. It's a fast and rickety thriller of no mystery but many knots to tie up, one untied knot constantly leading to greater knots higher up. You will enjoy this stormy ride on the ocean of corruption, and you'll never guess who was the top manager of this circus of lies and smokescreens until he is no more but still gets an honorary epitaph, and Lee Tracy ultimately gets what even he wants.