The Pay Off

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!

Lee Tracy made a career out of playing wise-cracking reporters, in fact, the model for such roles. Interestingly, this film was made for him, Tracy personally investing in a series of dramas for PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation). Unfortunately, with WWII just beginning, Tracy could only star in one feature before joining the US Army as a first lieutenant.

Despite a low budget, what PRC was famous for, the script by Edward Dein is excellent, and Tracy putting in a 100 percent. He plays reporter Brad McCay, who with his adult son, Guy (played by Tom Brown), investigates the murder of a district attorney, who yes, was on the payroll. Money, money, money! Character actor John Maxwell plays Moroni, lead suspect, although Brad has a difficult time linking him to the crime, while Moroni claims he knows the true killer.

So WHODUNIT? I agree, the cast of familiar B-film actors make this worth a look. Silent screen star Evelyn Brent plays Alma. Ian Keith portrays a detective, and long time villain Jack LaRue makes an appearance. Why not? Tina Thayer plays Phyllis, who appeared mostly in films in the 40s.

Edward Dein went onto write several cult films, later lead writer for tv's HAWAIIAN EYE, a hero to all us kids.

Thanks much to RETRO TV for bringing back this oldie. The film is on dvd, often in box sets with other B films favorites.

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.