Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

blanche-2 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.

bkoganbing 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.

JohnHowardReid 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.

dbborroughs 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.