The Payoff
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Robert Florey
James Dunn
Claire Dodd
Patricia Ellis
Alan Dinehart
Joseph Crehan
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When Joe McCoy, a sports writer for a New York newspaper is asked to fill in for an ill sports columnist, he does such a good job continuing the fight for clean sports that he is given the job permanently. He often attacks gangster Marty Bleuler, the owner of a gambling casino, who has been banned from various sports, with the exception of wrestling, for illegal betting. Joe's nagging wife Maxine is mollified for a while by his raise, but soon her excessive spending has them in debt again. Joe is assigned to cover winter sports, including the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena. Although Maxine is reluctant to leave New York City at the height of the social season, she finally agrees to go with her husband. She leaves during the middle of Rose Bowl game, however, and returns to the East. When Joe finally returns home, he discovers that Maxine has become involved with Bleuler after having lost a lot of money at his casino. To protect her, Joe agrees to cover Bleuler's dishonest wrestling games. This change of policy leads to his being fired. Maxine leaves Joe for Bleuler, and Joe starts drinking heavily. Connie, another reporter on the paper, who has loved Joe from a distance, finds him with the help of Jimmy Moore, a jockey who admires Joe. Jimmy tells Joe that Bleuler has been trying to bribe him to pull a horse, and the two of them work out a plot to trap the gambler. During the race, Jimmy is shot and wounded by one of Bleuler's men. After Bleuler is arrested, Maxine, whom he has discarded, kills him and commits suicide. Impressed by a reformed Joe, Harvey Morris, his former editor, gives him back his job, enabling him to marry Connie.
Director
Robert Florey
Cast
James Dunn
Claire Dodd
Patricia Ellis
Alan Dinehart
Joseph Crehan
Frankie Darro
Frank Sheridan
Eddie Shubert
Al Hill
Paul Porcasi
George Humbert
Anita Kerry
Helen Lowell
Allen Wood
Andre Beranger
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's pre-release title was The Real McCoy. Co-screenwriter Joel Sayre was a well-known crime reporter on the New York Herald Tribune, specializing in coverage of Legs Diamond and various murder trials. He moved to Hollywood in the 1930s where he wrote screenplays and novels. During World War II, he became a correspondent for the New Yorker and one of his New Yorker articles was the basis for the 1951 Fox film Fourteen Hours. According to modern sources, cameraman William Rees was replaced after a week of shooting, although his name never appears on Hollywood Reporter production charts.
