Cheap, silly, clichéd, but somehow highly enjoyable made for TV noir-light short included as a bonus on Columbia's Bad Girls of Film Noir Vol.1. Down at heel private eye (Howard Duff) gets led into trouble by sharp dame client (Janet Blair) in fight-fix drama. Duff's gumshoe is a weathered everyman (think Robert Ryan or Paul Kelly etc.) giving the impression of a man who's seen The Maltese Falcon and gone out and tried to be Sam Spade, but wasn't doing too well at it (in fact, Duff played Sam Spade in a radio series based on Hammett's character in the 40s before getting into movies). The dialogue-heavy screenplay is by Blake Edwards (Director of Days of Wine and Roses / Breakfast at Tiffany's), and must have been great fun to write - mainly a series of entertaining plot-heavy conversations between the protagonist and an array of colourful characters, and lot of cheesy expository voice overs. Full of holes, full of humour, and full of fun, with a really great punch up to finish, The Payoff pays off... sorry, I couldn't resist that.
Review of The Payoff
