Claire Dodd didn't often play leads - she was too good at playing the "other woman". Her blonde beauty and sophisticated air meant she usually played only high society girls but what bad girls they were. She only had to make an appearance and you knew there were going to be tough times ahead for Joan Blondell ("Footlight Parade") or Ann Dvorak ("Crooner") and just to show you how versatile she was, she was also a terrific Della Street in a couple of Perry Mason movies.
True to form, although she plays the female lead, Maxine, she is leading her husband, go-getter sports writer, Joe McCoy (James Dunn), a merry dance and her extravagance is the reason he can't seem to make ends meet. When old timer George Gorman can't deliver his column due to illness, Joe takes over and impresses everyone so much he gets a big promotion. Maxine sees that as a green light to spend, spend, spend. Extra responsibility sees Joe covering sports from around the country but Maxine, bored, turns to racketeer, Marty Bleuer (oily old Alan Dinehart) for solace who just happens to be Joe's sworn enemy. Joe sees him at a few sporting events and, smelling a rat, starts to include references to him in his witty sporting column "The Real McCoy". Returning from his sporting junket, he finds Maxine in debt up to her pretty eyes from unpaid gambling debts and Bleuer only willing to forget about it if Joe starts praising him in his column.
Turned against by "kith and kin", except Connie (Patricia Ellis), a cute little sports writer who has always carried a torch for him, Joe's hang out is now a waterfront bar. Another of his friends who hasn't forgotten him is news boy Jimmie (Frankie Darro), thanks to Joe, now able to follow his dream of being a jockey and returning the favour by bringing him a big racing scoop involving Bleuer with plenty of race fixing and bribery.
By 1935 due to over exposure and not enough variation on stereo typed roles, James Dunn was let go by Fox. He then began his descent into some dreadful programmers. "The Payoff" is pretty decent though and Dunn is surrounded by some top notch players, apart from Claire Dodd, there is Alan Dinehart, Patricia Ellis and Frankie Darro. And director Robert Florey was always able to make ordinary, run of the mill Bs into something pretty special.
True to form, although she plays the female lead, Maxine, she is leading her husband, go-getter sports writer, Joe McCoy (James Dunn), a merry dance and her extravagance is the reason he can't seem to make ends meet. When old timer George Gorman can't deliver his column due to illness, Joe takes over and impresses everyone so much he gets a big promotion. Maxine sees that as a green light to spend, spend, spend. Extra responsibility sees Joe covering sports from around the country but Maxine, bored, turns to racketeer, Marty Bleuer (oily old Alan Dinehart) for solace who just happens to be Joe's sworn enemy. Joe sees him at a few sporting events and, smelling a rat, starts to include references to him in his witty sporting column "The Real McCoy". Returning from his sporting junket, he finds Maxine in debt up to her pretty eyes from unpaid gambling debts and Bleuer only willing to forget about it if Joe starts praising him in his column.
Turned against by "kith and kin", except Connie (Patricia Ellis), a cute little sports writer who has always carried a torch for him, Joe's hang out is now a waterfront bar. Another of his friends who hasn't forgotten him is news boy Jimmie (Frankie Darro), thanks to Joe, now able to follow his dream of being a jockey and returning the favour by bringing him a big racing scoop involving Bleuer with plenty of race fixing and bribery.
By 1935 due to over exposure and not enough variation on stereo typed roles, James Dunn was let go by Fox. He then began his descent into some dreadful programmers. "The Payoff" is pretty decent though and Dunn is surrounded by some top notch players, apart from Claire Dodd, there is Alan Dinehart, Patricia Ellis and Frankie Darro. And director Robert Florey was always able to make ordinary, run of the mill Bs into something pretty special.