The Payoff

Lee Tracy continues the diminish by each film he does. Once with the most gifted gab in the business, now he struggles to get through even a routine crime story. Thankfully the script runs almost on autopilot making sure they to bring Tracy along without him needing to make too much of an effort. I mean, it's a decent enough time waster, and I wouldn't call it bad or anything. It's just sad t see how mighty they, or he, rather, has fallen from his prime.

A Poverty Row mystery involving a murder that is solved by a puffy Lee Tracy as a wisecracking reporter who makes a habit of outwitting the police. Of interest to Lee Tracy fans, but probably has little to offer anyone else. The repartee falls sadly short of the standouts in this genre.