INDIANAPOLIS — Film historian Eric Grayson will screen The Payoff, a 1942 film starring Lee Tracy, a former top Broadway actor, at 7 p.m. on Sat., April 28, at the Garfield Park Arts Center, 2432 Conservatory Drive.
Tracy was known for his role as the fast-talking reporter in The Front Page. He was, by this time, also known for something else: Between the two films, while on location in Mexico to shoot another movie, Tracy, a heavy drinker, was standing on a balcony during a military parade and urinated on the army below. His actions caused an uproar in Mexico, and, according to Grayson, it was a long time before he worked in a big picture again, doing a lot of “slumming,” as in The Payoff, made for PRC, the cheapest studio in Hollywood.
Amazingly, Grayson added, the film is still quite good, despite its very low budget. In the film, he again plays a fast-talking reporter who solves a case before the police can in this “early film noir.”
Admission is $5 and concessions are $1. For more information, visit www.gpacarts.org or call 317-327-7135.
