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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 1353

The Pay-Off

Video edition
Wikimedia Commons
Original language
English
This copy runs
70:29
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · Lowell Sherman / RKO Radio Pictures · Public domain

Synopsis

A gang leader who forbids killing takes a struggling young couple under his protection. His ambitious deputy uses them in a robbery that violates those rules, turning a struggle for control into an effort to save two innocent people.

Cast

Inspirations

The screenplay adapts the stage play Crime. Lowell Sherman both directs and plays the criminal whose personal code is challenged by the organization he commands.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 16, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

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