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Good movie but grossly overrated

best movie i've ever seen.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is a mighty fine early 1970s film with Rip Torn as a forever touring hard-partying country and western singer....not only does Torn pull it off he does an outstanding job as the lead. Torn also does his own singing and it is not bad at all. The script is strong with good dialogue and the supporting cast shows top notch acting. As this is an early 1970s film viewers should expect some darkness and perhaps a certain fatalistic view on life. During the 1970s many people seemed to want to live fast-die hard-and leave a good looking corpse unfortunately. Still despite some rough edges PAYDAY is one outstanding film and considered a rare gem by many film fans. Anyone who takes the time to hunt down a copy of this timeless film which shows both the struggles of modest fame and touring will be glad they did so....this film is an easy, mostly fun watch and moves quickly...it even has a couple of clever plot twists...all in all one of Rip Torn's best films and one of the top 25 films of the entire 1970s! Tom Wilson (HardToFindMovies)New Jersey

You don't have to be Mexican to like burritos and you don't need to be a big country and western music fan to enjoy this nifty, low-budget character study of a singer on the road, pimping his records.It's been so many years since I've seen it that I've forgotten most of the plot details. What stands out is Rip Torn's performance as a druggie who tries to wheedle one DJ after another into playing his songs. He's quite good.There's another scene that, to me, illustrates some of the care that's gone into the script. Torn is being driven from town to town in his big 50-foot, ten-ton chipkicker idea of a magnificent car. The chauffeur is a friendly man of simple mind. Torn also has his girl friend with him in the back seat. She feels a genuine affection for this rogue but she's wily too and knows which side her bread is buttered on. She and Torn cuddle together frequently. She's pretty easy to cuddle up to because there seems to be so much of her.Somewhere along the way the troupe picks up a young and apparently guileless groupie, very attractive, breathless, awed by the company she finds herself in. Before long, while his girl friend nods out in the seat beside them, Torn puts some moves on her and she winds up doing a hushed lap dance on him. And the camera pans slowly to the right of the panting couple and fixes on the girlfriend's now wide-awake face as she stares at them in silent fury.In another scene, the groupie and the chauffeur are left alone in the car, waiting for the others. The driver begins an amiable conversation with her, talking about his favorite hobby (cooking), his aspirations. She gazes at him as he rambles casually on. When he stops, she smiles tightly and whispers, "What are you -- some kinda DRIVER?" It's like a predator pouncing out of nowhere. She's hardly said anything revealing up to this point and the viewer has formed an impression of her as an innocent young fawn-like creature, harmless and manipulated. And in a second or two she has turned into a self-interested, shallow, and cruel bitch before our eyes.Worth catching.

Rip Torn steals the film and lifts it above its drive-in milieu. It played briefly in NYC and the cast works hard enough to make it a good rental. Many of the actors had only TV credits and this could have been a breakthrough film. It was marketed poorly. It also has a good 'road' feel to it. This road feel could have made it a nifty period piece. Why it never made a punch is hard to tell. However a preview audience in NYC found a lot to like about it, including the Torn character's disregard for the other characters. It's worth a look and should make a good double bill in a rep cinema with Coppola's "You're A Big Boy Now" where Torn and the Lovin' Spoonful soundtrack help to save that film. The film was also released at a time when everybody was trying to "recreate" Easy Rider, et al.

I remember watching this film late night in college on the movie channel Encore some 15 years ago. It is a great flick that captures what life on the road for a country western singer must have been like. As others have noted, it could serve as a biography for Johnny Cash and many others of that era who lived a life of pills, booze, and one-night stands with a little music sprinkled in between. Rip Torn is great in this movie, though it's hard now not to picture him as Arthur from the Larry Sanders Show. The one line from Torn's character that sticks with me even today is: "You only go through this life once. You might as well do it in a Cadillac." I'd love to see this movie again but I imagine it would be a hard find.