The Payoff (1956)

A private investigator (Howard Duff) is hired by an attractive blonde (Janet Blair) to pick up an envelope at a prizefight and deliver it to her the next day. It sounds simple enough but when he gets drugged, beaten up and robbed of the envelope, he suspects there's more here than meets the eye! Written by Blake Edwards (THE PINK PANTHER) and directed by John Meredyth Lucas. Originally shown on television as part of the Ford Television Theatre, this is a compact little tale in the style of film noir with all the usual trimmings. Duff's private detective narrates the story in the hard boiled style of  a Bogart or Mitchum in a Raymond Chandler opus. The lovely Janet Blair is a little too wholesome for a femme fatale but it hits all the right buttons and moves quickly. With Richard Crane and Michael Fox.