He signed a contract to make three more films for Pine-Thomas and was in Passage West (1951), another Western; and Crosswinds (1951), an adventure film; Caribbean Gold (1952), a pirate film; The Blazing Forest (1952), an adventure story; The Vanquished (1952), a Western. Payne insisted that the films he appeared in be filmed in color and that the rights to the films revert to him after several years, making him wealthy when he rented them to television. In 1952 he said he got four times the fan mail he did at Fox. "I make fewer pictures now but I make the kind I want to make." Other independent producers Payne starred in Kansas City Confidential (1952), a noir, and owned 25% of the film. He later worked with on Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953), a pirate movie; and 99 River Street (1953), a noir. Payne did a series of Westerns: Silver Lode (1954), for Benedict Bogeaus; Rails Into Laramie (1955), for Universal; Santa Fe Passage (1955) and The Road to Denver (1955) at Republic, and Tennessee's Partner (1955) for Bogeaus. In 1955, he paid a $1,000-a-month option for nine months on the Ian Fleming James Bond novel Moonraker (he eventually gave up the option when he learned he could not retain the rights for the entire book series). He returned to Pine-Thomas for a noir, Hell's Island (1956), then did Slightly Scarlet (1956) for Bogeaus. He made Hold Back the Night (1956) for Allied Artists and The Boss (1956) for United Artists, co-producing the latter. He did another noir, Hidden Fear, shot in Denmark. Payne made one more Pine-Thomas film, Bailout at 43,000 (1957), playing Major Paul Peterson. Television Payne starred as Vint Bonner in The Restless Gun, a half-hour western which aired on NBC Monday evenings from September 23, 1957 to September 14, 1959. He played a gunfighter who preferred not to fight if other options were available. The series was originally based on an earlier radio series starring James Stewart titled The Six Shooter. On October 31, 1957 Payne guest-starred on The Ford Show hosted by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Later career Payne directed one of his last films, They Ran for Their Lives (1968), and starred with Alice Faye in a 1974 revival of the musical Good News. He also starred in the Gunsmoke episode of "Gentry's Law" in 1970. His final role was in 1975, when