Flaxy Martin

Richard L. Bare’s Flaxy Martin often goes overlooked or underappreciated in film noir discussions yet it delivers a full spread of noir elements (the frame, the fugitive, the femme fatale) with the solid production values for which Warner Brothers was known. Zachary Scott stars as Walter Colby, a lawyer trying unsuccessfully to extricate himself from the mob, hampered in these efforts by the betrayals of his mob-connected girlfriend, the eponymous Flaxy (Virginia Mayo). When Colby’s forced to defend a mob hit man (Jack Overman) in court, he’s unaware that Flaxy and mob boss Hap Richie (Douglas Kennedy) paid a witness, Peggy Farrar (Helen Westcott), to provide the defendant with a false alibi. When Peggy later threatens to come clean, she ends up murdered, Flaxy ends up arrested for it, and Colby, out of his misguided devotion, takes the fall for Flaxy, assuming he can defend himself successfully in court. He fails, and thus begins the second half of the film involving his escape from custody, his encounter with small town librarian Nora Carson (Dorothy Malone), and his violent confrontation with Flaxy and her associates. Noir fixture Elisha Cook, Jr. plays Roper, one of Hap’s thugs assigned to eliminate Colby and others. With an elaborate plot, smooth pacing, and generous atmosphere compliments of Guthrie’s nighttime camera sequences, Flaxy Martin makes for above average noir entertainment with several surprising touches of realism.