A Máscara da Traição

A really good cast puts over a noir feature from Warner Brothers that's undone by an incredibly, unbelievable plot component. As another Warner Brothers star used to say, "what a maroon".

Zachary Scott plays a criminal attorney who gets off mob hit man Elisha Cook, Jr. on some perjured testimony by Helen Westcott. When Scott finds out about the perjury he fears bar association sanctions and determines to break with mob boss Douglas Kennedy. But Kennedy has other plans that involve Scott's girl friend Virginia Mayo who is in the title role of Flaxy Martin.

Mayo's trading up and she goes to Scott with a tearful story about how she's suspected in the murder of Westcott. So what does this brilliant lawyer do who is now thinking with his male member? He offers to confess and says he's so good at his job that he can win acquittal at trial. But not against some perjured eye witness testimony that Kennedy gets to help the prosecution along.

Of course Scott escapes and starts looking for more than vindication. In that he's aided by friend Tom D'Andrea and farm girl Dorothy Malone who feels sorry for him.

After that horrible premise, the film does pick up and ends rather well. If you've seen Virginia Mayo in White Heat you know how it ended for her there. Ends even worse for her here, but similarly. In fact I'm sure Mayo was cast in Flaxy Martin on the strength of White Heat.

As for Zachary Scott the part he has is one I think might have been written with Humphrey Bogart in mind, but Bogey left Warner Brothers the year before.

Though it's rather unbelievable Flaxy Martin is good display of the talents of both Virginia Mayo and Zachary Scott.