Flaxy Martin (1949)

It's not often you see Virginia Mayo play an unsavoury character but she does it quite well here as the eponymous and rather duplicitous character. She's the girlfriend of "Colby" (Zachary Scott). He is a lawyer. Deep down a decent one, but for most of the time he's in the pocket of the crooked "Hap" (Douglas Kennedy). When one of his gang is killed, "Flaky" looks like she's going to have to take the rap - but her paramour thinks he has the legal wits to argue himself out of the chair, so takes the blame himself. It's only when he is being tried that his erstwhile "friends" move the goalposts and he is set for twenty years. Not happy, he escapes his police guard on the train only to nearly be run down by "Nora" (Dorothy Malone) who nurses him back to health and who buys into his story of being framed and seeking lawful retribution. Now he has to get back to the city and, armed with a little more information, set things straight. Mayo is around at the start and the end, with the slightly soporific Malone filling the sandwich for the rest of the film, Elisha Cook Jr. is quite effective as the marauding henchman "Roper" and Scott, some dark photography and a decently paced drama work well to keep this interesting until a suitably fitting - if a little convenient - denouement.