Mayo's Heart Icing Up Before White Heat Sets In

The Warners B Team Does Flaxy Martin (1949)

Title character Virginia Mayo anticipates double-crossing she'd commit in same year White Heat, this a dry B run by director Richard Bare (of Joe McDoakes series fame) and cast members better accustomed to lower bill placement. Utility players like Tom D'Andrea, Helen Westcott, and Douglas Kennedy must have welcomed work like this, getting more words than in A's they assisted. The set-up is mob lawyer Zachary Scott framed for a murder he confesses to, but doesn't actually want to go to jail for. Yes, I was confused too. What a rabbit hole movies plunge down when characters go senseless to serve a plot point. Scott is smooth in one scene, surly the next, all in service to jerry-built remaking of Smart Money, an oldie maybe better left in Warner attics. Not noir, at least to degree of cultists caring about it, and so by-numbers as to shout indifference. Flaxy Martin was fruit of WB increasing production and renewal of a budget policy at full blast. 1948-49 saw them back at B's in a largest way since early in the decade. Theatres still needed second features, and Flaxy Martin helped fill such breach. It's enjoyable for Warner completists and as accompaniment to a nap.