Flaxy Martin

Crime boss Hap Richie calls Walter Colby in the middle of the night to arrange bail for Caesar, the mob's hood. Colby agrees to help, and this puts him on a path that will pull him deeper into the organization. Soon after, he tells his girlfriend Flaxy Martin that he wants to quit and become respectable.

Flaxy dismisses his idea of quitting, arguing that he does not have enough money to live honestly or to keep her. She persuades him that if he frees Caesar and Hap pays plenty, they can leave together in a few months. Her words bind his fate to the criminal setup.

After Colby leaves, Flaxy phones Hap to reassure him that everything is going to be fine and signs off with a warm endearment. The call signals her covert collaboration with Hap against Colby. It marks the moment Flaxy commits to subverting Colby’s plan to go straight.

Hap secures through Flaxy a perjurer, Peggy Farrar, who will testify on Caesar's behalf and clear him of the crime. The plan relies on the use of deceit to overturn the case and keep Hap in control. Peggy steps into the scheme as the linchpin to the bad verdict.

Peggy seeks $10,000 to maintain her silence about the arrangements. Hap and Flaxy weigh the risk of exposure as she tries to leverage the situation for money. The extortion threat adds pressure on Colby as he contemplates confessing.

Colby decides to go to the district attorney and confess everything, hoping for police help against Hap. Flaxy warns him that Hap will not hesitate to send someone after him or her, implying their own safety hinges on their cooperation. The tension between loyalty and exposure grows.

Flaxy confronts Peggy at her hotel apartment; Peggy begs Flaxy not to hit her again. Inside the room, Caesar enters and Flaxy leaves, leaving Peggy to scream as the danger escalates. The murder marks a turning point in the entangled web of crime.

Police retrieve Peggy's body from the river and interview the hotel clerk, who mentions hearing Peggy refer to a visitor as Flaxy. Investigators also find Peggy's marriage license in the room, signed by Flaxy, making her appear as a witness in the case. These clues give rise to the implication that Colby may be framed.

Colby decides to confess to the murder to clear Flaxy, betting that the truth will prevail. Without hard evidence linking him to the crime, he remains confident that his confession can lead to acquittal. The plan triggers the start of a dramatic courtroom showdown.

During the trial, an obvious perjurer takes the stand and claims to have seen Colby attack Peggy. The jury is swayed by the deceit, and Colby is convicted on the murder charges. The courtroom drama exposes the corrupting influence of Flaxy and Hap behind the scenes.

Before transfer to prison, Sam Malko visits Colby and says that Caesar has been bragging in his drunken state about Colby being convicted instead of him. Colby becomes suspicious of Flaxy's role in the setup, and his resolve to uncover the truth hardens. The seed of doubt grows.

On the train to prison, Colby slugs a guard and escapes, injuring himself in the process. Nora Carson, a kind stranger, takes him home and nurses him back to health, offering help and expressing sympathy for someone running away from something. They escape together in the criminals’ car and vanish.

Colby returns to the city to confront Caesar and discovers him dead. He is cornered by Caesar’s gunman Roper on a rooftop, where the two have a brutal showdown and Colby pushes Roper to his death. Afterward, he heads toward Flaxy's apartment to resolve the network of betrayals.

Flaxy admits she framed Colby to protect him, and Hap arrives with the money and menace. A tense confrontation ends when Flaxy shoots Hap, missing Colby, and then tries to wipe the fingerprints from the weapon. The police arrive and arrest Flaxy as Colby, with Nora by his side, heads into the station hand in hand after turning himself in.