Flamingo Road (1949) User Reviews (61)

Crawford jumps the tracks

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 28 March 2006]

Flamingo Road is not the best Joan Crawford film ever done. But it surely is one of the most entertaining with a few unforgettable characters in the film. No wonder it got picked to be the basis for a night time soap opera in the Eighties.

Sydney Greenstreet is one of those larger than life characters in every sense of the word. His southern county sheriff dominates this film. I would have to say it is my third favorite Greenstreet role, next to The Maltese Falcon and The Hucksters. Joan Crawford good as she is loses all the joint scenes when she's on the screen with Greenstreet.

Joan's a carnival girl stranded in Greenstreet's town and picked up by Greenstreet's deputy Zachary Scott. Greenstreet has big political plans for Scott which include a proper marriage with some modern version of Melanie Hamilton. Virginia Huston's the girl he has in mind.

After Crawford doesn't take Greenstreet's advice and leave town, he has her framed on a prostitution rap. After doing a six month stretch Crawford is understandably wanting vengeance. She takes a job at a road house run by Gladys George where a lot of the state bigwigs meet and enjoy all forms of pleasurable relaxation.

The characters in Flamingo Road jump right out at you, they really were made for a night time soap opera. Of course Crawford is great as she and new husband and ally David Brian gives her a new found respectability. The best portrayal in the film besides Crawford and Greenstreet goes to Gladys George. She's a southern version of the Texas Guinan like character she played in The Roaring Twenties.

If you like soap opera and revenge this is the film for you.

The Road to Ruin is paved with good actors

[funkyfry · 7/10 · 10 October 2002]

Over the top melodrama that works, under the steady direction of Curtiz. Crawford is an ex-carnie, and Greenstreet is the corrupt sherrif of a small town she's chosen as her haven. He gets her boyfriend to desert her for a more respectable marriage so he can make him a senator, and after she marries a political player he's associated with, he makes life hard on both of them with a combination of blackmail muscle and frame-up push. Greenstreet is wonderfully grotesque, and all the other leads also hold up well. Nice photography in stark toned B & W.

Politicians and Corruption: A Timeless Combination

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 31 August 2016]

In Boldon, the corrupt Sheriff Titus Semple (Sydney Greenstreet) rules the town and elects whoever he wants with the support of the powerful group led by the constructor Dan Reynolds (David Brian). Now he wants to elect his deputy Fielding Carlisle (Zachary Scott), who is the son of a former judge, to the Senate. When a carnival is forced to leave Boldon, the dancer Lane Bellamy (Joan Crawford) has no place to go and stays in a tent. Titus sends Fielding to the carnival and he helps Lane to find a job as waitress in a diner and a place to stay. They have a romantic relationship, but Titus sees Lane as a liability to the political career of his protégé. So he forces her boss to fire Lane; he does not let Lane get a job; and he frames Lane to send her to prison. When she is released, she finds a job working for Lute Mae Sanders (Gladys George) in her roadhouse. She meets Dan and soon they get married and move to the fancy Flamingo Road. But the ambitious Titus has different political plans from Dan and his group and wants to elect Fielding as Governor. Dan refuses the request and Titus uses blackmail to force Dan and his group to support Fielding. Dan does not accept and Titus decides to destroy Dan and Lane. Will he succeed?

"Flamingo Road" is a 1949 film that shows how politicians and corruption are a timeless combination. The story holds the attention but the conclusion is deceptive, with the situation being resolved too easily. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Caminho da Redenção" ("Path to Redemption")

Crawford's Face/Off with Greensreet

[nycritic · 7/10 · 9 March 2005]

Somehow it didn't occur to Crawford that the believability of her playing what would essentially be a twenty-something circus dancer when she was already up in years would strike her as vaguely ridiculous and could eventually do her more harm than good. But, being the star who wanted to ensure she stayed at the top and not evolve into playing older (except in her Oscar-winning MILDRED PIERCE), second leads, or anything but the star of the film, she finished off the 40s with this film which fares well despite this discrepancy.

FLAMINGO ROAD is an interesting pot-boiler about political corruption in a southern town, with well-matched performances by Sydney Greenstreet, David Brian, and Gladys George to match Crawford's ego. Zachary Scott seems weak in more ways than one when seen with Crawford, but plays his part well in what looks like a repeat performance from MILDRED PIERCE. This movie was the basis for the 1980 TV movie and the subsequent 1981-82 series of the same name with Cristina Raines, Mark Harmon, Howard Duff, and Stella Stevens in the leads.

Perhaps, an acquired taste, but...

[gregcouture · 7 November 2004]

Like a dry Martini with just a tad too much vermouth, garnished with an olive that hasn't been washed of its brine, this one can leave a nasty taste if you're looking for something that goes down smoothly. But if you're not too fastidious, this Crawford star vehicle is almost ridiculously entertaining. Joan might have been just a little long in the tooth to be playing a hoochy-coochy carnival girl in the film's opening sequence but it isn't long before she's on her way up, constantly being tripped on that inexorable climb by one of the slimiest villains that Sydney Greenstreet ever played. Warners trowels on the class "A" production values (except for some glaring back projections at a construction site) and Michael Curtiz's direction is, as usual, briskly efficient, getting the best from everyone in the cast, principal and supporting players alike, except perhaps for Greenstreet who really doesn't look well at all and seems to be struggling against imminent collapse in some scenes. (He made only one picture after this one and died from complications of diabetes about five years later.)

Max Steiner contributes his usual melodically overwrought score (with heavy reliance on the popular song, "If I Could Be One Hour With You [Tonight]"), lushly orchestrated by Murray Cutter, under the musical direction of that Warners stalwart, Ray Heindorf. It's almost too distracting but the frequently crackling dialogue keeps the audience's attention focused on the pulpy proceedings. Ted McCord's black-and-white cinematography is an outstanding example of why not every picture should be in color and I suspect that it was Travilla who was given the task of gowning Crawford once she'd finally crossed over to the right side of the tracks. (Sheila O'Brien, also credited, probably ran up those nifty waitress uniforms and the prison garb Crawford gets to wear not once, but twice!)

They really, REALLY don't make 'em like this anymore, and thank goodness Turner Classic Movies, for instance, trundles a tasty morsel like this out of their archives every once in a while for us to savor once again.

Curtiz, Crawford reunite to rekindle Mildred Pierce by camping out on the South Coast.

[bmacv · 7/10 · 1 January 2005]

Trying to pass off Joan Crawford, then heading toward her mid-'40s, as a plausible nautch-dancer in the side-show of an itinerant carnival proves a misstep from which Michael Curtiz' Flamingo Road barely recovers. But, once the layers of accrued campiness that cling to it are peeled back (and once Crawford discards her Salome-like veils), the movie, far-fetched as it is, generates some interest.

Owing to unpaid bills or some such, the traveling show, in which Crawford was a steamy if not entirely fresh attraction, blows town. Sheriff's deputy Zachary Scott, sent across the tracks to make sure the whole unsavory business has packed up, finds only Crawford, listening to her radio in a mildewed tent. Sparks are struck; he invites her back to town for the blue-plate special in the local beanery and finagles a job for her there as a waitress.

His superior, corrupt sheriff Sydney Greenstreet, sniffs out the burgeoning romance and vows to quash it; he has plans to run Scott for the senate of their anonymous Gulf state (its capital is Olympic City and its capitol a lovingly detailed piece of scenery painting), prerequisite to which is a proper marriage to a bona-fide local girl. Scott glumly acquiesces to the plan, drowning his doubts in drink ("I crawled into a bottle and can't get out"), while Greenstreet frames Crawford on a morals charge and runs her out of town.

New to the mix is David Brian, boss of the state political machine, whose eye is caught by Crawford (now back in town working in the obligatory "roadhouse" operated by Gladys George). He has a whopper of a hangover ("A party's like insurance – the older you are, the more it costs," he says), which Crawford assuages with an eye-opening whiskey sour followed by a home-cooked breakfast. Never underestimate the power of a well-scrambled egg. Next thing, they're married and living in a mansion on high-toned Flamingo Road (complete with a housemaid with the voice and the brain of a parakeet, as in the earlier Curtiz/Crawford Mildred Pierce, except that this time she's not Butterfly McQueen and is, amazingly for the era, white). But Greenstreet starts pulling even filthier strings than Brian – for once, a passably good egg – can countenance. Whereupon, after a drastic development involving the besotted Scott, Crawford slips a handgun into her clutch-bag and pays Greenstreet an amicable visit....

With at least two sensational movies behind him (Casablanca and Mildred Pierce), and one ahead of him (The Unsuspected), Curtiz can be forgiven for Flamingo Road. He brings it some verve, but its identity as yet another of Crawford's rags-to-riches vehicles gets the better of him. While his star supplies some startlingly naturalistic acting (and while the uncharacteristically clean-shaven Scott and the characteristically portly Greenstreet are dependably professional), Flamingo Road has fallen, rather unarguably, into the disreputable if transfixing gulch called camp. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Ya can't go wrong in this town if you say Yep to the right people and Nope to the rest.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 14 June 2015]

Flamingo Road is directed by Michael Curtiz and adapted to screenplay by Robert Wilder from his own play of the same name (with Sally Wilder). It stars Joan Crawford, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, David Bryan and Gladys George. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Ted D. McCord.

When circumstance sees Lane Bellamy (Crawford) stuck in Bolden City, she quickly finds herself embroiled in a love affair and involved in a war with political tyrant Sheriff Titus Semple (Greenstreet).

The Moody kind always cause trouble.

Southern Gothic - cum - politico melodrama with noirish tints, Flamingo Road gets above average due to high tech credits and a superbly nasty turn from Greenstreet. Essentially the pic is about a girl from the other side of the tracks making her way up the social ladder, but she has to lock horns with a nasty piece of work and battle with affairs of the heart.

Flamingo - Affluent - Road!

It's strong on narrative terms, the screenplay neatly blending the greed of political posers with almost perverse social wiles. Curtiz (Mildred Pierce/The Unsuspected) and McCord (Johnny Belinda/The Breaking Point) keep it brisk and atmospherically moody, while the impressive Greenstreet - all sweaty, ambiguous and devilish, is surrounded by a more than competent cast of supporting players.

What of Crawford? Wisely "requesting" that Curtiz be given the director's job, she's compelling and classically committed to the role. It's true to say she is too old for the character, something which her fans are known to hate reading, while both the actors playing her love interests are almost 10 years her junior - which is a bit of a reality stretch for the era. However, such is her acting ability, she gets you on side quickly, with the makers shooting her in soft focus and the writer giving her good work to use off of the page.

A strange movie in some ways, but intriguing and sharp and it's never dull. While the quality on show from both sides of the camera is most pleasing. 7/10

Sort of like a trashy Soap Opera merged with a bit of Film Noir

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 28 September 2008]

FLAMINGO ROAD begins with a carnival being run out of town. Tired of life on the road, Joan Crawford stays behind and tries to settle down in this town with the help of the town's deputy sheriff. However, the political boss (Sidney Greenstreet) can't stand Crawford since she's "from the other side of the tracks" and he has plans for the deputy to enter politics. Instead of just telling Crawford and trying to gain her friendship or understanding, he sets her up and sends her to a short stint in the work farm. When she gets out, Crawford is determined not to run but pay Greenstreet back sooner or later. However, Greenstreet is a very wicked and calculating man and spends much of the movie biding his time until the end of the film--where there is a dynamite confrontation between them.

This film is a bit of an odd style, as in many ways it's like a trashy Soap Opera combined with Film Noir. The dialog is among the best I have heard and is very Noir-like--so many snappy comebacks and the dialog just crackles. And, fortunately, all the Soap elements are far less predictable than you'd think---as again and again, the characters did NOT do what you'd expect.

The bottom line is that this is a quality production with exceptional acting, script and mood throughout. Provided you like older films, it's hard to imagine a person not liking this movie.

Mildred Pierce meets the devil on her way to easy street.

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 24 March 2004]

This film is a joy to watch, even if defies logic. The narrative is convoluted, to put it mildly. Joan Crawford as a carnival girl? That's a stretch of the imagination. From the very beginning, watching Ms Crawford and the two other dancing women, the viewer realizes that he has to be kind to this film. Her take on Lane Bellamy is vintage Crawford!

This must have been a vehicle for the star right after her star turn in Mildred Pierce. It has some of the same people behind it, like director Michael Curtiz and Zachary Scott. The dialogue is something to be treasured. They don't make films like this anymore. Just imagine what panache Ms Crawford brought to anything she appeared in.

The cast that was assembled for this film is probably impossible to match. The great Sydney Greenstreet is so good as the evil sheriff Titus Semple, that we stay riveted looking at his every move. David Brian as the man who loves Lane and rescues her from poverty is also an asset. The minor players, Gladys George, Fred Clark and Virginia Huston, among others fit right into the story.

But this is a Joan Crawford's film. She dominates every scene in which she appears. What power she conveys with only an economy of gestures. No one working in films these days can come near to this actress, who left her own imprint in the canon of American cinema, not to be equaled by anyone any time soon.

CRAWFORD VS. GREENSTREET

[abooboo-2 · 8/10 · 2 February 2000]

Despite the noted critic Pauline Kael's unreasonably negative review of this film, it's a lot of fun and a good vehicle for Joan Crawford's talents. Kael described it as overwrought, but in truth it's good old-fashioned melodramatic story-telling with a smart, literate script, and refreshingly quick pacing. The only flaw that bothered me was a musical score that is, at times, laughably incongruous. (The music swells bewilderingly and ominously when Crawford benignly offers Reynolds' Political Boss something for his hangover.)

Sure, you can quarrel with the casting of Shakespearean-voiced Sydney Greenstreet playing a Southern Sheriff, but he's so unrepentently vile and villainous that he's convincing in every role he plays. It is a joy to watch two such formidable actors as Crawford and Greenstreet squaring off in big confrontations.

It's not surprising that, some 30 years later, this became the premise for a night-time soap opera starring, I believe, Morgan Fairchild. It has so many jealousies, manipulations, secret ambitions, double-crosses, plots for revenge - it's just great fun if one doesn't take it too seriously. And clearly, Crawford, Greenstreet, and the director, Michael Curtiz, didn't. They recognized the material for what it was - pulpy entertainment served up with wit and style.

Superb and underrated film

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 11 June 2012]

This is a very powerful, and I believe underrated, film. And, I would have to disagree with some other reviewers that it's very much Joan Crawford's film. In my view this is a "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" film, and the big shot in question is Sydney Greenstreet. Here, Greenstreet is just about the most repulsive I've ever seen him in any role. And, incidentally, he made only one film after this one.

While I feel it's Greenstreet's film, that's not to say Crawford isn't powerful here, as well. Imagine saying to Greenstreet: "You know sheriff; we had an elephant in our carnival with a memory like that. He went after a keeper that he'd held a grudge against for almost 15 years. Had to be shot. You just wouldn't believe how much trouble it is to dispose of a dead elephant." The film really wouldn't work without both of them, and they are forces to be reckoned with on the screen in this film.

I think nowadays we've learned to be somewhat dismissive of Joan Crawford...partly due to her publicity as "Mommy Dearest", and partly due to some of the really rotten films she made in her declining years. But here she was near her peak, and so impressive.

Another surprise (at least for me) in this film is Zachary Scott...never a particular favorite of mine...an actor I typically tolerate. But here, he is excellent! Perhaps the best role I've seen him in.

David Bryan deserves mention here. He was never a big star, but we often saw him in films and then television. He does very nicely here, as do the other members of the cast.

I highly recommend this film. The only negative comment I can make is that perhaps Joan Crawford didn't look the part...but she sure acted it!

loved it, but what was up with Greenstreet

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 16 September 2005]

"Flamingo Road" is one of those Joan from the other side of the tracks ending up living large film, and it's great. After how many years of doing these roles, at 45, Crawford still pulled them off with aplomb. She's wonderful to watch in this.

I remember seeing this at a revival cinema, on a big screen, and it was the first time I realized how petite a woman she was - but she always seemed so tall! In this film, Crawford plays a ex-carny girl who takes up with Zachary Scott. Scott is the protégé of a ruthless political boss, played by Sydney Greenstreet. He turns out to be too weak-willed to do anything but stay under Greenstreet's thumb. He marries someone more proper while Greenstreet does everything he can to drive Crawford out of town.

When Crawford winds up married to an even more powerful man than Greenstreet, he seeks to destroy both her and her husband.

David Brian is excellent as Crawford's husband, as is Gladys George as a roadhouse owner for whom Crawford works briefly. Scott does register as a wimp, stripped of his romantic underpinnings in "Mildred Pierce."

And then we come to Sydney Greenstreet. You're telling me he lived five years after this film? I would have easier believed he dropped dead immediately afterward. He looks pasty and horrendous as he downs pitchers of milk, slurs his dialogue, and laughs in a very unworldly way - kind of a hah-hah, a sharp intake of breath, and then a higher pitched laugh that sounds like a hiccup. Always a sinister presence on the screen, Greenstreet comes off as evil, all right, but also ill in this production.

"Flamingo Road" became a television series in the '80s. I'll take the original.

Entertaining but campy "rags to riches" tale as carnival dancer is pitted against corrupt sheriff

[Turfseer · 6/10 · 14 December 2021]

Flamingo Road is clearly a soap opera and hardly a film noir as some have maintained. Nonetheless you could call it entertaining camp. With noted director Michael Curtiz at the helm, this a picture that keeps your interest till the end despite its many imperfections.

First off it's hard to buy 45 year old Joan Crawford playing what should be a 20 year old carnival dancer, Lane Bellamy, who's stranded in the small southern town of Boldon after her boss, the circus owner, picks up and leaves in the middle of the night after a creditor comes calling threatening to re-possess the business.

Lane is helped by milquetoast deputy sheriff Fielding Carlisle (Zachary Scott) who finds a job for her with romantic sparks kindled between the two. But Carlisle is beholden to the villain of the piece Sheriff Titus Semple (Sidney Greenstreet) who wants him to marry his long-term girlfriend Annabelle Weldon (Virginia Huston) and then eventually put him up as his hand-picked candidate for governor.

You're expecting the relationship between the deputy and the carnival dancer to develop but the narrative spins off in a completely different welcome direction. Titus frames Lane on trumped up prostitution charges and she's sent to the workhouse for women for 30 days and once released must find employment.

Lane manages to find a job as a waitress at the "Roadhouse," run by the older but sassy Lute Mae Sanders (Gladys George) who is both suspicious but sympathetic to the beleaguered victim of the maniacal Sheriff Titus. The Roadhouse is close to being a brothel but not quite-more a political club where various prominent politicians hang out.

This is where Lane meets political boss Dan Reynolds (David Brian) who she falls for and they eventually get married. Reynolds unsavoriness is played down despite clearly being a ruthless political broker.

Meanwhile Carlisle is elected state senator but falls out of favor with Titus and is dumped by him. The former Deputy Sheriff is a weak character, an unconvincing sad sack who ends up committing suicide while visiting Lane at her now spacious home on Flamingo Road, an opulent area of the town.

Crawford pulls out all the melodramatic stops in her characterization of the now successful wife of a political boss. Early on can you imagine that Lane actually slaps Sheriff Titus? (this is how she ends up in prison for 30 days). And later when she finally reveals to Reynolds that she was briefly involved with Carlisle, she responds to his query as to whether she's still in love with him by replying that she's "not sure."

That didn't go down too well with Reynolds who decides he's through with Lane. But then Titus frames Reynolds by forcing his construction boss to hire convicts without pay on Reynold's payroll, leading to a charge of "peonage."

Lane saves the day by confronting Sheriff Titus with a gun and demands that he contact the State Attorney and have all charges dropped against her husband. There's a struggle over the gun and Titus is killed. The death is ruled a suicide and Lane walks back into the arms of Reynolds who recognizes that she saved him from ruin.

Greenstreet probably has the best part here playing the oily sheriff despite looking quite ill throughout all of his screen time (the famed actor was to make one more picture and die of complications from diabetes five years later).

The other principals prove to be caricatures typical of the melodramatic genre. Crawford was known for many of these "rag to riches" parts but she ends up saving a husband who in reality is not somebody we should really be rooting for. We care for Scott's character even less because he's so ineffectual and seems to wimp out at every turn.

I didn't expect to enjoy Flamingo Road as much as I did. Maybe it's the plot rather than the characters that drew me in. This is a story that will hold your interest despite the campy nature of its subject matter.

"Mildred Pierce meets The Damned Don't Cry"

[Davalon-Davalon · 3/10 · 17 February 2008]

I don't know if anyone was using their noggin when they cast Joan as a carnival dancer who ends up on the right side of tracks. It is incomprehensible that anyone who speaks with such crisp, clear English and has such a fabulous 90210 'do could be standing on some cheap stage, wearing a cheap veil and waving her hands around in a pathetic attempt to be erotic (the audience is mainly made up of teen-age boys). The thing is -- why they felt they needed this as a "set-up" is beyond me. It was totally unnecessary.

I'm not going to belabor the plot because everyone else has done so, but what is interesting about this film is that we have no idea who Joan was before she was a carny dancer. She seems like she arrived from another planet and quickly figured out how to talk and walk like a human being. It is utterly bizarre.

Next, with Zachary Scott as her first (instant) true love and David Brian as her second (eventually clues in that he really is her) true love, "Flamingo Road" careens between visions of "Mildred Pierce" and "The Damn Don't Cry." All I could think about were those films while I watched this leaden potboiler lumber along. Yeah, there are some great snappy lines of dialogue (not enough); yes, Sydney Greenstreet (who, no matter what he does, cannot drop his British accent) makes a great villain, and yes, Joan can still wear a waitress skirt and sling hash with the best of them -- but so what? Who cares?

Here we have Joan go from 10 cents a toss veiled dancer to being the lady of a vast mansion on Flamingo Road -- instructing her birdbrain "maid" when and where to serve tea, and redecorating the entire place as if she was Martha Stewart's mother. It's incomprehensible.

The other thing that I've started to notice after OD'ing on Joan films (and I adore her) is that if a man looks at her once, that's it -- the hot sex, love and marriage are one kiss away -- and there better not be another babe in the room -- or on the screen. And yet, "Flamingo Road" features the very pretty (and young) Virginia Huston as Annabelle Weldon, the woman who Zachary Scott marries, even though he's still in love with Joan (and yet, why? What the hell do they have in common?). Also, in most of Joan's movies (as with Streisand's), Joan is always told how pretty she looks and what a great girl she is. Yeah, well, she was pretty at one time, and she was a girl, but she is neither in this film.

At any rate, the movie eventually becomes a repeat performance of so many other Joan movies, which was basically: the poor girl works her way up to the rich girl. The problem is: We've been there done that, and no matter what she does, Joan can't save this clunker. I love you Joan, but this was a big "yawn." Thumbs down.

Pennyless Lane on the long and winding road

[dbdumonteil · 16 April 2008]

"Flaming Road" is the posh street of the town ,the place where everyone who has made it wants to dwell.

"Flamingo road" belongs to a rare genre :the political melodrama ;but politics are very vague and consist of scheming ,bribes and men of straw.The young male actors are rather bland and it's Sidney Greenstreet' s sheriff Titus who walks away with the honors.He really matches Crawford every step of the way.He did exactly what the producers wanted to:making himself hated by the audience .He is fat,fleshy.Crawford almost becomes a female Jean Valjean ,harassed by an American Javert.

Crawford's usual rags to riches performance

[sdave7596 · 7/10 · 3 October 2008]

"Flamingo Road" released in 1949 in the waning days of Joan Crawford's days at Warner Brothers, where she had a great second career after 18 years at MGM. Crawford plays a carnival girl, who decides to stay in the town after her fellow performers leave. She meets Zachary Scott, whom Crawford worked with in "Mildred Pierce." Scott played the playboy in that film, here is a weak-willed deputy sheriff who falls for Crawford - but he is controlled by the big bully sheriff (a stand out performance by Syndey Greenstreet). Crawford is a nuisance to the sheriff and a threat to the political plans he has for Zachary Scott. After he fails to run her out of town and gets her fired from her job, she stays anyway and meets - and marries - handsome David Brian, playing a hotshot businessman. It all gets quite complicated, with politics, corruption and sleaze thrown in for the storyline. Crawford is a delight here, playing her usual rags to riches kind of gal - but who did it better than she? Sure, she was in her 40's here, but she looked fantastic and played well off actor David Brian especially. Syndey Greenstreet has the performance of his career here, as the evil and corrupt sheriff who seems to have too much power to be quite believable. The film is a bit too long, and the end seems forced and tacked on, when Crawford and Greenstreet finally have it out. But - a must see for Crawford fans!

See you on the right side of the tracks

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 11 March 2020]

Saw 'Flamingo Road' for two main reasons. One was for Michael Curtiz, an immense talent who directed many good to brilliant films ('Casablanca' being his crowning achievement). The other main reason was the cast. Have for a while admired Joan Crawford, who gave it everything in every film regardless of the material (though am not a great fan of her twilight years work). Was interested in seeing Zachary Scott in a non-villain role and also seeing Sydney Greenstreet as a pure evil character.

While 'Flamingo Road' is not a great film and has its flaws, there are many things that it does very well and it is very entertaining. The story execution is uneven and Max Steiner did work that was a lot better than what he gave here, but the direction and the general quality of the production values and acting more than makes up for those things. Fans of Curtiz, Crawford and Greenstreet shouldn't miss it, even it is for curio and completest sake.

'Flamingo Road' looks pretty immaculate, the photography and lighting having a lot of atmosphere that is almost noir-ish. Curtiz shows a complete command and ease of the material, and directs tightly and assuredly. The script always intrigues and is often sharp and even witty. The story is not perfect but it more often than not entertains and has some nice suspense and intrigue, the chemistry between Crawford and Greenstreet blisters. Particularly in a major confrontation.

Crawford gives a fully committed performance that grips one from the get go and never stops doing so. David Brian is very good and brings dimension to a role that sounds thankless on paper, while Greenstreet is one sinister antagonist.

Did find Scott a bit bland though and his character somewhat colourless, maybe it is just me being more used to him in villainous and mysterious roles. Steiner is not at his best either, his score is far too melodramatic for the material, even for a story that can get over the top, and it just felt intrusive.

Although the story engrosses and intrigues, it can get very far-fetched and over-stuffed. Some of the final act felt rushed.

Summing up, enjoyable film but not a great one. 7/10

Joan in another gutsy role

[NCCOBEAR · 7/10 · 17 February 2008]

I find it amusing to see Joan at her age playing a carny cooch dancer. Notice that she is dressed in black when you first see her, so your eyes immediately travels to her swinging & swaying. (do you serve fries with that shake?) This is not the first time she has progressed from waitress wedgies to alligator pumps in a movie. She falls for a local "Johnny law," only to incur the wrath of the town's mayor, played by Sydney Greenstreet, who resemble a scrotum with legs. His laugh is something you'd hear on an obscene phone call. He doesn't like poor Joan & gives her a hard time at every turn. I like Gladys George as Lute Mae. the owner of a local road house (read as "brothel in disguise), who doesn't take guff from anyone. It's fun to watch, predictable, but fun.

As the Political Wheels Turn...

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 17 March 2013]

And an evil sheriff is turning the crank. What he (Sydney Greenstreet) is unaware of is that a political outsider is about to unscrew the bolts that keep the crank oiled. The fat and disgusting Titus Semple, his weight a metaphor for his greasy demeanor, has everybody under his thumb, or runs them out of town on a prison trek if they don't pay him heed. He jokes that fat men are supposed to be happy but he has everybody fooled. Like the wicked witch of the west, he's amused by his beautiful wickedness. Who he doesn't fool is Laine Bellamy (Joan Crawford), the carny girl who remained behind and a victim of his calculating whims. She isn't afraid to stand up to the machine, daring to fall in love with aspiring politician Fielding Carlyle (Zachary Scott, Crawford's co-star in "Mildred Pierce"), and squelched by Semple's weasel like scheming. "You'd be surprised how much trouble it is to dispose of a dead elephant", she tells Greenstreet, having returned to town with a make-over thanks to her new husband, Dan Reynolds (David Brian), a big wheel from Washington D.C. determined to put small town viruses like Semple in their place.

This is a gripping political drama, made the same year as the Oscar Winning "All the King's Men" and the lesser known "Alias Nick Beal". The focus here is on the woman behind the scenes, and Crawford is great, even if her masculine hairstyle makes her appear older than the character, especially in the opening carny scenes. Greenstreet revels in his villainy here even more so than in "The Maltese Falcon", his hatred of Crawford instant from the moment he sees her dining with his puppet. The wonderful Gladys George steals every scene she's in as the one person who sees through Laine (but likes her anyway!). When Ms. George warns Greenstreet that she's the only one who determines who works in her place and dismisses him like nobody else besides Crawford has dared (and that was with a slap across the face), you want to shout out "hurray!". Then, she tells Crawford how much more she likes her now that she knows how Greenstreet feels about her. You just wish this character had more scenes.

"I've crawled into a bottle and I can't get out", Scott reveals in a key scene as the weak Fielding, and it is obvious that his character will end up being destroyed by the machine that's been protecting him. This leads to the cards stacking up against practically every character with Semple's destruction only a matter of a plot twist or two away. This is movie soap opera at its best, and sure enough, in the early 1980's, it became one, albeit sadly briefly. But the original movie, which I must confess I didn't care for when first seeing it years ago, has stood the test of time, and today's political machine, still cranking away today, can be recognized in the cogs of the wheels turning here.

Loosey-goosey Warner Bros. potboiler...as juicy and wonderful as it is ridiculous

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 8 September 2010]

Harem dancer with a traveling carnival stays behind in a lumber town after the caravans are forced to pack up and run; she's got three dollars in her purse and isn't about to run from anybody! Luckily a pliable, well-meaning deputy takes an interest in the girl and gets her a job waiting tables, but their romance is spoiled by his superior, a crooked, back-stabbing sheriff with political ties. Robert and Sally Wilder's play becomes florid, engrossing vehicle for Joan Crawford, providing the tough, mercurial star with another of her great, gritty roles from this sumptuous era. Crawford may be a little mature for a cheesecake dancer, but she acquits herself well with this overheated, overwrought scenario. Sydney Greenstreet sweats and grunts imposingly enough as Sheriff Titus (who calls all his cohorts "Bub"), while Zachary Scott and David Brian are the well-cast men in Crawford's love life. Brian, in particular, matches up extremely well with the ballsy broad from across the tracks; he doesn't go in for a lot of nonsense--and she doesn't give him any. The editing in the opening is sloppy (showing us a clip of a scene that takes place later) and Max Steiner's melodramatic score is too emphatic with the shuddery notes (when Brian takes a sip from a whiskey sour, the strings rise and fall as if this were an Agatha Christie mystery). The picture certainly isn't art, though it's quite enjoyable on a camp level and Crawford is always worth a look. **1/2 from ****

One of Crawford's better films

[preppy-3 · 8/10 · 23 March 2004]

Carnival girl Joan Crawford (looking pretty damn good for 45) settles in a small town. She falls in love with deputy sheriff Zachary Scott--but corrupt head sheriff Sydney Greenstreet wants her gone. He frames Crawford on prostitution and she's sent to jail. She gets out and is determined to get her revenge on Greenstreet...

The plot is kind of silly (and VERY rushed at the end) but I liked this movie. It's well-directed by Michael Curtiz and looks just beautiful--very elaborate. Warner Bros. obviously spent a lot of money on this one. When you get right down to it it's basically a soap opera--but a fun one!

Crawford gives one of her best performances. In reality she's too old for the role but she doesn't look it! You can't take your eyes off her when she's on screen. Scott is stuck with a colorless role. Also David Brian shows up as a politician and he's very good. And Gladys George shines as an owner of a "roadhouse". The big disappointment here is Greenstreet--he's just terrible! He's stone-faced throughout (he can't even register surprise in one crucial scene), looks very ill (but he was 70, overweight and diabetic) and slurs most of his dialogue which makes him appear drunk. He's very evil but his empty performance weighs the film down.

Still, worth seeing for Crawford alone. Easily one of her best.

Act Your Age

[LeonLouisRicci · 6/10 · 5 February 2014]

Here is Joan Crawford, Sydney Greenstreet, Director Michael Curtiz, and Composer Max Steiner in a Watchable Mishmash of Politics and Sociology Combined with Soap Opera and Intrigue.

There is some Snappy Dialog and the Film Looks Stunning in the Director's Usual Visual Style. Crawford, still Hanging On to a Mid-Twenties Role, Effortlessly Throws Barbs while Mesmerizing any Men Within Range (call it suspension of disbelief).

With Greenstreet at His Slimy Best as the most Corrupt of Sheriffs there is a lot of Backstabbing and Blackmail. But by the End the Political Positioning gets so Convoluted it Hardly Matters and the Movie Collapses Under the Weight of all that Stuff that was Thrown Up there On the Screen.

But Overall, there is Enough Entertainment Value to Keep Things Interesting and it is Worth a Watch for Joan Crawford Fans as this was a Transition Period where She Soon would Give In and Play Roles at Least Closed to Her Own Age and Accept that She was not Ageless and it Took More than Sheer Will to make it Work.

You just wouldn't believe how much trouble it is to get rid of a dead elephant!

[jjnxn-1 · 9/10 · 30 April 2013]

Lurid, over the top melodrama with Crawford giving a tough, spirited performance against wonderful opponent Sydney Greenstreet, theirs is a terrificly malevolent chemistry. They pretty much wipe everybody else off the screen except for Gladys George in a sharp cameo. Joan is right on the cusp here between true A pictures, which this is, and a series of films that would be Joan Crawford Vehicles with little room for anything or anybody else. From this point on there would be few forays outside a clearly defined formula, but one that worked for her for many years. So enjoy her as a tough carny girl before she calcified into the grand lady.

If I don't know what's going on I don't worry about it

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 28 March 2006]

**SPOILERS** Sleaze and corruption in a deep southern state has middle-age carnival dancer Lane Bellamy, Joan Crawford, go from rags to riches. As she's brought full-circle with the man of her nightmares corrupt sheriff and state power-broker Titus Semple, Sydney Greenstreet,in an explosive showdown at the conclusion of the movie "Flamingo Road".

Having no place to stay after her dancing troupe left the town of Bolden Lane is found sleeping in a deserted tent by deputy Sheriff Fielding Carlisle, Zachary Scott, Fielding. Sheriff Fielding gives Lane some money and gets her a job at the Eagle café. Soon he begins to fall in love with the former dancer.

Titus who's looking to put Fielding in the state Governor's mansion is upset at his involvement with the dirt-poor Lane and breaks up his relationship with her by threatening to destroy Fielding's future in state politics if he doesn't. Dropping Lane for the much younger and politically connected, through her family, Annabell Weldon, Virginia Huston, Fielding get's married to her. Later, unknown to Fielding, Titus has Lane framed and arrested for prostitution putting her in a women's work camp for thirty days.

Out without a job or a place to live Lane is determined to go back to Bolden and put her life back together despite Tits's attempt to run her out of town as well as the state. Lane get's a job as a waitress at Lute Mea's place where there's a big convention going on of the state's political boss' including the big man himself Dan Reynolds, David Brian.

Dan get's to appreciate Lane when she cured him of a hangover and later falls in love with her because of her honesty, something that's very alien to him, about herself and her past. Lane for all her honesty doesn't tell Dan about her past involvement with both Titus and Fielding that almost destroys her marriage to Dan later in the film.

By now Fielding's marriage to Annabelle is on the rocks and his future in state politics in just about history with an outraged Titus kicking him out of his job as state senator and having Fielding end up a pitiful drunkard. Titus now turning his rage on Dan Reynolds, for daring to challenge his power,plans to run someone against Dan's hand-picked man for governor Parkhurst and that being himself. Doing what he does best Titus has one of the men who works for Dan's construction company Burr Lassen, William Haade, blackmailed by framing his son on a bogus drunk-driving charge. This is done in order to frame Dan on a charge of having convicts work for him without pay.

Meanwhile Fielding drinking himself blind gets up enough courage to see Lane at the Reynold's house to tell her what a fool he was by leaving her and thus destroying himself. Lane trying to get Fielding to stop drinking and sleep it off turns her back on him, mixing him a drink of all things , for just a moment as he staggers into the bedroom and shoots himself.

With the people of Boden being whipped up by Titus' stooges in the media to drive Lane out of town for being unworthy, her past of her being arrested for prostitution is leaked out, to live among them. An hurt and outraged Lane goes to Titus' place to get him to admit in public that he set up her husband or else she'll kill him. Titus seeing his chance to now get Lane implicated on an attempted murder charge underestimate her determination to stop him; which backfires on him in a way he never expected it to do.

A bit unrealistic but still very effective political power drama with Joan Crawford giving a stand out performance as the abused and maligned Lane Bellamy. A woman who's driven to the limit by those who are out to destroy her but instead stands firm and fight back.

Cheap camp for a late JC at Warner

[ctg2005 · 4/10 · 5 December 2011]

After several good and very good movies at Warner, Joan Crawford starred in this worn out JC's formula picture. The story of Lane Bellamy, a former carnival dancer who marries a wealthy man and is persecuted by a bully politician, is nothing but a dreadful imitation of the old carachters she' s been playing at MGM. Someone can call it camp, but it's just pure trash. It's a picture ahead of its time, meaning that you can only see such rubbish in the worst Brazilian "telenovelas" nowadays. Not to mention the fact that being in her early forties by that time, she was supposed to play a twenty something young woman. Poor Joan, if she only had waited one year or two, she could have learned from William Holden that " there is nothing tragic about being fifty, unless you want to be twenty five"