Flamingo Road [Blu-ray]

Director: Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz

Overview

The fourth of Joan Crawford's Warner Bros. vehicles, Flamingo Road doesn't hold up as well as her earlier Mildred Pierce or Humoresque, but there's plenty to please the eye and ear. Sideshow kootch-dancer Lane Bellamy (Crawford), stranded in a backwater town, gets a job as a waitress. Lane begins falling in love with Fielding Carlisle (Zachary Scott), the political protégé of the town's big-daddy sheriff Titus Semple (Sidney Greenstreet). Semple regards Lane as a gold-digging troublemaker, and does his best to break up the romance, framing her on a trumped-up morals charges and having her shipped off to prison. Once out of the "joint," Lane returns to town, seeking revenge against both Semple and Carlisle. She charms political hack Dan Reynolds (David Brian) into marriage, then transforms Reynolds into a "reform candidate" bent on destroying the corrupt Semple machine. Faced with political ruin, Lane's ex-beau Carlisle commits suicide, a fact that Semple uses as a weapon against Reynolds. A showdown is inevitable--but the story is far from over! Flamingo Road later served as the basis for a weekly TV series; both the film and the series were based on a play by Robert and Sally Wilder.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/14/2023
UPC:	0810103687547
Original Release:	1949
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Language:	English
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	21,552

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Joan Crawford	Lane Bellamy
David Brian	Dan Reynolds
Sydney Greenstreet	Titus Semple
Zachary Scott	Fielding Carlisle
Gladys George	Lute-Mae Sanders
Virginia Huston	Annabelle Weldon
Fred Clark	Doc Waterson
Gertrude Michael	Millie
Alice White	Gracie
Sam McDaniel	Boatright
Tito Vuolo	Pete Ladas
Dick Ryan	Barker
Pat Gleason	Barker
Dale Robertson	Tunis Simms
Iris Adrian	Blanche
Carol Brewster	Waitress
Sunny Knight	Waitress
Lester Kimmel	Lawyer
Frank Scannell	Man
Sammy McKim	Bellboy
Pierre Watkin	Senator
Tris Coffin	Ed Parker
Max Steiner	Composer

Technical Credits

Robert Wilder

Michael Curtiz	Director
Robert Wilder	Screenwriter,Playwright,Playwright
Jerry Wald	Producer

Editorial Reviews

If you can get past the idea of a fortysomething Joan Crawford playing a carnival kooch dancer, Flamingo Road is a fine, if somewhat humid, soap opera. Like she had in Mildred Pierce (1945), Crawford portrays the ambitious girl from the wrong side of the tracks, a part she could play to perfection by 1949 -- if, that is, the audience is willing to suspend a bit of disbelief. Warner Bros. did what they could to make the obvious age problem less so, hence the appearance of fellow "old-timers" Gertrude Michael and Alice White as Joan's co-workers, but it still strains credulity when Crawford, as one of "the sultan's favorite" belly dancers, attempts to wow 'em on the midway. Crawford isn't the whole show, of course, there is also: Sidney Greenstreet, a fat spider spinning his corrupt web all over town; Zachary Scott, playing the same weak-willed schlemiel he did in Mildred Pierce; and David Brian, a good actor who could hold his own and often did against powerful dames like Joan and Bette Davis.

All Movie Guide - Hans J. Wollstein