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Admirable film.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

Flamingo Road (1949)A true Warner Bros ensemble effort with some familiar names from the time, including the star, Joan Crawford and the director, Michael Curtiz. There are even familiar sets (in style) and moments (including the splayed dead body of one actor who appeared splayed and dead in "Mildred Pierce," starring Crawford and directed by Curtiz, just a few years before.And all of this is good. Whatever the movie lacks in originality it makes up for in style and drama. It's high drama for sure, ranging from a traveling circus to a corrupt sheriff, including murder and gambling and cross loves, and sweeping through lots of great night and interior photography. It's a noir, more or less (the alienated lead character is a woman in this case, and not a soldier adjusting to civilian life), and it redeems sufficiently by the end. Look for lots of great bit actors and wonderful photography throughout.So why isn't this a great classic? Partly it's the story, which turns to well-used devices and characters all along. Partly it's actually the use of Sydney Greenstreet as the heavy—he's quirky and wonderful but not quite convincing as a terrible power- playing thug. Crawford is really at her usual best here (some scenes she really emotes, which isn't always her preference), and she holds up some scenes that are otherwise more routine. Curtiz, to be sure, is brilliant at creating rich scenes with a lot going on (picture the interior shots in "Casablanca" for example). He does that again here, and you can just watch this movie for its feeling. It isn't as dark or brooding a film noir as the best of them, and the villains here don't exude evil or dread the way the genre needs. But there is a steady tension and curiosity as events turn and turn.In the end, this is a "Mildred Pierce" wannabe, and it seems the studio and the director both knew that. So the story line lacks some clear momentum and the characters in general lack basic development. Watch for some pure Warner Bros pleasure—there is a lot here to just sit back and enjoy.

Delicious Hollywood hokum. The plot reads like one of those tawdry 25-cent paperbacks those of us of a certain age used to find in the back of a drugstore. Poor but plucky working girl Crawford climbs (sleeps) her way to the top of back-room politics, despite the odds. Never mind that dear Joan is at least ten years too old for the part, or that David Bryan's crooked boss reforms unbelievably because of Joan's true love. After all, this is the dream factory and here it's hitting on all 8 cylinders. Instead, concentrate on the superb cast that includes those two born schemers, Sydney Greenstreet and Zachary Scott. The grotesque close-ups of the rotund Greenstreet must have jarred a lot of people in its day, as he blackmails his way to the top of the corruption dog-pile. At the same time, he also gets to punch and kick the hapless Scott, whose sole claim to respectability is a socialite wife and a big hat. You just know that heart-of-gold Joan and the conniving over-weight bully will sooner or later come to blows.There's one brief scene in the movie really worth savoring. Sheriff Greenstreet plops onto a porch chair at Lute May's roadhouse (think bordello) for his regular afternoon nap. Fluttering around him is an intimidated Negro attendant. Everything seems normal. But suddenly the pampered Greenstreet can't find the usual chair on which to set his sheriff's hat. So the hapless attendant gets thirty seconds of condescending lecture on the overriding dignity attached to the sheriff's hat having a place to sit. Humiliated, the Negro fetches one. Now a scene like this could easily have ended up on the proverbial cutting-room floor. It adds nothing to the plot, (except to character and race relations). The fact that it remains on screen, however, is testimonial to Hollywood's occasional brilliance in the unlikeliest places. Anyway, the movie may not rise to Oscar level, but it does deserve some kind of award as one of Hollywood's timelessly tacky classics.

Flamingo Road (1949)*** (out of 4)Soap opera with some trash thrown in is the best way to describe this Warner thriller. Lane Bellamy (Joan Crawford) decides its time to leave the circus so when they leave town she decides to stay. At first this seems like a good idea when she meets deputy sheriff Dan Reynolds (David Brian) but soon the sheriff (Sydney Greenstreet) decides to play dirty and have her thrown into jail. Once out she plans her revenge. FLAMINGO ROAD is part politics, part thriller, part soap opera and there's even some trash moments thrown in and as usual director Michael Curtiz manages to hold everything together and deliver a very entertaining film. The movie certainly isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but there are enough very good moments to make it worth viewing and especially if you're a fan of the cast. Crawford, supporting a blonde hair color, manages to be very good here, although this certainly won't rank among her best performances. Some of the best scenes has her going on off the crooked sheriff as she makes it clear that she's not going to be pushed around by anyone. Brian is very good in his supporting role and I especially liked the weakness he managed to bring the character. Zachary Scott plays the man Crawford ends up marrying and is very good as well. Greenstreet played a lot of lovable bad guys in his career but that's not the case here because he's 100% bad and the actor steal the film playing the snake. Curtiz handles the material extremely well and he keeps everything moving at a very fast pace and thankfully things never slow down even when the plot becomes somewhat predictable. Fans of the cast are certainly going to want to check this one out.

How on earth did Joan Crawford get cast in this film? She was 44 when she made "Flamingo Road", but she looks closer to 54. As Lane Bellamy, a "girl" who develops a romantic interest in Deputy Sheriff Fielding Carlisle (35 year old Zachary Scott), Crawford looks more like Fielding's mother. With a scarf covering part of her face as a harem dancer in a carnival when she first appears, she looks so out of place I almost laughed out loud.The film's theme is class-consciousness in a small town in the American South. The phrase "Flamingo Road" is used as code for "social success"; it's the "avenue of achievement". And in the view of Fielding's mentor, town Sheriff Titus Semple (Sydney Greenstreet), a carnival dancer like Lane is too cheap and tawdry to be considered as wife material for Fielding, whom Titus wants to promote as Governor. As a result, "young" Lane and Sheriff Semple ... clash.Greenstreet is terrific in his role. Love that clipped laugh of his. But he doesn't have much of a Southern accent. Which brings up another point. The story may be set in the South, but you'd never know it from the general absence of Southern accents and the film's visuals. Where are the magnolia trees or palm trees? Where is the Spanish moss? Where is the fried chicken, the grits, the cornbread and catfish? And I don't recall hearing a single country-western song.The film's plot and dialogue are moderately melodramatic. And so too is some of the acting. At one point Lane forcefully slaps one of the characters.In some scenes, the film's B&W lighting evokes a wonderfully moody atmosphere. And all that drama actually leads somewhere, as the potent climax makes for quite a surprise. The animated Gladys George is great as the tough and reality tested roadhouse boss, Lute Mae.Despite the miscasting of Crawford and the lack of appropriate Southern atmosphere, "Flamingo Road" is still enjoyable, thanks largely to the presence of both Sydney Greenstreet and Gladys George, and to a mildly interesting plot and surprise ending.