Joan Crawford’s exploration of film noir continues unabated in Michael Curtiz’s Flamingo Road, an engrossing melodramatic exposé of small-town political corruption and its effects on a handful of citizens on either side of the law.
The Production: 4/5
Joan Crawford’s reign at Warner Bros. continued with Michael Curtiz’s 1949 noir melodrama Flamingo Road though for the first time there appeared some small fissures in the formula that had been working so well since the star and director had resuscitated her career four years earlier with Mildred Pierce. Flamingo Road examines the world from a smaller vantage point, but there are plenty of snakes in the grass for our heroine to cope with, and Crawford triumphs despite some rather obvious reservations.
Carnival girl Lane Bellamy (Joan Crawford) decides she’s sick of the carny life and sets off on her own in small town Bolton run with an iron fist by its rotund sheriff Titus Semple (Sydney Greenstreet). Semple has definite political plans for his protégé Fielding Carlisle (Zachary Scott), but when Field starts dating Lane, Titus hurriedly puts an end to it, not wishing his pick for the future governor of the state to be tied up with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Blackballed in town, Lane gets a job at a roadhouse owned and operated by Lute Mae Sanders (Gladys George) where she meets the state’s leading political boss Dan Reynolds (David Brian). Dan is smitten immediately, and they quietly marry moving to Bolton’s most upper-class street Flamingo Road and stoking the ever-rising ire of the vengeful Titus Semple.
The screenplay by Robert Wilder and Edmund H. North was based on a play by Robert and Sally Wilder, and it packs a great deal of narrative within its ninety-four minute running time. As the tune “If I Could Be with You” ebbs and flows on the soundtrack (sometimes vocalized by Joan Crawford herself), Lane Bellamy’s rise from dirt poor carnival cooch dancer to jewel-encrusted political matriarch parallels other rags to riches sagas for which Crawford was known both at Warners and previously at MGM. But the several angry confrontations between Lane and Titus bring the bracing electricity to the movie that holds our attention firmly, something not found in either of her romantic encounters with both Field and Dan (the Field romance doesn’t last long broken up by Titus, and Dan’s declaring “I’m crazy about you, Lane” after knowing her less than fifteen hours is rather ludicrous under any circumstances). Director Michael Curtiz’s workmanlike approach to helming the film keeps the story flowing smoothly but doesn’t offer him much in the way of stylish directorial touches, the several sequences set at Lute Mae’s respectable roadhouse providing the most atmospheric moments in the production. There’s not a lot of detail in the backroom political deals that make up part of the motivation for the drama being played out by the various political bosses in the movie with Dan and Titus wrestling for power (All the King’s Men made at Columbia this same year and winner of the year’s Oscar as Best Film was much more focused on that), but it’s a convenient hook for all of the primary characters to dangle from.
Joan Crawford gives a dynamic, earnest, and highly professional performance, the equal of much of her already lauded work since moving to Warners, but she’s at least fifteen years too old for the role (and looks it), a fact we have to struggle to ignore to enjoy her work here to the fullest. David Brian, a fairly tough brute with a tender side, begins the first of three co-starring parts opposite Joan Crawford, and he’s the perfect co-star for her at this stage of her career, the both of them rather hard-edged and forceful. Of course, Sydney Greenstreet walks away with every scene, chortling in that singularly creepy way of his and letting his enormous girth aid him in establishing his dominance of every scene or situation. Zachary Scott makes a handsome alcoholic doormat for Titus’ bullying and bluster and clicking with Joan Crawford here just as well as he did with her in Mildred Pierce. Gladys George is wonderful in her few scenes as the seen-it-all/done-it-all Lute Mae, master of her own domain at her establishment and someone who can push back with the best of them, even to an adversary as boorishly threatening as Titus. Fred Clark has an agreeable role for a change as the small-town newspaper editor determined to fight the good fight against crooked politicians.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film’s 1.37:1 theatrical aspect ratio is faithfully rendered in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. The image is grand: sharp and detailed with excellent grayscale resulting in deep black levels and crisp, clean whites. There are no anomalies at all with the image making for a captivating viewing experience. The movie has been divided into 26 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is solid and authoritative. Dialogue is always clear and concise, and Max Steiner’s background score (with “If I Could Be with You” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” leaned on heavily as musical motifs) and the sound effects are all blended with surety. There are no problems with hiss, crackle, pops, and flutter.
Special Features: 4/5
Curtain Razor (7:17, HD): Porky Pig animated short
Crawford at Warners (12:09, SD): Peter Fitzgerald’s excellent, concise documentary on Crawford’s Warners career with learned comments from historians Richard Barrios, Molly Haskell, Jeanine Basinger, Bob Thomas, and daughter Christina Crawford.
Screen Director’s Playhouse (23:38) Crawford and Brian offer a radio adaptation of the film.
Breakdowns of 1949 (10:25, HD): outtakes from some Warner films of the year.
Theatrical Trailer (2:00, HD)
Overall: 4/5
Joan Crawford’s exploration of film noir continues unabated in Michael Curtiz’s Flamingo Road, an engrossing melodramatic exposé of small-town political corruption and its effects on a handful of citizens on either side of the law. The Warner Archive Blu-ray features exemplary picture and sound and comes with a firm recommendation.
Now retrieving an image set.
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Absolutely true and that's increasingly so in her next two Warner noirs The Damned Don't Cry and This Woman Is Dangerous.
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