Spikeopath 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

dougdoepke 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.

Michael_Elliott 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.

utgard14 Joan Crawford plays a carnival dancer stranded in a small Southern town who begins a relationship with deputy sheriff Zachary Scott. But Sydney Greenstreet, playing a corrupt sheriff with political aspirations for Scott, doesn't care for this new relationship. So he drives Joan out of town on a trumped-up prostitution charge. She determines to get Greenstreet back and her first step in doing that is marrying political boss David Brian.Nice soaper with snappy dialogue and typically good Michael Curtiz direction. Max Steiner's music score is overwrought. Joan's great despite being a few years too old for the part. But that was fairly commonplace during this period where all the great female movie stars still acting were approaching middle age and still being cast in younger parts. It's a minor quibble of mine so don't let it dissuade you from trying this out. She is very good in this. Sydney Greenstreet is memorable as the evil Titus, despite what looks like obvious health issues. As twisted as it sounds, his poor health actually seems to add something to the performance. The often wooden Zachary Scott has one of his better roles as the weak-willed deputy sheriff being controlled by Greenstreet. Gladys George offers fine support. David Brian is OK but doesn't have much of a screen presence. He also has tepid chemistry with Crawford, who persuaded him to go from the stage to the screen with this film. He's not bad but perhaps a more dynamic actor in the part would have been better.