thirstydog-32613 Actually kind of racy for its day, Crawford's character acknowledges the fact of men's more dubious intentions in her interactions as a carny girl with her love interest - the wet behind the ears deputy Sheriff. And Sydney Greenstreet is pure evil as the Sheriff who uses his clout to get his candidates elected.Crawford plays an outsider that we want to root for and she delivers. I like how one of the more slippery characters at first changes into one of the better, moral characters that Crawford eventually falls in love with. When he brings her into the jet set life of Flamingo Road, we feel she had it coming and that she deserves it considering her hard-boiled difficult past and her tough but honest demeanor.Being 1949, the dialogue is a bit hokey and whirlwind romances happen in about 10 second flat, but isn't that how things were (sort of) in the day? Maybe, maybe not.

JohnHowardReid Associate producer: George Amy. Producer: Jerry Wald. Executive producer: Michael Curtiz. Copyright 30 April 1949 by Michael Curtiz Productions, Inc. Released through Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand, 6 May 1949. U.S. release 30 April 1949. U.K. release: 12 September 1949. Australian release: 20 October 1950 (sic). 8,507 feet. 94 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Political corruption and violence in a small town in the Deep South.NOTES: Warner Bros. top three highest-grossing films in the U.S.A./Canada for 1949 were (in alphabetical order): Flamingo Road, Johnny Belinda and Look For the Silver Lining.Film debuts of David Brian and Dale Robertson.The stage play based on the 1943 novel by Robert Wilder opened on Broadway at the Belasco on 19 March 1946, closing after only 7 performances. The critics were merciless, with authors Robert Wilder and wife Sally Wilder copping most of the brickbats. Francis J. Felton, Judith Parrish, Will Geer, Philip Bourneuf and Paul Ford were the unhappy players directed by Jose Ruben for producer Rowland Stebbins.COMMENT: Michael Curtiz has delivered a brilliantly-wrought film noir in "Flamingo Road", lovingly photographed in soft shadow and deep focus by Ted McCord. The acting, particularly of the four principals (Crawford, Scott, Greenstreet and Brian) rates as nothing short of marvelously powerful. The taut screenplay compresses the stage play masterfully into a stinging 94 minutes. As usual in this halcyon period when he was at the peak of his powers, Curtiz's striking visual images form a constant delight.

chuck-reilly "Flamingo Road" (1949) is a turgid drama involving crooked southern politicians, equally crooked policemen and women of ill-repute. It drives its points home with a sledgehammer and has plenty of fun doing it. It's also the perfect star-vehicle for Joan Crawford in her prime movie-making years. Similar to many of her other roles, Joan plays Lane Bellamy, a down-and-out waitress seeking a better life. But Joanie runs into more hard luck when she's deemed a persona-non-grata by the local police chief, played by Sidney Greenstreet at his snarling best. Old Sidney is a king-maker when it comes to state politics and he's groomed weak-willed Zachary Taylor to be the next governor. Unfortunately, Zach has fallen hard for Joan, so she's soon picked up on a fraudulent morals charge and thrown into the slammer. Out of sight and out of mind, is Greenstreet's thinking. This does not help Mr. Taylor, however, as he hits the bottle with a vengeance now that his sweetheart is out of the picture. But Joan is released from jail after 30 days and eventually hooks up with multi-millionaire David Brian. He's also politically involved and stands directly in Greenstreet's way to obtain more graft and influence. So Sidney decides that Dave and Joan both have to go. But being the resourceful woman she is, Joan is all for beating Sid to the punch. In the meantime, Zachary Taylor, after being discarded by his mentor Greenstreet, drinks himself into a stupor and kills himself. His death doesn't make much sense except to tie up a loose end of the plot as the showdown between Sidney and Joan races to its inevitable conclusion. You don't have to be a fortune teller to figure out who comes out on top during that encounter. "Flamingo Road" was a hit with the public and Ms. Crawford continued with these types of characters (and films) until they wore out their welcome. Director Michael Curtiz may have been "slumming" when he made this movie, but he probably collected a nice paycheck in the process. Gladys George has a small but pivotal part as the savvy matron of a local road house. Fred Clark also appears as a newspaper writer who actually thinks that honest politicians exist. He's the only one in this film that holds that opinion. There's plenty of drinking, understated sex and carousing going on in "Flamingo Road." The best line is delivered by David Brian. "Having fun is like an insurance policy. The older you get, the more it costs." That was true in 1949 and is still true today.

wmjahn Sydney Greenstreet is THE MAN ! Honestly, I can't remember any movies I saw him in (I did not see all, but many), where he did not dominate at least all the scenes where he was in, effortlessly in fact ! Even in "The Maltese Falcon" Bogart paled when Greenstreet was on-screen.In many movies he even dominated all the other scenes as well, where he was not on-screen.The guy made a little over 20 movies, according to the IMDb, in less than a decade, from 1941 to 49 to be precise, and FLAMINGO ROAD was his penultimate (he was even in RUTHLESS, one of the most underrated masterpieces of the 40ies !!!).Just take the intro: it's less than 5 minutes into the movie, that you see a car parking, a guy leaving it. You just see his back. What a back! You don't even have to see the guy up front, to know who he is. Massive.But what would YOU expect ?!!! Michael Curtiz, one of THE directors of that time (if not THE director of them all - look at his list of achievements) was at it. This director clearly knew not only how to get the best out of the whole cast, but also how to put them on screen the best way possible, how to introduce them properly. Greenstreet was sort-of-a-legend as character actor then already, and this was the best way to introduce him, just to show his huge back.Up he walks a veranda and gets his massive figure into an armchair, intending to put is southern hat at the table besides the armchair, but ... no table there. Not in a loud voice, just casual, he calls the (then usually black and fittingly) servant to tell him that nearly would it have happened that (again!) his hat might have fallen onto the ground and HE (= Greenstreet) would have had to pick it up, like it had "once" (!) happened in the past. He says it casual and without anger, but it is easy to see that this must have been a major disappointment to him - regardless how many years ago this happened, could have been a decade as well -, which he still remembers like the day it happened, like the day when he had his hat fallen in the dust and had to pick it up.Needless to say the servant had the table aside the armchair just seconds later.Enters Zachary Scott, a competent actor as well (also in RUTHLESS, by the way!), the deputy-sheriff, and asked by Greenstreet what he'd done the whole day, replies "been fishing". He'd actually do something for his money, says Scott, if it would lead to anything (clearly implying it would not), but hinting he'd even be sorry for doing nothing. Says Greenstreet he should not (!) worry 'bout that, there would be many other people in - whatever the name of the town was - who would get/earn a lot more money for doing a lot less than he's doing (= fishing the day, smile).Come on, ain't that a scene ?!!! Ever seen something like this in a recent movie, where a guy says not to worry about being lazy ?? Nope, that's against common sense today (poor times we're living in, aren't we?!).All that is delivered almost casually, without any effort, completely easy, just amazing !! This alone is worth watching the (whole) movie, but there are many more great Greenstreet-scenes coming, more than I can recite here. Watch it !! This movie gets a 10 out of 10 for having such a fantastic role for Greenstreet, but the movie itself is also pretty good (would rate it 7 or 8). All the other cast is VERY competent, the story holds interest throughout, the ending is a little by-the-numbers but satisfying, all in all a great achievement and NOT a minor in anybodys career.As I said, watch it, you won't be disappointed (at least if you love good decent movies and can watch a black-and-white one, smile).