Today we’re discussing Warner Bros. 1949 noir drama “Flamingo Road,” starring Joan Crawford (Lane Bellamy), Zachary Scott (Fielding “Field” Carlisle), Sydney Greenstreet (Sheriff Titus Semple), Gladys George (Lute Mae Sanders), and David Brian (Dan Reynolds). Directed by Michael Curtiz. Cinematography by Ted D. McCord. Produced by Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros. Edited by Folmar Blangsted. Music by Max Steiner. Screenplay by Robert Wilder, with additional dialogue by Edmund H. North; based on the 1946 play “Flamingo Road,” by Robert and Sally Wilder.
Here’s your trailer:
Lane Bellamy is one of the Sultan’s Favorites in a carnival side show. (She used to be one of the featured performers, years ago, to give you an idea how hard times had gotten for her.) When the carnival owner is threatened with a lien placed on his business for outstanding debts, the carnival folds; but for some unexplained reason, Lane decides to stay behind.
Meanwhile, we meet Fielding “Field” Carlisle, scion of one of the town’s prominent families. His father had been a well-respected judge, and Field was supposed to follow in his footsteps. He’s engaged to a girl from another prominent family and has been given a job as a deputy sheriff by Titus Semple, sheriff and local political boss, who has ideas that Field might make a really good pet politician. Titus sends Field off to slap the lien on the carnival. But when he arrives, all he finds is one tent, occupied by Lane.
He ends up taking her out to dinner and they talk. She tells him how she’s grown weary of moving from town to town and wants to finally settle down somewhere. They hit it off, he gets drunk, and by the end of the night, he tells her he loves her.
Um… this is heading in a very noir direction, isn’t it?
Semple sees the two out at dinner and takes an immediate dislike toward Lane, recognizing she could potentially put a monkey wrench in all his plans for Field.
By the next day, Field has gotten Lane a job as a waitress at the diner where they had dinner, and things are looking up for her. But, of course, this is noir, so her good fortune isn’t going to last long…
Semple decides it’s time to run Field for the State Senate; so he insists Field break off the relationship he has with Lane and marry the girl he’s engaged to. Then the sheriff gets Lane canned from the diner job and has her picked up on a bogus soliciting charge, which gets her a brief stay in the big house. All Field knows is that she disappeared around the time he went off to campaign for the Senate seat. When Lane serves out her sentence, she returns to town, intent on not letting Semple ruin her.
While she was in stir, one of the women mentioned a road house run by Lute Mae Sanders where Lane could probably get a job; so she gives it a try. It’s obvious she’s holding info back from Lute Mae, but she hires Lane anyway. While working at the road house, Lane meets Dan Reynolds, a successful businessman who likes to get drunk after he attends the political machine meetings overseen by Semple and another douchebag. Lane and Dan really hit it off, and he quickly falls in love with her, too. (Not bad for a woman who was too told to be a featured dancer in a carnival side show…)
There’s your set up. You’ll have to watch the movie for the rest.
Lane is both the protagonist and something of a femme fatale in the film, as at least one man’s life is destroyed for his involvement with her. But will it be Fielding, Dan, or Semple who’s her victim?
This was a well-paced, well-acted, well-directed film. Exactly what you’d expect from the cast and crew.
I give it 4.5 out of 5 unfiltered cigarette puffs.