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| Beautiful Cinematography |
“There’s a Flamingo Road in every town…” the story
opens. Flamingo Road was made in the
quick period after Joan Crawford’s Mildred Pierce – when Joan was filming
fallen women movies. It takes just about
everything that was great in Mildred Pierce and tries to redo it. Director Michael Curtiz and Zachary Scott
reunite with Joan Crawford, but it doesn’t work the same.
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| As one of the Haram's Dancing "Girls" |
If you loved Carol Burnett’s take-off “Mildred Fierce”,
you’re going to love Flamingo Road. At
45, Joan Crawford is about 25 years too old for the role. A bad dye job and that eyebrow don’t help the
cause. Neither does the fact that most
of her co-stars are cast age appropriately.
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| Doesn't she look bitter about age? |
Sydney Greenstreet gives one of his most evil performances
in this movie. Underplaying perfectly,
you have to watch him. He starts up the
steps to a porch, where a black porter sweeps.
He plants his large ass on a chair, and looks to put his hat on the
extra chair, which isn’t there. The
porter says he will hurry and get a chair. Before the porter can leave,
Greenstreet stops him and asks whatever happened to that other boy that used to
work here? The porter says he’s probably
still up in jail – and then quickly apologizes for the missing chair. Those first few minutes tell you a lot about
Sydney – and the state of racial affairs in 1949.
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| Sydney Greenstreet being Sdyney |
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If you can let yourself forget it’s Joan Crawford, not a
twenty something, it is a fairly good melodrama. If you can’t forget, well then it teeters
between great melodrama and train wreck.
There are times the acting and story is so good, you forget it’s
Joan. And there are other times you just
know it is Joan Crawford railing against the world, against the prospect of
being forgotten, ignored and discarded by Hollywood.
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There isn’t really anything like Flamingo Road out
there. In the hands of someone else, it
would be sad to watch this older woman playing so much younger than she
is. But Joan never lets you feel sorry
for her. She attacks the role like a
woman who is a few years too old, but is stuck at this place in her life
anyway. I am sure it views different
than Flamingo Road reads, but it is mesmerizing in a surprisingly touching way
by the time you finish it.
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If you have never seen Carol Burnett as Mildred Fierce....
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