Femmes Fatales

May 22 2024

A WARM FURIOUS FEELING

She's cold blooded. That's why she wears fur even indoors.

Here’s a menacing promo image of Joan Crawford made when she was filming her 1949 melodrama Flamingo Road. This is a crop of a larger photo in which she’s taking aim at villain Sydney Greenstreet, who made the mistake of getting on her bad side. We talked about the movie recently. Shorter version: Crawford absolutely killed.

Flamingo Road, Joan Crawford, Sydney Greenstreet

Vintage Pulp

April 28 2024

CRAWFORD IN THE PINK

Joan is in her sweet spot with a challenging film role.

How do you judge a great acting performance? One way is when beforehand you look at the performer and the part and say, “Impossible, doesn’t fit, can’t possibly work,” then it does. Flamingo Road, which premiered in the U.S today in 1949, features Joan Crawford as a carny performer and it doesn’t fit. But probably nobody would seem to fit. The main character evolves over years from carny chippie into upper crust lady, so either way a filmmaker would have to make a difficult choice—cast an ingenue who evolves into a sophisticated middle-aged woman, or cast a mature actress and hope she can play young. They chose the later option with Crawford, and it can’t possibly work. But this is Crawford we’re talking about—she could make most any role work, and does so here with a typically assured performance.

Flamingo Road is set in the American south and is about the social mores and political machinations of a small but wealthy town. The title refers to the enclave where the rich and powerful live together in their mansions and manors. The carny version of Crawford falls for local deputy sherrif Zachary Scott, but he’s been tabbed by local kingpin Sydney Greenstreet to be his puppet in the state senate. As part of that plan Scott is to marry into wealth. Cavorting with a carny isn’t going to fly. Greenstreet decides to break them up, or hurt Crawford trying, and there’s nothing so underhanded or injurious that he won’t do it. Crawford, though, is tougher than anyone expects, and what she learns from her travails is, first: she’s going to make it to Flamingo Road no matter what it takes; and second: she will have her revenge. That’s all we’ll tell you about the plot.

Flamingo Road is another of those movies that’s often called a film noir, and while we don’t try to be gatekeepers of what is and isn’t noir—because we have no authority to do so—we also don’t avoid stating the obvious. Flamingo Road isn’t a film noir. Some entities, including respected ones, have a vested interest in casting the noir net as widely as possible. If you host noir festivals, for example, after a while you need to expand your defintion of noir to keep your slate fresh. If you write film noir books, you might want to demonstrate that you think outside the box by including Chinatown or Lat sau san taam or The Limey (all excellent movies, by the way).

At the opposite extreme, several prominent critics attest that film noir doesn’t exist at all. That’s like saying there’s no such thing as superhero movies because costumed heroes are just further iterations of superpowered characters such as Rambo. Superhero movies exist. So does film noir, though it resides within the wider genres of crime and drama. However, it’s too easy to call any movie with conflict and a few neon-splashed night sequences a noir. Film noir is as much thematic as it is iconographic. In every way that we can discern, Flamingo Road isn’t one. The definitive American Film Institute calls it a melodrama. We agree. It’s a melodrama in which a good actress, aged north of forty, overcomes difficult casting to knock her years-spanning role out of the park.

Flamingo Road, Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet, David Brian, Gladys George, Virginia Huston, Gertrude Michael, Alice White, poster art, cinema, movie review

Femmes Fatales

March 11 2021

HUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

But she's about to solve it permanently.

This photo of U.S. actress Virginia Huston was made when she was filming her debut feature, 1946’s Nocturne. From that auspicious beginning she went on to appear in Out of the Past, Flamingo Road, The Racket, and Sudden Fear. Her online bios are contradictory. Wikipedia notes that she broke her back in a car accident, and her career slowed afterward. That isn’t true. Her accident was in 1950, and though she was convalescing for a year, most of her film roles came afterward. Meanwhile IMDB says she pretty much retied after marrying in 1952. That’s probably closer to the truth, though without more sources we can’t say if she stepped away from cinema by choice, or if her moment was simply over. Whatever the case, this is a cool photo.

Nocturne, Out of the Past, Flamingo Road, Sudden Fear, The Racket, Virginia Huston, film noir

Vintage Pulp

February 21 2016

MARTINATI CHRONICLES

Italian master’s genius spanned decades.

Back in August we showed you a poster from Luigi Martinati, who worked from 1923 to 1967, and said we’d get back to him. Below, seven more great promotional pieces with his distinctive signature on each.

To Have and Have Not

On the Waterfront

Phantom of the Rue Morgue

Humoresque

Flamingo Road

The Wrong Man

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 5

1945—Hollywood Black Friday

A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

October 4

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

October 4

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

October 3

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

October 3

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

October 3

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.

October 2

1919—Wilson Suffers Stroke

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. He is confined to bed for weeks, but eventually resumes his duties, though his participation is little more than perfunctory. Wilson remains disabled throughout the remainder of his term in office, and the rest of his life.