Product Description: Joan Crawford stars as a dancer in a traveling circus. Stranded in a corrupt Southern town, she is framed for murder by a crooked sheriff.
Joan Crawford’s triumphant performance in Warner Bros. MILDRED PIERCE (1945) earned her a Best Actress Oscar, paving the way for future leading roles in the studio’s best productions. Crawford followed with HUMORESQUE, POSSESSED, and then reunited with her MILDRED PIERCE director Michael Curtiz, for 1949’s FLAMINGO ROAD. Based on a play by Robert and Sally Wilder the story finds Crawford cast as carnival dancer Lane Bellamy, who finds herself stranded in a small town. When she meets Fielding Carlisle, the local Deputy Sheriff (Zachary Scott), he takes a liking to her, and offers to help Lane by getting her a job as a waitress. The politically ambitious county sheriff, Titus Semple (Sydney Greenstreet) is blatant in his political ambitions, and has positioned himself to serve as a supporter of Fielding Carlisle’s rise in the community, positioning him to run for Governor, but with the secret motivation of advancing his own personal interests. Titus Semple takes an immediate dislike to Lane Bellamy, and has her unjustly railroaded to prison. Meanwhile, Fielding marries society belle, the lovely Annabelle Weldon (Virginia Huston). After her release from prison, Lane is determined not to be subject to Semple’s nefarious abuses again, and gets herself a new job at a roadhouse run by Lute Mae Sanders (Gladys George). State politicians often gather there, and soon Lane meets the suave and handsome Dan Reynolds (David Brian), who is Semple’s main political revival. Dan and Lane soon fall in love and marry. With Titus Semple’s political ambitions serving to build conflict, and Fielding’s own personal spiral leading to alcoholism, jealous of Dan and Lane’s marriage, the story builds to a thrilling conclusion where Lane takes matters into her own hands to defeat Titus Semple…but at what cost?
This new Blu-ray presentation of FLAMINGO ROAD is derived from a new 1080p HD master from the best available preservation elements, with both fully restored picture and audio. The film is coupled with several extras including a production featurette CRAWFORD AT WARNERS, a classic Warner Bros. cartoon CURTAIN RAZOR starring Porky Pig (in HD!), the studio’s blooper reel BREAKDOWNS OF 1949, a radio broadcast from SCREEN DIRECTOR’S PLAYHOUSE starring Joan Crawford with director Michael Curtiz, and the film’s theatrical trailer.
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Find out more about this DVD/Blu-ray release after the jump.