Writers: Harold Medford, Jerome Weidman, Gertrude Walker
Composer: Daniele Amfitheatrof
Starring: Joan Crawford, David Brian, Steve Cochran, Kent Smith, Hugh Sanders, Selena Royle, Jacqueline deWit, Morris Ankrum, Edith Evanson, Richard Egan, Strother Martin
More info: IMDb
Tagline: Warner Bros.' Flaming Stars of 'Flamingo Road' Meet in Scarlet Shadows Again!
Plot: A New York socialite climbs the ladder of success man by man until a life among rich gangsters gives her what she thought she always wanted.
My rating: 6.5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
Is it just me or does it seem like Joan Crawford is acting a little too hard or is it over-acting enough so that it looks like she trying too hard? Granted, I haven't seen many of her pictures but she comes across as someone more confident in her ability than she actually is. I'm not trying to be a dick, it's just an observation. I realize she's from the old school of acting but she stands out more than other big name stars of her day. It's not a bad picture. Crawford does better when she's cold and determined like a film noir bad girl. It takes less than thirty minutes for her to go from loving mother to the broad with the ice pick drive to the top of success. It's then that the story gets going strong. She's fun when she's in that mode but when she lets the emotion come through later on, it's then that her performance lags a bit. She gets too earnest. The ending is a mixed bag of who dies and lives which takes some of the wind out of the crime element in who deserves what. That was a little disappointing but it's not going to ruin the movie for you. The Warner Bros. DVD comes with a few extras. You get a commentary track with Vincent Sherman, a Joan Crawford featurette (13 minutes and it packs enough interesting info on her and this film to make it interesting but there's an awful lot of re-telling the plot), and the theatrical trailer.
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