The Flamingo Rising

I had hopes that "The Flamingo Rising" would be a "black comedy" of outrageous eccentrics trying to out annoy each other along the lines of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi in "Neighbors". The added interest of a gigantic drive in theater and a funeral parlor replacing two adjacent houses, only made the ground more fertile for dark comedy. Unfortunately my expectations were not met, because "The Flamingo Rising" has a severe identity crisis, and is a real mixed bag of underdeveloped characters and concepts. The bag includes feuding neighbors, teenage romance, marital drama, 50s nostalgia, religious guilt, and tragedy. This total mish-mash leads to a fatal identity crisis, and certainly a missed opportunity for the "black comedy" I was anticipating. - MERK

Having read the novel that the film was based on, I found the film a very superficial and watered down version of the story. As with all 'first person' narratives the inner voice of the book is lost, thus taking away a lot of the passion and intensity of the original. The importance of the role of Alice is lost and the loss of the sexual aspect of the story dilutes the tension and southern steaminess.

The movie is the story of Abraham Jakob Lee, an adopted Korean child. His father, Hubert T. Lee, owns and operates the largest drive-in theater, The Flamingo, located on the eastern shores of North Florida. It sits next to Turner Knight's funeral parlor/house. Hubert and Turner feud over the Flamingo, while Abraham falls for Turner's daughter, Grace. Brian Benben (as Hubet), received third billing, yet carries the film with his humor.

As goes with most movies based on novels, the book was better. The author, Larry Baker, admitted that he was not pleased with the screenplay. The screenplay certainly lacked depth, but what's new with TV movies?

Some of the characters names were changed. The author was not happy, but he said the writers couldn't get permission from people of the same names. The Knights names were changed from the Wests. Abraham's middle name in the book was Isaac.

The movie was also cleaned up since it was a Hallmark production. There was plenty of sexual interaction between the kids who worked at the movie theater which also would have provided a better understanding of why Abe and Alice were close. There was also NO smoking on the set, which is ironic since it was 1968.

The movie was shot on location in Marineland and St. Augustine. (Marineland is a city in Flagler County, FL, and has a park of the same name.)

I stumbled upon "The Flamingo Rising" while looking for films featuring William Hurt which I hadn't seen when they first came out. And I decided to watch it because it wasn't as long as some of the others, as it was already pretty late when I started looking. Plus, it was available to stream for free.

I really enjoyed it. I was frankly surprised to learn that it was a Hallmark Hall of Fame production because I tend to think of most of those as being super cheesy and saccharine sweet. Not this one!

I was not handicapped as other reviewers apparently were by the fact of having read the book. I didn't even realize that this movie was based on a book until I came here and started reading reviews, trying to figure out why it had an average rating of only ⭐⭐⭐ as I noticed before watching it. I suggest to potential viewers that you'll probably like the movie better if you haven't read the book. And isn't that often the case? There's a long tradition of moviegoers and reviewers complaining that the movie wasn't as good as the book!

I thought Elizabeth McGovern was terrific, as was young Christopher Larkin. The entire cast was actually pretty good and all the intersecting stories didn't bother me in the way other reviewers complained about. I thought the story was unusual and quite compelling, in particular the tension between the adults and the over-the-top nature of The Flamingo's story.

I say watch it. It's available to stream for free, so why not? I think you'll like it..... assuming you're not an aficionado of the book. 🤣

P.s. The reviewer who complained about the Romeo and Juliet story not being played out had the family associations from William Shakespeare's play backward. Juliet was a Capulet, not a Montague as was asserted in the review, and vice versa for Romeo. I mean, geez, if you're going to get all literary on us, you might want to re-read the work to which you're referring!

Nothing to Bragg about here to goofy to be really good but still OK watch. James Welch Henderson 9-10/21.