Kings Row
Encyclopedia
Kings Row is a 1942 film starring Ann Sheridan
, Robert Cummings
, and Ronald Reagan
that tells a story of young people growing up in a small American town at the turn of the twentieth century, beset by social pressure, dark secrets, and the challenges and tragedies one must face as a result of these hard facts. The picture was directed by Sam Wood
.
The film, which was Ronald Reagan
's most notable role during his early acting career at Warner Brothers, was adapted by Casey Robinson
from a best-selling 1940 novel of the same name by Henry Bellamann
. The movie also features Betty Field
, Charles Coburn
, and Claude Rains
. The musical score was composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
, and the cinematographer was James Wong Howe
.
In the film, Reagan's character, Drake McHugh, has both legs amputated by a sadistic surgeon, played by Coburn. When he wakes from anesthesia, he says, "Where's the rest of me?" Reagan used that line as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Reagan and most film critics considered Kings Row his best movie. Reagan called the film a "slightly sordid but moving yarn" that "made me a star."
), who lives with his grandmother (Maria Ouspenskaya
); Cassandra Tower (Betty Field
), daughter of Dr. Alexander Tower (Claude Rains
); the wealthy orphan Drake McHugh (Ronald Reagan
); Louise Gordon (Nancy Coleman
), daughter of the sadistic town physician Dr. Henry Gordon (Charles Coburn
), who performs operations without anesthetic; and the tomboy
Randy Monaghan (Ann Sheridan
), whose father (Ernest Cossart
) is a railroad worker.
Parris is attracted to Cassandra, whom the other children avoid because her family is "strange": her mother is confined to the house and never seen. Dr. Tower takes Cassie out of school and Parris does not see her again until years later, when he begins his medical studies under Dr. Tower's tutelage.
Parris' best friend, Drake, intends to marry Louise despite the disapproval of her father. Louise, however, refuses to defy her parents and will not marry him. Parris and Cassie begin a secret romance, seeing each other at Drake's house. At about this time, Parris' grandmother becomes ill from terminal cancer and dies as he is about to go to Vienna for medical school. Parris, who decides to study psychiatry, proposes marriage to Cassie. She initially resists, running away, but later begs him to take her with him to Vienna. She then runs away again, back home.
The next day, Parris learns that Dr. Tower has poisoned Cassie and shot himself and has left his estate to him. He learns from Dr. Tower's notebook that he killed Cassie because she was insane like her mother, to prevent Parris from ruining his life by marrying her, just as Tower's life had been ruined by marrying her mother.
While Parris is in Vienna, Drake's trust fund is stolen by a dishonest bank official. He is forced to work for the railroad and is accidentally crushed by a boxcar. The sadistic Dr. Gordon, who hates Drake and thinks he is immoral, amputates both of his legs needlessly. Drake, who had been courting Randy before the accident, marries her and is now embittered and refuses to leave his bed. They commence a business, begun with Parris' financial help, building houses for working families, although Drake refuses to leave his bed. When Parris suggests they move into one of the homes they've built, away from the railroad tracks and sounds of the trains that plague Drake, he becomes hysterical and makes Randy swear to never make him leave the room.
Parris returns to Kings Row and decides to remain there, when he learns that Dr. Gordon has died, leaving the town with no doctor. Louise reveals that her father amputated Drake's legs because he thought it was his duty to punish wickedness. Parris at first wishes to withhold the truth from Drake, fearing it will destroy his fragile recovery. He considers confining Louise to a mental institution, even though she is not insane, to prevent the truth from being revealed to Drake and other victims of her father. But instead, persuaded by his new friend Elise (Kaaren Verne
) to treat Drake like any other patient rather than his best friend, he tells Drake what happened. Drake reacts with defiance and summons a renewed will to live instead of the deep clinical depression Parris had feared. Parris is now free to marry Elise, having helped his old friend return to a productive life.
.
Ida Lupino
, Olivia de Havilland
and Ginger Rogers
were initially considered for the role of Cassandra. Director Sam Wood pushed hard to cast Lupino, saying that she "has a natural something that Cassie should have." Wood believed that de Havilland, who turned down the role, was too mature for the part. Lupino also turned it down, despite Wallis' emphatic arguments, saying that it was "beneath her as an artist."
Bette Davis
wanted the part, but the studio was against it because it was believed that she would dominate the movie, and Davis later suggested Betty Field
. Among the other actresses considered for Cassandra were Katharine Hepburn
, Adele Longmire, Marsha Hunt
, Laraine Day
, Susan Peters
, Joan Leslie
, Gene Tierney
and Priscilla Lane
.
James Stephenson
was originally cast as Dr. Tower but died, and was replaced by Claude Rains
. John Garfield
was considered for the role of Drake McHugh, and Philip Reed
, Rex Downing, and Tyrone Power
were considered for the role of Parris.
Producer Hal B. Wallis
borrowed Robert Cummings
from Universal Studios
when Twentieth-Century Fox refused to lend Power. Dennis Morgan
, Eddie Albert
, Robert Preston
, and Franchot Tone
were also considered for the Drake role.
Although Reagan became a star as a result of his performance, he was unable to capitalize on his success because he was drafted into the U.S. Army to serve in World War II. He never regained the star status that he had achieved from his performance in the film.
turned down an assignment to produce the film, saying, "As far as plot is concerned, the material in Kings Row is for the most part either censurable or too gruesome and depressing to be used. The hero finding out that his girl has been carrying on incestuous relations with her father...a host of moronic or otherwise mentally diseased characters...people dying from cancer, suicides-these are the principal elements of the story."
The pivotal scene in which Drake McHugh wakes up to find his legs amputated posed an acting challenge for Reagan, who was supposed to say "Where's the rest of me?" in a convincing fashion. In City of Nets, Otto Friedrich noted that the movie had a formidable array of acting talent, and that the scene in which he saw that his legs were gone was his "one great opportunity." Reagan recalled in his memoir that he had "neither the experience nor talent to fake it," so he carried out exhaustive research, talking to disabled people and doctors, and practicing the line every chance he got.
On the night before the scene was shot he had little sleep, so he looked suitably worn out, and Sam Wood shot the scene without rehearsal. He called out for Randy, which was not in the script, but Ann Sheridan was there and responded. The scene was effective and there was no need for another take.
A film adaptation of Bellamann's controversial novel, modeled on his home town of Fulton, Missouri
, presented significant problems for movie industry censors, who sought to bring the film into conformity with the Hays Code. Screenwriter Casey Robinson believed the project was hopeless because of the Hays Code. Producer Hal B. Wallis
said that Robinson felt "I was crazy to have bought so downbeat a property." Wallis urged him to reconsider, and it occurred to Robinson that he could turn this into the story of "an idealistic young doctor challenged by the realities of a cruel and horrifying world."
Joseph Breen
, director of the Production Code Authority, which administered the Hays Code, wrote the producers that "To attempt to translate such a story to the screen, even though it be re-written to conform to the provisions of the Production Code is, in our judgment, a very questionable undertaking from the standpoint of the good and welfare of this industry."
Breen objected to "illicit sexual relationships" between characters in the movie "without sufficient compensating moral values", and also objected to "the general suggestion of loose sex...which carries throughout the entire script." Breen also voiced concern about the characterization of Cassandra, who is a victim of incest with her father in the novel, as well as the mercy killing of the grandmother by Parris also depicted in the novel, and "the sadistic characterization of Dr. Gordon."
Breen said that any screenplay, no matter how well done, would likely bring condemnation of the film industry "from decent people everywhere" because of "the fact that it stems from so thoroughly questionable a novel. He said that the script was being referred to his superior, Will Hays
, "for a decision as to the acceptability of any production based upon the novel, Kings Row."
Robinson, Wallis and associate producer David Lewis
met with Breen to resolve these issues, with Wallis saying that the film would "illustrate how a doctor could relieve the internal destruction of a stricken community." Breen said that his office would approve the film if all references to incest, nymphomania, euthanasia
and homosexuality
, which had been suggested in the novel, be removed. All references to nude bathing were to be eliminated and "the suggestion of a sex affair between Randy and Drake will be eliminated entirely." It was agreed that Dr. Tower would know about the affair between Cassandra and Parris, and "that this had something to do with his killing of the girl."
After several drafts were rejected, Robinson was able to satisfy Breen.
, was a disciple of Honoré de Balzac
, and his novel was in the tradition of Winesburg, Ohio
and was a forerunner of the popular 1950s novel Peyton Place
.
The film begins with a billboard promoting Kings Row as "A Good Town. A Good Clean Town. A Good Town to Live In and a Good Place to Raise Your Children." In his book City of Nets, author Otto Friedrich says that beneath the tranquil small town exterior was a "roiling inferno of fraud, corruption, treachery, hypocrisy, class warfare, and ill-suppressed sex of all varieties: adultery, sadism, homosexuality, incest."
The film is a eulogy for American small town life in the Victorian era. At one point a character laments at seeing Parris' grandmother getting older: "A whole way of life. A way of gentleness and honor and dignity. These things are going... and they may never come back to this world."
, was so popular with the public that the Warner Brothers Music Department drafted a form-letter response to queries concerning recordings or sheet music. At the time, film scores for movie dramas were not published or recorded for commercial distribution.
A soundtrack was not commercially available until 1979, when Chalfont Records
, with the composer's son George Korngold
as producer and an orchestra conducted by Charles Gerhardt
, made an early digital recording. Subsequently, the original soundtrack, with the composer conducting, has been released from an optical recording.
Kings Row is considered one of Korngold's most notable compositions. The original orchestral score was requested by the White House for the inauguration of President Reagan. Prolific film scorer John Williams
drew inspiration from this film's soundtrack for his famous Star Wars opening theme.
Prior to release of the film, the Los Angeles Daily News reported that Bellaman "heads west to help Erich Wolfgang Korngold on the scoring" of the film, and that Bellaman used to be on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music
in Philadelphia. This led Korngold to write a sarcastic letter to the head of studio publicity at Warner Brothers, saying, "seriously, should I really stop working and wait for the arrival of Mr. Bellaman? ... However, if he shouldn't arrive in time to help me, I shall certainly be ready to 'head east'—perhaps I could help him in writing his new book!"
New York Times
film critic Bosley Crowther
panned Kings Row, which he described as being as "gloomy and ponderous" as the novel upon which it was based. "Just why the Warners attempted a picture of this sort in these times, and just why the corps of high-priced artists which they employed for it did such a bungling job," Crowther wrote, "are questions which they are probably mulling more anxiously than any one else." Crowther said that the film "turgidly unfolds on the screen," and is "one of the bulkiest blunders to come out of Hollywood in some time." The performances, particularly Cummings', were, he said, "totally lacking in conviction." The film, he said, "just shows a lot of people feeling bad."
Modern reviewers have viewed the movie favorably, however, and the film received a 100% rating from Rotten Tomatoes
, a film-review aggregator.
Time Out Film Guide described the film as "one of the great melodramas" and "as compulsive and perverse as any election, a veritable Mount Rushmore of emotional and physical cripples, including a surgeon with a penchant for unnecessary amputations, a girl who 'made friends on one side of the tracks and made love on the other'."
TV Guide
said that Kings Row was "one of the most memorable melodramas of its day," in that it portrayed "a small town not with the poignancy and little joys of Thorton Wilder's Our Town, but rather in grim, often tragic tones." The magazine described the film as "one of director Wood's finest films," and praised Robinson's screenplay, "even if he cut out a death from cancer, deleted a mercy killing, and toned down the narrative's homosexual angle." It described Korngold's score as "haunting" and the sets "quite stunning." James Wong Howe's "gorgeous cinematography, meanwhile, maintains in deep focus many layers of drama, as befits this brooding tapestry."
for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
(James Wong Howe
), Best Director
and Best Picture
.
(who later portrayed Bart Maverick in Maverick
) in Cummings' role and Robert Horton
(who subsequently played scout Flint McCullough in Wagon Train
) performing Reagan's part. The show appeared as one of three rotating series on the earliest William T. Orr
production, Warner Bros. Presents
. The other two series were Casablanca, another TV version of a renowned movie (featuring Charles McGraw
in Humphrey Bogart
's role), and Cheyenne, starring Clint Walker
, a Western later produced by Roy Huggins
that went on to its own time slot for several years until it started rotating with Bronco
, another Warner Bros.
Western. At the conclusion of each episode of Warner Bros. Presents, host Gig Young
would interview a different actor from a new Warner Bros. movie about the studio's latest theatrical release. Kings Row ran for seven episodes.
Ann Sheridan
-Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a...
, Robert Cummings
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
, and Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
that tells a story of young people growing up in a small American town at the turn of the twentieth century, beset by social pressure, dark secrets, and the challenges and tragedies one must face as a result of these hard facts. The picture was directed by Sam Wood
Sam Wood
Samuel Grosvenor "Sam" Wood was an American film director, and producer, who was best known for directing such Hollywood hits as A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and The Pride of the Yankees...
.
The film, which was Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's most notable role during his early acting career at Warner Brothers, was adapted by Casey Robinson
Casey Robinson
Casey Robinson was an American producer and director of mostly B movies and a screenwriter responsible for some of Bette Davis' most revered films...
from a best-selling 1940 novel of the same name by Henry Bellamann
Henry Bellamann
Heinrich Hauer Bellamann was an American novelist and poet, best known as the author of the novel Kings Row.- Biography :...
. The movie also features Betty Field
Betty Field
Betty Field was an American film and stage actress. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins....
, Charles Coburn
Charles Coburn
Charles Douville Coburn was an American film and theater actor.-Biography:Coburn was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Scots-Irish Americans Emma Louise Sprigman and Moses Douville Coburn. Growing up in Savannah, he started out doing odd jobs at the local Savannah Theater, handing out programs,...
, and Claude Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
. The musical score was composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...
, and the cinematographer was James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe, A.S.C. was a Chinese American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films...
.
In the film, Reagan's character, Drake McHugh, has both legs amputated by a sadistic surgeon, played by Coburn. When he wakes from anesthesia, he says, "Where's the rest of me?" Reagan used that line as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Reagan and most film critics considered Kings Row his best movie. Reagan called the film a "slightly sordid but moving yarn" that "made me a star."
Plot summary
The film commences in 1890 in the small town of Kings Row, focusing on five children. They are Parris Mitchell (Robert CummingsRobert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
), who lives with his grandmother (Maria Ouspenskaya
Maria Ouspenskaya
Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.-Life and career:...
); Cassandra Tower (Betty Field
Betty Field
Betty Field was an American film and stage actress. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins....
), daughter of Dr. Alexander Tower (Claude Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
); the wealthy orphan Drake McHugh (Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
); Louise Gordon (Nancy Coleman
Nancy Coleman
Nancy Coleman was an American film, television and radio actress. After working on radio and appearing on the Broadway stage, Nancy Coleman was brought to Hollywood to work for Warner Bros. studios...
), daughter of the sadistic town physician Dr. Henry Gordon (Charles Coburn
Charles Coburn
Charles Douville Coburn was an American film and theater actor.-Biography:Coburn was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Scots-Irish Americans Emma Louise Sprigman and Moses Douville Coburn. Growing up in Savannah, he started out doing odd jobs at the local Savannah Theater, handing out programs,...
), who performs operations without anesthetic; and the tomboy
Tomboy
A tomboy is a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of the gender role of a boy, including the wearing of typically masculine-oriented clothes and engaging in games and activities that are often physical in nature, and which are considered in many cultures to be the...
Randy Monaghan (Ann Sheridan
Ann Sheridan
-Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a...
), whose father (Ernest Cossart
Ernest Cossart
Ernest Cossart was a British-born Hollywood actor. Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, his real name was Emil von Holst. He was the brother of composer Gustav Holst. His daughter was the actress Valeria Cossart....
) is a railroad worker.
Parris' best friend, Drake, intends to marry Louise despite the disapproval of her father. Louise, however, refuses to defy her parents and will not marry him. Parris and Cassie begin a secret romance, seeing each other at Drake's house. At about this time, Parris' grandmother becomes ill from terminal cancer and dies as he is about to go to Vienna for medical school. Parris, who decides to study psychiatry, proposes marriage to Cassie. She initially resists, running away, but later begs him to take her with him to Vienna. She then runs away again, back home.
The next day, Parris learns that Dr. Tower has poisoned Cassie and shot himself and has left his estate to him. He learns from Dr. Tower's notebook that he killed Cassie because she was insane like her mother, to prevent Parris from ruining his life by marrying her, just as Tower's life had been ruined by marrying her mother.
Parris returns to Kings Row and decides to remain there, when he learns that Dr. Gordon has died, leaving the town with no doctor. Louise reveals that her father amputated Drake's legs because he thought it was his duty to punish wickedness. Parris at first wishes to withhold the truth from Drake, fearing it will destroy his fragile recovery. He considers confining Louise to a mental institution, even though she is not insane, to prevent the truth from being revealed to Drake and other victims of her father. But instead, persuaded by his new friend Elise (Kaaren Verne
Kaaren Verne
Kaaren Verne , was a German-born actress. Sometimes billed as Karen Verne, she was originally a stage actress and member of the Berlin State Theatre.-Biography:...
) to treat Drake like any other patient rather than his best friend, he tells Drake what happened. Drake reacts with defiance and summons a renewed will to live instead of the deep clinical depression Parris had feared. Parris is now free to marry Elise, having helped his old friend return to a productive life.
Cast
- Ann SheridanAnn Sheridan-Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a...
as Randy Monaghan - Robert CummingsRobert CummingsCharles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
as Parris Mitchell - Ronald ReaganRonald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
as Drake McHugh - Betty FieldBetty FieldBetty Field was an American film and stage actress. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins....
as Cassandra Tower - Charles CoburnCharles CoburnCharles Douville Coburn was an American film and theater actor.-Biography:Coburn was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Scots-Irish Americans Emma Louise Sprigman and Moses Douville Coburn. Growing up in Savannah, he started out doing odd jobs at the local Savannah Theater, handing out programs,...
as Dr. Henry Gordon - Claude RainsClaude RainsClaude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
as Dr. Alexander Tower - Judith AndersonJudith AndersonDame Judith Anderson, AC, DBE was an Australian-born American-based actress of stage, film and television. She won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award.-Early life:...
as Mrs. Harriet Gordon - Nancy ColemanNancy ColemanNancy Coleman was an American film, television and radio actress. After working on radio and appearing on the Broadway stage, Nancy Coleman was brought to Hollywood to work for Warner Bros. studios...
as Louise Gordon - Kaaren VerneKaaren VerneKaaren Verne , was a German-born actress. Sometimes billed as Karen Verne, she was originally a stage actress and member of the Berlin State Theatre.-Biography:...
as Elise Sandor - Maria OuspenskayaMaria OuspenskayaMaria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.-Life and career:...
as Madame von Eln - Harry Davenport as Colonel Skeffington
- Ernest CossartErnest CossartErnest Cossart was a British-born Hollywood actor. Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, his real name was Emil von Holst. He was the brother of composer Gustav Holst. His daughter was the actress Valeria Cossart....
as Pa Monaghan - Ilka Grüning as Anna (as Ilka Gruning)
- Pat Moriarity as Tod Monaghan
- Minor WatsonMinor WatsonMinor Watson was a prominent character actor. He appeared in 111 movies made between 1913 and 1956. His credits included, Boys Town , Yankee Doodle Dandy , Kings Row , Guadalcanal Diary , Bewitched , The Virginian , and The Jackie Robinson Story .He is buried in Alton Cemetery...
as Sam Winters
Cast notes
Twentieth-Century Fox originally sought to buy Bellamann's novel as a vehicle for Henry FondaHenry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
.
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
, Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
were initially considered for the role of Cassandra. Director Sam Wood pushed hard to cast Lupino, saying that she "has a natural something that Cassie should have." Wood believed that de Havilland, who turned down the role, was too mature for the part. Lupino also turned it down, despite Wallis' emphatic arguments, saying that it was "beneath her as an artist."
Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
wanted the part, but the studio was against it because it was believed that she would dominate the movie, and Davis later suggested Betty Field
Betty Field
Betty Field was an American film and stage actress. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins....
. Among the other actresses considered for Cassandra were Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
, Adele Longmire, Marsha Hunt
Marsha Hunt (actress)
Marsha Hunt is an American film, theater, and television actress who was blacklisted by Hollywood movie studio executives in the 1950s.-Career:...
, Laraine Day
Laraine Day
Laraine Day was an American actress and a former MGM contract star.-Career:Born La Raine Johnson in Roosevelt, Utah, to an affluent Mormon family, she later moved to California where she began her acting career with the Long Beach Players...
, Susan Peters
Susan Peters
Susan Peters was an American stage, film and television actress.-Early life:Peters was born Suzanne Carnahan in Spokane, Washington. First contracted by Warner Brothers, she subsequently began working for MGM Studios after completing high school. Her first job was to read with potential actors in...
, Joan Leslie
Joan Leslie
Joan Leslie is a retired American film and television actress.-Early life:Leslie was born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel in Detroit, Michigan, and raised Roman Catholic. She began performing as a singer at the age of nine as part of a vaudeville act with her two sisters; Betty and Mae Brodel...
, Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include...
and Priscilla Lane
Lane Sisters
The Lane Sisters refers to a group of sisters, three of whom achieved success in the 1920s and 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity onstage leading to a series of successful films. A fourth sister was not successful and left this milieu and a fifth avoided show business altogether...
.
James Stephenson
James Stephenson
James Stephenson was a British actor.-Career:British stage actor James Stephenson made his film debut in 1937 at the age of 48 with parts in four films...
was originally cast as Dr. Tower but died, and was replaced by Claude Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
. John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
was considered for the role of Drake McHugh, and Philip Reed
Philip Reed
Philip Reed was a United States Senator representing Maryland from 1806 to 1813.Born near Chestertown, Maryland, in 1760, Reed completed preparatory studies and served with the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, attaining the rank of captain of infantry...
, Rex Downing, and Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
were considered for the role of Parris.
Producer Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis was an American film producer.-Career:Harold Brent Wallis was born in Chicago in 1898. His family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros...
borrowed Robert Cummings
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
from Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
when Twentieth-Century Fox refused to lend Power. Dennis Morgan
Dennis Morgan
Dennis Morgan was an American actor-singer. Born as Earl Stanley Morner, he used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting his professional name....
, Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
, Robert Preston
Robert Preston (actor)
-Early life:Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and billing clerk for American Express. After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, California, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community...
, and Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
were also considered for the Drake role.
Although Reagan became a star as a result of his performance, he was unable to capitalize on his success because he was drafted into the U.S. Army to serve in World War II. He never regained the star status that he had achieved from his performance in the film.
Production notes
Wolfgang ReinhardtWolfgang Reinhardt
Wolfgang Reinhardt was a West German athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault.He competed for the United Team of Germany in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan in the pole vault where he won the silver medal....
turned down an assignment to produce the film, saying, "As far as plot is concerned, the material in Kings Row is for the most part either censurable or too gruesome and depressing to be used. The hero finding out that his girl has been carrying on incestuous relations with her father...a host of moronic or otherwise mentally diseased characters...people dying from cancer, suicides-these are the principal elements of the story."
The pivotal scene in which Drake McHugh wakes up to find his legs amputated posed an acting challenge for Reagan, who was supposed to say "Where's the rest of me?" in a convincing fashion. In City of Nets, Otto Friedrich noted that the movie had a formidable array of acting talent, and that the scene in which he saw that his legs were gone was his "one great opportunity." Reagan recalled in his memoir that he had "neither the experience nor talent to fake it," so he carried out exhaustive research, talking to disabled people and doctors, and practicing the line every chance he got.
On the night before the scene was shot he had little sleep, so he looked suitably worn out, and Sam Wood shot the scene without rehearsal. He called out for Randy, which was not in the script, but Ann Sheridan was there and responded. The scene was effective and there was no need for another take.
Kings Row and the Hays Code
Fulton, Missouri
Fulton is a city in Callaway County, Missouri, the United States of America. It is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,790 in the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Callaway County...
, presented significant problems for movie industry censors, who sought to bring the film into conformity with the Hays Code. Screenwriter Casey Robinson believed the project was hopeless because of the Hays Code. Producer Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis was an American film producer.-Career:Harold Brent Wallis was born in Chicago in 1898. His family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros...
said that Robinson felt "I was crazy to have bought so downbeat a property." Wallis urged him to reconsider, and it occurred to Robinson that he could turn this into the story of "an idealistic young doctor challenged by the realities of a cruel and horrifying world."
Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen is an American soap opera actor.He played contract parts on both Guiding Light and Loving before being offered his most front-burner role to date: that of Lisa’s long-lost son, Scott Eldridge, on As the World Turns...
, director of the Production Code Authority, which administered the Hays Code, wrote the producers that "To attempt to translate such a story to the screen, even though it be re-written to conform to the provisions of the Production Code is, in our judgment, a very questionable undertaking from the standpoint of the good and welfare of this industry."
Breen objected to "illicit sexual relationships" between characters in the movie "without sufficient compensating moral values", and also objected to "the general suggestion of loose sex...which carries throughout the entire script." Breen also voiced concern about the characterization of Cassandra, who is a victim of incest with her father in the novel, as well as the mercy killing of the grandmother by Parris also depicted in the novel, and "the sadistic characterization of Dr. Gordon."
Will H. Hays
William Harrison Hays, Sr. , was the namesake of the Hays Code for censorship of American films, chairman of the Republican National Committee and U.S. Postmaster General from 1921 to 1922....
, "for a decision as to the acceptability of any production based upon the novel, Kings Row."
Robinson, Wallis and associate producer David Lewis
David Lewis (producer)
David Lewis , born David Levy, was a Hollywood film producer who produced such films as Dark Victory , Arch of Triumph , and Raintree County . He was also the longtime companion of director James Whale from 1930 to 1952...
met with Breen to resolve these issues, with Wallis saying that the film would "illustrate how a doctor could relieve the internal destruction of a stricken community." Breen said that his office would approve the film if all references to incest, nymphomania, euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
and homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, which had been suggested in the novel, be removed. All references to nude bathing were to be eliminated and "the suggestion of a sex affair between Randy and Drake will be eliminated entirely." It was agreed that Dr. Tower would know about the affair between Cassandra and Parris, and "that this had something to do with his killing of the girl."
After several drafts were rejected, Robinson was able to satisfy Breen.
Themes
Bellaman, a professor at Vassar CollegeVassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, was a disciple of Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
, and his novel was in the tradition of Winesburg, Ohio
Winesburg, Ohio (novel)
Winesburg, Ohio is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The work is structured around the life of protagonist George Willard, from the time he was a child to his growing independence and ultimate abandonment of Winesburg as a young man...
and was a forerunner of the popular 1950s novel Peyton Place
Peyton Place (novel)
Peyton Place is a 1956 novel by Grace Metalious. It sold 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release and remained on the New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks. It was adapted as both a 1957 film and a 1964–69 television series....
.
The film begins with a billboard promoting Kings Row as "A Good Town. A Good Clean Town. A Good Town to Live In and a Good Place to Raise Your Children." In his book City of Nets, author Otto Friedrich says that beneath the tranquil small town exterior was a "roiling inferno of fraud, corruption, treachery, hypocrisy, class warfare, and ill-suppressed sex of all varieties: adultery, sadism, homosexuality, incest."
The film is a eulogy for American small town life in the Victorian era. At one point a character laments at seeing Parris' grandmother getting older: "A whole way of life. A way of gentleness and honor and dignity. These things are going... and they may never come back to this world."
Musical score
The film's musical score, by Erich Wolfgang KorngoldErich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...
, was so popular with the public that the Warner Brothers Music Department drafted a form-letter response to queries concerning recordings or sheet music. At the time, film scores for movie dramas were not published or recorded for commercial distribution.
A soundtrack was not commercially available until 1979, when Chalfont Records
Chalfont Records
Chalfont Records was an American record label associated with Varèse Sarabande.Chalfont made recordings of the London Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Noel Rawsthorne, and Carlo Curley...
, with the composer's son George Korngold
George Korngold
George Korngold was a prominent record producer as well as a music editor and producer active within the film industry...
as producer and an orchestra conducted by Charles Gerhardt
Charles Gerhardt (conductor)
Charles Allan Gerhardt was a conductor, record producer, and arranger.-Early years:Gerhardt grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he studied the piano at age five and composition at age nine...
, made an early digital recording. Subsequently, the original soundtrack, with the composer conducting, has been released from an optical recording.
Kings Row is considered one of Korngold's most notable compositions. The original orchestral score was requested by the White House for the inauguration of President Reagan. Prolific film scorer John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
drew inspiration from this film's soundtrack for his famous Star Wars opening theme.
Prior to release of the film, the Los Angeles Daily News reported that Bellaman "heads west to help Erich Wolfgang Korngold on the scoring" of the film, and that Bellaman used to be on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
in Philadelphia. This led Korngold to write a sarcastic letter to the head of studio publicity at Warner Brothers, saying, "seriously, should I really stop working and wait for the arrival of Mr. Bellaman? ... However, if he shouldn't arrive in time to help me, I shall certainly be ready to 'head east'—perhaps I could help him in writing his new book!"
Critical reaction
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
film critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
panned Kings Row, which he described as being as "gloomy and ponderous" as the novel upon which it was based. "Just why the Warners attempted a picture of this sort in these times, and just why the corps of high-priced artists which they employed for it did such a bungling job," Crowther wrote, "are questions which they are probably mulling more anxiously than any one else." Crowther said that the film "turgidly unfolds on the screen," and is "one of the bulkiest blunders to come out of Hollywood in some time." The performances, particularly Cummings', were, he said, "totally lacking in conviction." The film, he said, "just shows a lot of people feeling bad."
Modern reviewers have viewed the movie favorably, however, and the film received a 100% rating from Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, a film-review aggregator.
Time Out Film Guide described the film as "one of the great melodramas" and "as compulsive and perverse as any election, a veritable Mount Rushmore of emotional and physical cripples, including a surgeon with a penchant for unnecessary amputations, a girl who 'made friends on one side of the tracks and made love on the other'."
TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
said that Kings Row was "one of the most memorable melodramas of its day," in that it portrayed "a small town not with the poignancy and little joys of Thorton Wilder's Our Town, but rather in grim, often tragic tones." The magazine described the film as "one of director Wood's finest films," and praised Robinson's screenplay, "even if he cut out a death from cancer, deleted a mercy killing, and toned down the narrative's homosexual angle." It described Korngold's score as "haunting" and the sets "quite stunning." James Wong Howe's "gorgeous cinematography, meanwhile, maintains in deep focus many layers of drama, as befits this brooding tapestry."
Awards
The film was nominated for Academy AwardsAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
(James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe, A.S.C. was a Chinese American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films...
), Best Director
Academy Award for Directing
The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...
and Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
.
Television series
The film was adapted into a 1955 television series, with Jack KellyJack Kelly (actor)
Jack Kelly was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of "Bart Maverick" in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962...
(who later portrayed Bart Maverick in Maverick
Maverick (TV series)
Maverick is a western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, a cagey, articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother...
) in Cummings' role and Robert Horton
Robert Horton
Sir Robert Horton, FRSA is a British businessman. He is a Director of the European Advisory Council and of Emerson Electric Company. He spent 30 years working for BP, formerly British Petroleum. He became Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board of BP in March 1990, but was forced out in 1992...
(who subsequently played scout Flint McCullough in Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
) performing Reagan's part. The show appeared as one of three rotating series on the earliest William T. Orr
William T. Orr
William T. Orr was an American television producer associated with a series of western and detective programs of the 1950s-1970s....
production, Warner Bros. Presents
Warner Bros. Presents
Warner Bros. Presents is the umbrella title for three series telecast as part of the 1955-56 season on ABC: Cheyenne, a new Western series that originated on Presents, and two based on classic Warner Bros. films, Casablanca and Kings Row....
. The other two series were Casablanca, another TV version of a renowned movie (featuring Charles McGraw
Charles McGraw
Charles Butters , best known by his stage name Charles McGraw, was an American actor, who made his first film in 1942, albeit in a small, uncredited role. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa.-Career:...
in Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
's role), and Cheyenne, starring Clint Walker
Clint Walker
Norman Eugene Walker, known as Clint Walker , is an American actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the TV Western series, Cheyenne.-Life and career:...
, a Western later produced by Roy Huggins
Roy Huggins
Roy Huggins was an American novelist and an influential writer/creator and producer of character-driven television series, including Maverick, The Fugitive, and The Rockford Files....
that went on to its own time slot for several years until it started rotating with Bronco
Bronco (TV series)
Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James,...
, another Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Western. At the conclusion of each episode of Warner Bros. Presents, host Gig Young
Gig Young
Gig Young was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.-Early life and career:Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St...
would interview a different actor from a new Warner Bros. movie about the studio's latest theatrical release. Kings Row ran for seven episodes.