Kings Row

A small American town at the turn of the twentieth century. From outside it looks peaceful; inside there is mental illness, incest, cruelty dressed as charity and arbitrary surgery. Parris leaves to study medicine while his friend Drake stays. Drake has an accident and the town doctor amputates both his legs though there is no need; the reason is not medical but his relationship with the doctor's daughter. The subject is not provincial life but respected institutions becoming instruments of punishment. Both doctors in the film use their profession to settle personal accounts and nobody is able to question them. The form is major studio production but unusually dark for its subject. James Wong Howe's cinematography fills the interiors with shadow; Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score is still cited and shaped film music for years afterwards. The source is Henry Bellamann's novel, which gave the censors a great deal of trouble: the incest strand was removed entirely, the daughter's illness left vague and several events reduced to implication. The film remained hard for its period regardless. Ronald Reagan plays Drake. The line he speaks on waking became his most cited scene, and years later he used that sentence as the title of his autobiography. Ann Sheridan and Robert Cummings are in the cast. Sam Wood directs. Who it is for: viewers who like classical-era melodrama and dark stories of small towns. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by the gaps censorship opened; some events pass without explanation.