Kings Row (1942)

Director: Sam Wood                                     Writer: Casey Robinson
Film Score: Erich Wolfgang Korngold             Cinematography: James Wong Howe
Starring: Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan and Claude Rains

There are so many films that try, with varying degrees of success, to capture the small town, turn of the century magic of being a child. The opening scenes of Kings Row are about the best I’ve ever seen. The dialogue crackles, the sets are realistic, and the child actors are very good. Unlike most films of this sort, where the audience gets impatient for the stars to come onstage, here it’s almost disappointing to leave the idyllic world of childhood for adult responsibilities and intrigue. The film opens with the regal fanfare of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s sparkling score, and while the majestic strains at first seem incongruous with the rural images on the screen, it becomes more and more appropriate as the film goes on, until eventually one can’t imagine anything else that could possibly match the greatness of the film.

The plot is almost Southern Gothic in construction, with Claude Rains as a reclusive doctor in town. His wife stays shut up in the top room of the house and, when his daughter, Betty Field, is old enough he keeps her at home as well. Robert Cummings is the only one who befriended her as a child and now he is studying medicine with Rains but is still prevented from seeing Field. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan is the wild child, though not in a destructive way, he just likes to have more fun than was considered appropriate at the time. He’s also the only real friend that Cummings has. Ultimately the plot with Rains and Field resolves in a strange way, with Cummings going off to Vienna to study the then new field of psychology. Reagan stays at home with Ann Sheridan and tries to plan a future with her, but life cruelly intervenes.

It’s strange from our modern perspective to watch about the birth of psychiatry when today we take it as such a given. The second half of the film is primarily concerned with Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan and they’re both great on screen, Reagan in particular. And that’s another thing that’s difficult to imagine, Reagan before he was political, just another young actor at Warner Brothers who does a very credible job here. In many way, Cummings comes off as far more callow and isn’t nearly as polished in his performance as the future president. Perhaps it was the stellar supporting cast that brought out the best in the younger actors. Maria Ouspenskaya plays Cummings’ grandmother and his only living relative. Claude Rains is commanding as always. Charles Coburn and Judith Anderson are the stern, unforgiving parents of Nancy Coleman, and Harry Davenport plays the old lawyer Colonel Skeffington.

This is a very good, very entertaining picture that should be far more popular today than it is. Unlike a lot of these generational pictures this one is quite interesting, has solid performances and a plot that moves along without flagging. It was a tough year at the Oscars, however, with nine other pictures nominated, and so many great films that weren’t nominated that Kings Row only managed three. An embarrassment of riches, perhaps, but too many beautiful films like this fall through the cracks as a result and don’t get the recognition they deserve. From James Wong Howe’s gorgeous photography to Korngold’s brilliant score, and a bunch of young actors who were performing above themselves, this is one of the all time great movies from the golden era and I can’t recommend it highly enough.