KING'S ROW, based on Henry Bellamann's huge, "unfilmable" novel, served as a showcase for many of Warner Brothers' rising stars of 1942, and has achieved 'classic' status over the years. It provided Ronald Reagan with his finest performance (he even entitled a pre-Presidential autobiography "Where's the Rest of Me?", from his most famous line of dialog from the film), moved Ann Sheridan to the "A-List" of WB stars, and offered one of the most memorable musical themes in film history, by composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
The story of a group of children growing up in a small community prior to the turn of the century, and the adults they would become, screenwriter Casey Robinson infuses the youngsters' escapades with an innocence that makes their actions (performing acrobatics in their underwear in a freight car, a nude 'dip' in a local pond) seem sweet, not naughty. The 'leader' of the children, Drake McHugh (Douglas Croft/Ronald Reagan) is a rich, likable rogue, popular with girls, but most devoted to his best friend, serious Parris Mitchell (Scotty Beckett/Robert Cummings), a gifted piano student living with his grandmother (the remarkable Maria Ouspenskaya), who dreams of someday becoming a doctor. The girls in their lives are Randy Monaghan (Ann Todd/Ann Sheridan), a good-hearted girl from the 'wrong side of the tracks'; Louise Gordon (Joan Duvalle/Nancy Coleman), boy-crazy, and the most popular girl in town; and mysterious Cassandra 'Cassie' Tower (Mary Thomas/Betty Field), who Parris secretly adores, the daughter of the reclusive Dr. Tower (Claude Rains). After a disastrous party that only Parris and a few 'undesirables' attend (everyone else opts for a party at Louise's home), the heartbroken Cassie is yanked from school and isolated, under suspicious circumstances, by Dr. Tower. Parris grows to adulthood, still carrying a torch for his 'lost love'.
With the children 'grown up', the major story lines begin. Parris studies medicine with Dr. Tower, prior to college in Vienna, and meets Cassie again; despite her bizarre behavior and paranoia, the pair renew their chaste affair, which ends in tragedy and death (mental illness is given as the reason in the film; in the book, incest was the cause). After Parris leaves for Vienna, Drake is swindled out of his fortune, becoming a hard-drinking bum until he is 'redeemed' by Randy, and begins working with her family at the train yards. One night, crates fall on Drake, and when the doctor (Charles Coburn), the father of Louise Gordon (who Drake supposedly 'deflowered'), arrives, the old physician sees an opportunity to extract revenge, and amputates both of Drake's legs. Knowing her father had unnecessarily 'punished' Drake unhinges Louise, and the anxious Randy, spiritually and physically crippled Drake, and schizophrenic Louise all await the return of Parris, now a certified physician specializing in psychiatry, from Vienna. Upon his shoulders would lie everyone's redemption and recovery.
Despite an overly earnest performance by Cummings (with some of the most flowery dialog ever recorded on film), KINGS ROW works, thanks to the wonderful performances of Reagan and Sheridan. The ending still packs a wallop, even after sixty years, and is truly moving.
This is a film NOT to be missed!
The story of a group of children growing up in a small community prior to the turn of the century, and the adults they would become, screenwriter Casey Robinson infuses the youngsters' escapades with an innocence that makes their actions (performing acrobatics in their underwear in a freight car, a nude 'dip' in a local pond) seem sweet, not naughty. The 'leader' of the children, Drake McHugh (Douglas Croft/Ronald Reagan) is a rich, likable rogue, popular with girls, but most devoted to his best friend, serious Parris Mitchell (Scotty Beckett/Robert Cummings), a gifted piano student living with his grandmother (the remarkable Maria Ouspenskaya), who dreams of someday becoming a doctor. The girls in their lives are Randy Monaghan (Ann Todd/Ann Sheridan), a good-hearted girl from the 'wrong side of the tracks'; Louise Gordon (Joan Duvalle/Nancy Coleman), boy-crazy, and the most popular girl in town; and mysterious Cassandra 'Cassie' Tower (Mary Thomas/Betty Field), who Parris secretly adores, the daughter of the reclusive Dr. Tower (Claude Rains). After a disastrous party that only Parris and a few 'undesirables' attend (everyone else opts for a party at Louise's home), the heartbroken Cassie is yanked from school and isolated, under suspicious circumstances, by Dr. Tower. Parris grows to adulthood, still carrying a torch for his 'lost love'.
With the children 'grown up', the major story lines begin. Parris studies medicine with Dr. Tower, prior to college in Vienna, and meets Cassie again; despite her bizarre behavior and paranoia, the pair renew their chaste affair, which ends in tragedy and death (mental illness is given as the reason in the film; in the book, incest was the cause). After Parris leaves for Vienna, Drake is swindled out of his fortune, becoming a hard-drinking bum until he is 'redeemed' by Randy, and begins working with her family at the train yards. One night, crates fall on Drake, and when the doctor (Charles Coburn), the father of Louise Gordon (who Drake supposedly 'deflowered'), arrives, the old physician sees an opportunity to extract revenge, and amputates both of Drake's legs. Knowing her father had unnecessarily 'punished' Drake unhinges Louise, and the anxious Randy, spiritually and physically crippled Drake, and schizophrenic Louise all await the return of Parris, now a certified physician specializing in psychiatry, from Vienna. Upon his shoulders would lie everyone's redemption and recovery.
Despite an overly earnest performance by Cummings (with some of the most flowery dialog ever recorded on film), KINGS ROW works, thanks to the wonderful performances of Reagan and Sheridan. The ending still packs a wallop, even after sixty years, and is truly moving.
This is a film NOT to be missed!