Kings Row

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Movie
Original title Kings Row
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1942
length 130 minutes
Rod
Director Sam Wood
script Casey Robinson
production Hal B. Wallis
Warner Bros. Pictures Ing.
music Erich Wolfgang Korngold
camera James Wong Howe
cut Ralph Dawson
occupation

Kings Row is a 1942 American drama film directed by Sam Wood . Ann Sheridan , Robert Cummings , Ronald Reagan and Betty Field star in this story from a small Midwestern town that touts it as a good place to raise children. But behind the scenes it looks different.

The film is based on Henry Bellmann's novel Kings Row , which appeared in New York in 1940 and was controversial.

action

In the late 19th century, Parris Mitchell grew up with his French grandmother Marie von Eln in the small town of Kings Row. He is friends with Cassandra Tower, who is from her father Dr. Alexander Tower feels little understood, the wealthy orphan boy Drake McHugh, Louise Gordon, the daughter of the sadistic Dr. Henry Gordon, who likes to perform surgery without anesthesia, and Randy Monaghan, whose father works for the railroad. Cassie, as Cassandra Tower is called, has a hard time asserting herself against the other children, as it is rumored that her father keeps her mother in a room upstairs in her large house. Parris, however, is particularly drawn to her and is her only friend. When her father discovers this friendship, Cassie is no longer allowed to leave the house unattended.

A few years have passed and Parris, with the consent of his guardian Dr. Alexander Tower started his medical studies. His best friend Drake, who is particularly popular with the girls, is with Louise and wants to marry her too. However, her strictly moral father, who disapproved of the relationship from the start, disagrees with it at all. Louise doesn't manage to defy her father's will, especially since her mother doesn't take her side either. On one of his visits to Kings Row, Parris meets Cassie again, who leaves his question of why she is locked up at home unanswered. Fascinated by her wildness, he kisses her. When he leaves it is already late. To avoid rumors that could damage Cassie's reputation, he spends the night with his friend Drake. In the following years Drake enables the young couple to see each other again and again. When Parris' grandmother, who means a lot to him, falls ill, he is very concerned to put the old lady in the hands of Dr. Gordon, who doesn’t have a very good reputation for being bossy with his patients. Dr. Tower persuades him, however, that Gordon is a capable doctor. Marie von Eln dies only a short time later because she was terminally ill with cancer . Parris then decides to expand his studies to include psychiatry and continue it abroad. He proposes to Carrie to take her with him, but the young woman runs away without explaining what is going on inside her. Some time later she appears at Drake's, where Parris is staying, and asks him to take her with him after all. As soon as she has uttered these words, she runs away again. The next day, Parris learns, to his dismay, that her father poisoned Cassie and shot himself. Records on his desk indicate that he killed Cassie because she was insane , like her mother , in order to prevent Parris from ruining his life by marrying Cassie.

In 1900 Parris is in Vienna, where he plans to complete his psychiatry studies, while his friend Drake is busy building houses on Kings Row. Drake is now with Randy Monaghan, who actively supports him in his plans and advises him to build houses for the workers and not just for the rich. So Drake is setting up a trust fund . When this is stolen from him by the machinations of a dishonest bank employee, he is forced to work for the railroad. He gets between two wagons , where his legs are crushed. One calls Dr. Gordon. The doctor's hatred of the young man is still so great that he can easily amputate both of his legs. Parris comes back and stands by the friend. Randy and Drake decide to get married and Parris offers them to support them financially in their new beginning. It won't be easy for the young couple as Drake is bitter at the loss of his legs and refuses to even get out of bed.

When Parris learns during a later visit to Kings Row that Dr. Gordon is dead and the city no longer has a doctor, he decides to stay in his hometown. At her mother's request, he visits Louise, who has hardly left her room since Drake and Randy got married. Louise shows him documents showing that her father amputated Drake's legs, although they could have been easily saved. He thought it was his duty to punish Drake for his relationship with her. That it was so is also confirmed to Parris by Elise Sandor and her father, who now live in Parris' old house. Parris actually wants to keep the cruel truth a secret from Drake, but is convinced by Elise that his friend has a right to know what it really was like. Contrary to all fears of Parris and Randy, Drake reacts almost relieved to the opening and is determined to master his life even more now. After Drake accepts his fate, Parris feels free. He and Elise want to get married.

Production and Background

The shooting covers the period from July 11th to the beginning of October 1941. Some of the film recordings were made in Saugus , California , most of the recordings were made in the Warner Bros. Burbank Studios. The film opened in American cinemas on April 18, 1942. The city depicted in the film is modeled on the actual hometown of Fulton of the book author Henry Bellamann. On a budget of $ 1,081,698, the film grossed $ 5,093,000.

According to the Hollywood Reporter , 20th Century Fox made Henry Bellamann an offer for his bestseller Kings Row because the studio was considering a film adaptation with Henry Fonda . After Warner Bros. bought the rights to the book for $ 35,000, they were offered to David O. Selznick for $ 75,000. The cast list for the role of Cassandra included Katharine Hepburn , Marsha Hunt , Laraine Day , Susan Peters , Joan Leslie , Gene Tierney and Priscilla Lane . The studio would have liked Ida Lupino to play Cassandra, but she refused, as did Olivia de Havilland . Even Bette Davis was interested in the material, however, the studio feared that she might draw too much attention to their own devices. Davis then campaigned for Betty Field, who ultimately also played Cassandra. Producer Hal B. Wallis also sent Ginger Rogers a script without specifying what role she should have played. Faye Emerson was also tested for one of the roles. For the role of Cassandra's father Wallis would have liked Donald Crisp had. James Stephenson , who then got the role, died unexpectedly in July 1941 of a heart attack and was replaced by Claude Rains. John Garfield was traded for Drake McHugh and Tyrone Power for Parris. Because 20th Century Fox refused to let Tyrone Power Warner Bros. play the role, Universal's Robert Cummings was eventually loaned out.

The general tendency was that this was Ronald Reagan's best film role of his career. For his performance, he was awarded a star on the Walk of Fame honored. He could not benefit from the success of this role as it probably would have in normal times, since he was drafted into the US Army to serve in World War II . Ronald Reagan gave his autobiography, published in 1965, the title Where's the Rest of Me? ( Where is the rest of me? ) The question he asked Dr. Gordon poses when he wakes up after the operation and notices that he has no legs.

In 1955, Warner Bros. planned a remake of Kings Row with Montgomery Clift , Frank Sinatra , Eva Marie Saint and Ronald Reagan in its original role. However, the film never came about.

Kings Row and the Hays Code

The Hays Code (or Production Code) contains a compilation of guidelines for the production of American films with a view to the morally acceptable representation of crime and sexual content in particular.

Harry Bellamann's novel was very controversial at the time and the film version caused a major headache in terms of PCA censorship . There were reservations about transferring the plot, which was largely felt to be offensive, too cruel and depressing, into the film. The main elements of the novel are that the hero must find out that his girl is in an incestuous relationship with his own father, latent homosexuality, nonsense or mental disorders, people who die of cancer or through suicide. An early draft of the script from April 1941 aroused displeasure with Joseph Breens , film censor and head of the PCA. In a letter to Jack L. Warner of Warner Bros., he complained about illicit sexual acts between Parris and Cassandra and between Drake and Randy, without adequate compensation of moral values ​​taking place. The script also contains a general suggestion to have loose sex. Breen was particularly offended by Cassandra's sexual abnormality and the fact that the killing of Parris' grandmother was portrayed as an act of grace. The sadistic characterization of Dr. Gordon, who played Drake McHugh, played by Ronald Reagan, without any need to amputate both legs, was criticized. The film will only be approved if all the references to incest , nymphomania , euthanasia and homosexuality that are used in the novel are not present in the film. Also, nude bathing and the hint of a sex affair between Randy and Drake should be eliminated. Only after several draft scripts had been submitted, Breen was satisfied.

Film music

The score for Kings Row , written by Erich Wolfgang Korngold , was very popular at the time. At that time it was unusual to publish film music, so that the soundtrack for the film was not available in stores until 1979. It was not until George Korngold, the composer's son, made an early digital recording together with an orchestra under the direction of Charles Gerhardt . Kings Row is considered to be one of Korngold's most notable compositions. The White House requested the original orchestral score for the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as American President. John Williams was inspired by the Kings Row soundtrack for his film score, Star Wars .

  • My Gal Is High-Born Lady
written by Barney Fagan
Music: Egbert Van Alstyne
written by Frédéric Chopin , partly played on the piano by Robert Cummings
written by Franz Liszt , partly played on the piano by Kaaren Verne and Robert Cummings

criticism

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times spoke of a dark and cumbersome film, just like the novel it was based on . It is impossible to find out why Warners made a film of this kind in those times and why a crowd of high-ranking artists produced such a bungling work. Crowther was of the opinion that Hollywood had embarrassed itself with this film and did not think much of the acting performances either. Cummings in particular would lack persuasiveness in his role. The film would just show a lot of people who would feel bad .

For Time Out, on the other hand, it was one of the great melodramas with a fireworks display of emotional and physical cripples, including a surgeon with a penchant for unnecessary amputations .

For TV Guide , Kings Row was one of the most memorable melodramas of its day ; will shown the portrait of a small town, not with the sharpness and the small joys, as one of Thornton Wilder , Our Town know ', but in dark, often tragic tones. The film was hailed as one of Wood's best directorial works, and Robinson's script was also lauded, although it toned down many aspects of the novel.

Awards

The film received three Academy Award nominations in 1943 :

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kings Row (1942) Screenplay Info at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
  2. ↑ Kings Row (1942) Original Print Information at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
  3. ↑ Kings Row (1942) Trivia at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
  4. ^ H. Mark Glancy: MGM Great Films 1924-1948: The Eddie Mannix Ledger. Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, 12, 2 (1992), pp. 127-43
  5. ↑ a b c d Kings Row (1942) Notes at TCM - Turner Classic Movies (English)
  6. ↑ Kings Row (1942) ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at ovguide.com (English). Retrieved February 4, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ovguide.com
  7. ↑ Bosley Crowther: Kings Row (1942) In: The New York Times, February 3, 1942. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  8. ^ Kings Row (1942) Time Out says at timeout.com. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  9. ^ Kings Row (1942) Review at movies.tvguide.com. Retrieved February 4, 2014.