Kings Row | |
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Movie poster
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Directed by | Sam Wood |
Produced by | Hal B. Wallis |
Screenplay by | Casey Robinson |
Based on |
Kings Row 1940 novel by Henry Bellamann |
Starring |
Ann Sheridan Robert Cummings Ronald Reagan Betty Field Charles Coburn Claude Rains Judith Anderson Maria Ouspenskaya |
Music by | Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
Cinematography | James Wong Howe |
Edited by | Ralph Dawson |
Production
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Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date
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February 2, 1942 |
Running time
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127 minutes |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,081,698 |
Box office | $5.093 million |
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 nineteenth century. The picture was directed by Sam Wood.
The film, which was 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 comes to, following the operation, he gasps in shock, disbelief, and horror, "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."
The film commences in 1890 in the small midwestern town of Kings Row, focusing on five children. They are 1) Parris Mitchell (Robert Cummings), who lives with his grandmother; 2) Cassandra Tower (Betty Field), daughter of Dr. Alexander Tower (Claude Rains); 3) the wealthy and fun-loving orphan Drake McHugh (Ronald Reagan); 4) Louise Gordon (Nancy Coleman), daughter of the sadistic town physician Dr. Henry Gordon (Charles Coburn), who has been known to perform operations without anesthetic; and 5) the tomboy Randy Monaghan (Ann Sheridan), whose father is a railroad worker.