Kings Row

     1942's Kings Row is my first introduction to the acting of our former president, Ronald Reagan. This was his favorite role, and one of his most famous lines ("Where's the rest of me?") went on to become the title of his autobiography. I have to report that he was earnest and somehow slimy, much like his political career. I read an interesting article by film historian Howard Hampton that equated the moral bankruptcy of this film with the moral bankruptcy the the Reagan years. While I agree with the latter, I am a little hesitant to agree with the former. I didn't see this movie as insidiously reactionary as Reagan's years in the White House, although there were hints. There is an almost blind view of psychoanalysis as the savior of humanity, to the point where the main character, played by Robert Cummings (who looks eerily like Kyle MacLachlan), blindly accepts his mentor's suicide note that says he murdered his daughter because she was starting to exhibit the same dementia as his wife had. The psychiatrist, played by the great Claude Rains, could be seen as an example of the way in which the patriarchal medical profession, and psychiatry in particular, works to demean women and sees their legitimate problems with a hierarchy in which they have no power as mere hysteria (and there's no coincidence that the word hysteria has the same root as the word uterus). Not to mention that, in the original novel, it is stated that he's molesting his daughter, although this could only be hinted in the film. But the film doesn't see things this way, and I would certainly say that, if not reactionary, it's at least quite conservative. There's also the ending, during which, after learning that he has been horribly mutilated by a mad doctor to punish him for his transgressions, Reagan bursts into laughter and decides that he will show the doctor by achieving despite his disability, the music swells, and everything is all right, except that the film hasn't really dealt with any of the problems it raised. But enough of my politics.

Robert Cummings plays a young man who decides to become a doctor out of a desire to help people. He and his childhood friend, played by Ronald Reagan, keep in touch despite their many differences in personality and worldview. Reagan's character is more interested in girls, which causes him problems with the father of one of his girlfriends, played by Charles Coburn. Coburn is the town's doctor, who has sadistic and morally righteous ideas of how to use his profession. This all comes out late in the film, though.

Cummings's character once had a crush on a young girl in his class, the daughter of another local doctor played by Claude Rains. After a failed birthday party where nobody shows up, Rains decides to lock his daughter up in the house and home school her, to keep her away from the torment of the other kids. When they grow up, she (now played by Betty Field) is now beautiful and a little odd. When Cummings decides to train for the medical profession with Rains, he starts courting her, attempting to hide their love from the stern older doctor. He finds out, though, and, in a development that was shocking for 1940s cinema, kills her and himself.

This is a transition point from the second third of the film (the first being the short act that dealt with the characters as children) into the third. While Cummings is away at school, Reagan loses his fortune to a corrupt banker. This being before the FDIC, he is ruined, and takes a job at the railyard run by his current girlfriend, played by Ann Sheridan. He keeps the news from Cummings out of the belief that he will somehow lose respect for him. He hatches a plan to start a subdivision, but an accident at the railyard that results in the amputation of his legs changes everything. He loses spirit, moves in with Sheridan, and decides that life's not worth living. Cummings returns to practice psychiatry, and slowly helps to uncover the dark secrets of the town.

The film is dark, incredibly so for a mainstream movie before World War II. It was so dark that Sam Warner, the producer, held it back for a year because he didn't think audiences would be able to stomach it. Since it contains a murder-suicide with incestuous overtones, premarital sex, and a vengeful psycho doctor who mutilates his patients, I can understand why. However, it was released to great critical acclaim, and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Director. What deserved a nomination was the brooding set design by William Cameron Menzies, who created the look of the film entirely on studio sets.

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