Kings Row

Kings Row (1942)

The town they talk of in whispers.

Five young adults in a small American town face the revelations of secrets that threaten to ruin their hopes and dreams.

Date of release
1942-02-02
TMDB
7.3 / 10 (48)
Runtime
2h 7m
Genres
Romance, Drama, Mystery
Director
Sam Wood

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 3

Kings Row is a 1942 American psychological romantic period drama film starring Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan and Betty Field that tells a story of young people growing up in a small American town at the turn of the twentieth century.

Production

Wolfgang Reinhardt refused an assignment to produce the film, saying, "As far as plot is concerned, the material in Kings Row is for the most part either censurable or too gruesome and depressing to be used. The hero finding out that his girl has been carrying on incestuous relations with her father... a host of moronic or otherwise mentally diseased characters... people dying from cancer, suicides–these are the principal elements of the story."

A film adaptation of Bellamann's controversial novel, modeled on his home town of Fulton, Missouri, presented significant problems for movie industry censors who sought to bring the film into conformity with the Hays Code. Screenwriter Casey Robinson believed the project was hopeless because of the Code. Producer Hal B.

Joseph Breen, director of the Production Code Authority which administered the Hays Code wrote the producers that "To attempt to translate such a story to the screen even though it be re-written to conform to the provisions of the Production Code is, in our judgment, a very questionable undertaking from the standpoint of the good and welfare of this industry."

Breen objected to "illicit sexual relationships" between characters in the movie "without sufficient compensating moral values". He also objected to "the general suggestion of loose sex...which carries throughout the entire script." Breen was further concerned about the characterization of Cassandra as a victim of incest with her father, the mercy killing of the grandmother by Parris and "the sadistic characterization of Dr. Gordon."

Breen said that any screenplay, no matter how well done, would likely bring condemnation of the film industry "from decent people everywhere" because of "the fact that it stems from so thoroughly questionable a novel. He said that the script was being referred to his superior, Will Hays, "for a decision as to the acceptability of any production based upon the novel, Kings Row."

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