Kings Row- One of my favorite films…..”Where’s the Rest of Me?”

My 25 Most Favorite Films

Kings Row  1942……Directed by Sam Wood from the novel by Henry Bellamann

Ronald Reagan, “where is the rest of me?”,  gives his best performance in a complex psychological drama about a small town that has issues that cannot be shown or mentioned in the film as of the book by Henry Bellamann.   Reagan’s take on the “Drake McHugh” character along with his great chemistry with Ann Sheridan’s “Randy Monaghan” must be noted as top shelf. Sheridan should never be forgotten and gives us a complete “tomboy” and “stable young women’s” performance.

Adult melodrama that the censors would not allow certain topics to be used in the film, is a damn shame. 

“Exposing hypocrisy and small-town secrets, the novel deals with themes of mental illness, incest, homosexuality, suicide, gender equality in relationships, and sadistic vengeance.   Such themes were still somewhat taboo in early 20th-century American literature, but not unheard of.”  Even with the censor restrictions of subject matter, the director get us to the crux of the points in the novel as this film rocks as one of the best and on my list as superior and most entertaining.   Besides Cummings and Sheridan, Betty Field, Claude Rains and Charles Coburn are also outstanding in the best acted film of 1942.  Charles Coburn, playing “hidden” evil as the bad human being, a sadistic physician, is unlike his more comic roles he has undertaken.   

A movie remake without censorship would bring an X rating today if the director stayed to the story line of the book.  One of my top 100 films and one that I would want with me, anytime and any place.