KINGS ROW - DVD review

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow'd."
--"Invictus," William Earnest Henley (1849-1903)

Wait. Listen. What's that noise? No, it's not Henley's poem. I'd swear it's the sound of dripping suds. Yes, it's 1942's "Kings Row," one of the best soapy melodramas ever to come out of Hollywood. Moreover, it does its sudsy job with such remarkable effectiveness, you'll hardly notice; and without it we might not have gotten "Peyton Place." And without "Peyton Place," we might not have gotten "Valley of the Dolls." Come to think of it, I may never forgive "Kings Row." Then again, without "Kings Row," we might not have gotten David Lynch's "Blue Velvet," either, so maybe all is forgiven. As I say, the movie is remarkably effective.

"Kings Row" takes us beneath the placid, idyllic setting of a small, fictional American town around the turn of the twentieth century and shows us the sordid underbelly of "respectable" society. The movie was extremely dark for its day, pointing out that things are not always as they appear. Even the most seemingly benign environment may be filled with corruption, decay, lies, cruelty, deceit, and murder. I suppose wherever we find humans, we find human nature, and human nature is subject to the ravages of evil. Always has been; always will be.

The movie does not delve as deeply into lurid sensationalism as "Blue Velvet," to be sure; this was made in the early 1940s after all. But, as I say, it does explore themes Tinseltown did not usually touch back then. John Eastman writes in his book "Retakes" (Ballantine Books, New York, 1989), "Hollywood censor Joseph J. Breen, whose office gutted the screenplay based on Henry Bellamann's best-selling novel, called the entire sanitized effort a 'definite disservice' to the motion picture industry, one likely to bring down 'the condemnation of decent people everywhere.' Instead it won three Academy Award nominations."

The movie covers close to twenty years in the lives of a group of people growing up in Kings Row. We see them first as children in 1890, and then as young adults from about 1900 to around 1907 or thereabout. The principals are Parris Mitchell (Robert Cummings), a serious, studious fellow struggling to become a doctor; Parris's best friend, Drake McHugh (Ronald Reagan), a happy-go-lucky ladies' man; Cassie Tower (Betty Field), the secluded daughter of a local doctor; Randy Monaghan (Ann Sheridan), a girl from the poorer part of town, across the railroad tracks; and Louise Gordon (Nancy Coleman), a daughter of another local doctor. Their lives intertwine throughout the story, and they each experience unexpected loss, betrayal, and tragedy.

It appears that the Warner Bros. studios were trying to make their film into another "Gone With the Wind," judging by the sheer size of the opening titles and the grand sweep of composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold's musical score. They got Sam Wood to direct the movie, a man who had a proven track record ("A Night at the Opera," "Our Town," "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," and later "The Pride of the Yankees" and "For Whom the Bells Tolls"). They had Hal B. Wallis and David Lewis as producers. And they hired production designer William Cameron Menzies and cinematographer James Wong Howe to stage and film it. Although the moviemakers shot the film almost entirely on Warners' sound stages and back lots, it looks superb. Howe's camera work is never extravagant, nothing like a "Citizen Kane," but in its simplicity, its composition, its deep focus, and its beautiful contrasts, it's about as good as it gets.

Parris is the evident leading player in the drama, although, to be honest, it is Reagan as the playboy Drake who steals the show. Reagan always said it was the best role of his movie career, and one can see why. He even used a line from the film as the title of his autobiography, "Where's the Rest of Me?" Oddly enough, none of the starring players were WB's first choices, with Reagan a lowly seventh pick. But it's really only Cummings who lets down the production with a comparatively lightweight performance.

Anyway, everything we see in the movie's first twenty minutes or so would lead us to believe that Kings Row was the most heavenly spot on Earth, but childhood can be that way, can't it? To a child, everything is bright and innocent and new. It's when we meet up with the main characters in their young adulthood that we begin to see the rot beneath the surface. Not, by the way, to imply that everyone in Kings Row or everyone in the world is rotten by any means; the story only suggests that some people are rotten, but that they can infect the rest of their surroundings.

Parris has come to like Cassie a lot, but Cassie's father (Claude Rains) is mysteriously overprotective of her, keeping her under lock and key, not letting her out of the house, and certainly not letting her see men. Meanwhile, Parris comes to the father's house daily for tutoring in preparation for his eventually going to medical school. At the same time, Drake is hotfooting it around town with various ladies and getting a reputation as a wild fellow. When he and Louise Gordon fall in love, her father, Dr. Gordon (Charles Coburn), will not hear of it; his daughter is much too good for such a low life as Drake. Later, Drake strikes up a romance with childhood friend Randy, making Louise jealous.

Then, about halfway through the narrative, when most of the mushy stuff is out of the way, adversity strikes, and the movie takes on its ominous dark shadows. Death, murder, and suicide shock the town. Secrets develop, social class distinctions become more apparent, and further scandals rock the townsfolk. When Parris goes off to Vienna to study psychiatry, Drake takes over the story, and things take a definite turn for the better, story-wise if not for the character himself.

As tragedy piles upon tragedy, as the iniquities and mental disorders of some of the townspeople become ever more known, "Kings Row" becomes more melodramatic. And every step the movie takes in that direction makes it all the more fascinating to watch. It does not paint a pretty picture. This is no romanticized Americana; this is a Norman Rockwell painting turned inside out. But it does create a vivid sense of place and character, and it deals with serious issues that Hollywood had previously hushed up. Censor Breen had promised that "decent people everywhere" would condemn the picture. People didn't. People loved it. Today, the movie seems rather old-fashioned and quaint in its cleaned-up guise; but it was undeniably influential, another small step toward the freedoms of expression we now enjoy in movies and television.

Video:
The 1.33:1 standard-screen transfer is among the best Warner Bros. have done of an older black-and-white film. The print was clearly good to begin with and undoubtedly WB's touching up helped it look even better. There are a few jitters now and then and some very minor grain, probably originating with the original film stock, but nothing of concern. Contrasts are strong, definition is fairly sharp, and there are very few signs of age--scratches, flecks, lines, or fades.

Audio:
The audio engineers have done a commendable job reproducing the 1.0 monaural sound via Dolby Digital processing. Noise reduction makes the backgrounds quiet, and the midrange response is quite clear and natural. Understandably, the frequency span and dynamic impact are limited, but we have come to expect that.

Extras:
Warner Bros. provide a few extras that one might have found accompanying the film back in 1942. The first is a vintage, 1942 musical short, "The United States Marine Band." The second is a classic Merrie Melodies cartoon, "Fox Pop." And the third is a theatrical trailer. The extras conclude with thirty-six scene selections (but no chapter insert); English as the only spoken language; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

Parting Thoughts:
Although "Kings Row" is episodic and sentimental and filled with all kinds of unlikely turns of events, there is no denying the characters are endearing, and the ending is uplifting. It's all quite hard to resist.

Warner Bros. have made "Kings Row" available separately or in a box set, "Ronald Reagan: The Signature Collection," which also includes "Knute Rockne All American," "The Hasty Heart," "Storm Warning," and "The Winning Team." All the titles are exclusive to the set except "Kings Row" and "Knute Rockne."

"It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul." --W.E. Henley