Kings Row

Kings Row is a 1942 film which tells the story of a group of youths who grow up leading supposedly idyllic lives in a small town with disturbing secrets. It stars Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Betty Field, Charles Coburn and Claude Rains.

The movie was adapted by Casey Robinson from the 1940 novel Kings Row by Henry Bellamann. It was directed by Sam Wood.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (James Wong Howe), Best Director and Best Picture. In the film, Ronald Reagan's character, Drake McHugh, has both legs amputated by a sadistic surgeon who disapproved of his daughter's obsession with Drake; when he wakes from anesthesia, he utters the line, "Where's the rest of me?" Reagan used that line as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Reagan, along with many film critics, considered Kings Row to be his best movie.

The original novel was based on Bellamann's experiences while growing up in the town of Fulton, Missouri. It was his chance to air the town's dirty laundry; the character's names were changed, but their story remained the same. The book is still considered scandalous by some in the town of Fulton.

The highly-regarded musical score of the movie was composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and inspired the "Main Title Theme" of the 1977 blockbuster movie Star Wars, composed by John Williams.

Television series

Kings Row was also a 1955 television series based upon the movie, with Jack Kelly (who later portrayed Bart Maverick in Maverick) in Cummings' role and Robert Horton (who subsequently played scout Flint McCullough in Wagon Train) performing Reagan's part. The show appeared as one of three rotating series on the earliest William T. Orr production, Warner Bros. Presents. The other two series were Casablanca, another TV version of a renowned movie (featuring Charles McGraw in Humphrey Bogart's role), and Cheyenne, a Western created by Roy Huggins that went on to its own time slot for several years until it started rotating with Bronco, another Warner Bros. Western. At the conclusion of each episode of Warner Bros. Presents, host Gig Young would interview a different actor from a new Warner Bros. movie about the studio's latest theatrical release. Kings Row ran for seven episodes.