I have been doing a lot of thinking about the past; this time, not so much the bad times, as the good, when some people were genuinely kind to me, and whom I shall write about, when I feel ready. As for those who were not, you know who you are.
"Kings Row" is a forgotten book in the canon of small-town literature. It should have gotten the attention that Grace Metalious' "Peyton Place" did, but somehow did not.
The motion picture made from Henry Bellamann's novel, published in 1940, the movie released in 1942, was sanitized for the screen, but, if you watch certain actors carefully--especially the two best, Claude Rains and Betty Field, there is a subtext to their acting, suggesting a subtle knowledge of playing what was really going on, and how to, in order to slip by the censors.
Now, I read this novel almost twenty years ago, and I am thinking of reading it again. Though Henry Bellamann achieved both literary and musical fame---he was associated with Vassar College and the Julliard Music School in New York, he was never able to shake his resentment of his hometown of Fulton, Missouri. This connected with me, who shared similar feelings about Highland Park, New Jersey. I dreamed of writing my own "Kings Row" someday, till I realized that, with this blog, I already have. And I let what I say stand.
Although 1957's film "Peyton Place" sanitized things, more made it into this film than with "Kings Row" fifteen years before. The incest between Selena (Hope Lange) and Lucas Cross (Arthur Kennedy) was brought out, the pathology of Norman Page was there, but handled delicately, and Allison's eventual rebelling against the town was pretty open. Not to mention the suicide of Nellie Cross, Selena's mother, who was played by a "Kings Row" actress, Betty Field, a vastly underrated actress.
Now, for anyone who has not read or seen "Kings Row," I urge you to stop reading here, and proceed to the book and film. I am not sure if the novel is still in print, so it may have to be ordered online. It was, for me, and this was some time back.
I don't want those unfamiliar to be ruined by spoilers, which are necessary in discussing "Kings Row." From here on in, I direct this post to any familiar with the book and/or movie! I shall go through the film systematically.
The film, interestingly enough, is set in the often more romanticized time period of 1890. I guess the film was focused on Bellamann's early life in Fulton, MO, which would have been around the same time.
"Kings Row" opens with a loud, symphonic blast of music. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for this film was said to have inspired John Williams to write his classic "Star Wars" opening. In hearing it, I can see this makes sense, though, while I first thought it over the top, it paves the way for the epic, if not so pretty, story to be told.
The film's template is immediately established. The camera pans a gorgeous, idealistic small town landscape. It becomes instantly apparent that "Kings Row, along with films like "Citizen Kane," "How Green Was My Valley" and "The Song Of Bernadette," was one of the best photographed black and white films of the 1940's. Color would have ruined the darker moods of the story. And the brilliance of all this came from cinematographer James Wong Howe, and set designer William Cameron Menzies, whom I am sure my girls recall designed a little something just three years before, called "Gone With The Wind."
Now, as the credits roll, depicting an ideal town, school is seen closing for the Summer. No sooner is the happiness of childhood shown, then so is bullying, with a group of kids gathering around a taller one, Benny Singer, played by Danny Jackson. Spinning him around, they chant, rhythmically, "Crazy old Benny..." repeatedly, as the poor, tormented youth spins about, smiling happily, as he thinks he is being accepted in some way. I can relate to this. Later on, a little girl is seen emerging alone, whispered about by others girls. The viewer will soon get to know her; she is Cassie Tower. So, very quickly, the film outlines what is about to be revealed--the visual prettiness of the town, as opposed to the evil behavior of its inhabitants.
Although the leads are all fine actors--Ronald Reagan, (this film is best known for the scene where he loses his legs, and says the line, "Where's the rest of me?," though there is much more to the film, Ann Sheridan and Robert Cummings, the supporting cast is superior to the leads. Warner Bros. originally wanted to borrow Tyrone Power for the role of Parris Mitchell; when they could not get him, they settled on Robert Cummings, from Universal, who, truthfully, fits in better with Sheridan and Reagan, who were not A-list actors themselves. But Claude Rains and Betty Field, plus Eden Gray, as The Tower Family, as well as Charles Coburn and Judith Anderson, plus Nancy Coleman as their daughter, Louise, who comprise The Gordon Family, not to mention Maria Ouspenskaya as Grandma Madame von Eln. Hons, I ask you, how does one out act talents such as these?
The three children--Drake McHugh (Reagan), Parris Mitchell (Robert Cummings) and Randy Monaghan (Ann Sheridan) play together as children, but Randy reveals the first social stigma that, despite her love for Drake, she is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, and in a town like Kings Row, those paths cannot be crossed. Same as in Highland Park, where I should never have been exposed to the dummies from Goat Alley, when my parents made the mistake of sending me to Irving, rather than Hamilton. I love my parents dearly, and miss them so much, but this is the one thing in my upbringing I question to this day. It stigmatized me, and left me open for trouble in the junior and senior high school years.
But that's me.
Now comes the best part of the story--The Tower Family. Cassie, from the opening, is mocked by the little girls at school, because her family is "strange." Early on, before the actors morph into adult characters, there is a heartbreaking scene where the child Cassie (Mary Thomas) breaks down in tears, and tells young Parris (Scotty Beckett--YES, of "The Little Rascals") she cannot see him or anyone anymore, or go to school, because her father is afraid for her. I may be wrong, but I think there is a "Stella Dallas" type children's birthday sequence where no one shows up to Cassie's party, not because her family is low class, but is strange. In the film, the mother (Eden Gray) is kept imprisoned in her room, like Bertha in "Jane Eyre," because of a mental illness. However, in the novel, it is revealed Cassie was made a recluse because she was maturing, and her father was developing pedophilic feelings for her. He forces her into an incestuous relationship, which breaks her, then reaches a point where, to cover it all up, he kills Cassie, and then himself. Parris Mitchell learns the truth, going through Tower's notes, after his death. Mrs. Tower has passed some time before. As I said, the subtlety of Rains and Fields acting conveys what is going on, without a word; hence it got past the censors. But those not having read the book need to watch closely.
Next to The Towers, The Gordon Family is the most sad and sordid in the novel and film. Dr. Gordon, played by Charles Coburn in the most unsympathetic role I have ever seen him play, is a self-righteous moralist, who thinks punishment should be meted out to whom he considers wrongdoers. There is a scene in the film that scares me to this day. Either the young Parris or Drake McHugh (most likely Parris, as he is interested in becoming a doctor) is sitting on a curb across from a house, where Gordon is treating a patient. Suddenly, from an upstairs window, come the most bloodcurdling screams; the doctor is conducting a surgical procedure on this particular patient, intentionally not giving an anaesthetic!!!!!!!!!!! Sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It gets better, darlings! Louise Gordon, their daughter, is forced into reclusive spinsterhood by her parents, especially her mother, played by Judith Anderson in another one of her great bitch performances. No man is good enough for Gordon's daughter, and the mother resents the daughter for being prettier than she is. Well, when it is Judith Anderson, it is understandable, but, really. to ruin your daughter's life like that??????? Judith would go on to do even worse, as the cat killing Mrs. Ivers, in 1946's "The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers."
Louise Gordon, in "King's Row," is played by Nancy Coleman.
Gordon should have had has license removed. I cannot recall if he gets his comeuppance, though I want to say I think Parris, as an adult, provides that.) Actually, he dies at some point in the film. Good riddance! Though I don't know what happens to the wife.
As for Maria Ouspenskaya, playing Grandma Madam von Eln, well, she is more sinned against than sinning. In her old age, she develops cancer. In the novel, Parris helps her along, with an injection, to ease her pain, just as Sipsey (Cicely Tyson) would help Ruth Jamison almost fifty years later, in 1991's "Fried Green Tomatoes." I am not sure whom the house is left to, but Ouspenskaya plays this role like no one else could, save Blanche Yurka. Drake McHugh has money stolen from his trust fund, probably at the behest of Dr. Gordon, and is forced to work for the railroad. There, he injures his legs in an accident, allowing Gordon, over his hatred for the sexually free wheeling McHugh, to think he can marry his daughter, Louise, to unnecessarily amputate his legs, causing Reagan to utter his most famous screen line. Too bad for him he had to enlist in the Army, right after this film. He never regained the momentum it gave him, causing him to be upstaged by a chimp in later classics like "Bedtime For Bonzo."
Some town, huh????????????
Well, what small town vice is left? Smoking? I think Drake does it through portions of the film. As I said, Drake is free wheeling with his sexuality, and this shot suggests there may have been homosexual feelings between he and Parris. That is as far as the movie goes. In the novel though, young Parris befriends a bullied boy named Jamie Wakefield, who lives with his domineering parents. Jamie is bookish, reads extensively, and, most of all, dreams of the day when he can leave Kings Row. Sounds gay to me, right? Now, this is where my memory gets sketchy. His parents force him to become a male spinster, living at home, working a respectable job at the bank, which he is able to do, though hates every minute he is there. But something happens with him and another boy (probably from the Wrong Side Of The Tracks, again!!!!!!!!!!) and the disgrace causes him to kill himself. At least, that is how I remember it.
Parris' childhood home is purchased by Elise Sandor, Kaaren Verne) who falls in love with Parris, and marries him. Drake accepts his disability, and ends up with Randy, as the music builds to end the scene on a somewhat hopeful note, despite having witnessed all having gone before. Those who were raised in small towns like this can point to each character, and say, corresponding to their community, "Oh, that is.....!!!!!!!!!!!"
See what I mean?
Even Elise's last name, Sandor, brings to me memories of a boy in seventh grade who bullied me extensively. His name was Laszlo Sandor and he was a mean piece of work. He would punch me, kick me, call me names; once he kicked me so hard in the shin I cut myself. He would always corner me in the bathroom, trying to get me to do his assignments for him, because he was in a lower group. I never did, and I suffered for it. He left, after that year, and I have no idea what happened to him. But I have always wanted to say to him, "Fuck you!"
So, Laszlo, wherever you may be, consider it said.
I really should reread "Kings Row," and if I do, I will fill you in on what I missed. And some filmmaker, (Todd Haynes, take note) instead of redoing things better left untouched, like "Mildred Pierce," or "Now, Voyager," (God, I can see that one coming!) should take note of this underrated gem. With standards relaxed, and the talent out there, it could be quite a remake! It needs to be well directed and cast, like the first time out. I should be consulted!
As for its connections and myself, well, the past cannot be rewritten, but it can be risen above, though not forgotten.
Something to think about, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hah!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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