Editing Kings Row (section)

== Reception ==
=== Box office ===
According to ''Variety'', the film earned $2,350,000 in rentals in the US in 1942.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/variety149-1943-01#page/n57/mode/1up "101 Pix Gross in Millions" ''Variety'' 6 Jan 1943 p 58]</ref> According to Warner Bros records it earned $3,143,000 domestically and $1,950,000 foreign.<ref name="warners"/>

=== Critical response ===
[[File:Kings Row (1942)-trailer.ogv|right|thumb|250px|thumbtime=1:36|alt=photograph of two men|Dr. Gordon ([[Charles Coburn]]) confronts Drake McHugh ([[Ronald Reagan]]), whose legs he later needlessly amputates. The film's "gloom" dismayed critic [[Bosley Crowther]].]]
''The New York Times'' film critic Bosley Crowther panned ''Kings Row'' which he described as being as "gloomy and ponderous" as the novel upon which it was based. "Just why the Warners attempted a picture of this sort in these times and just why the corps of high priced artists which they employed for it did such a bungling job", Crowther wrote, "are questions which they are probably mulling more anxiously than any one else." Crowther wrote that the film "turgidly unfolds on the screen", and is "one of the bulkiest blunders to come out of Hollywood in some time". The performances, particularly Cummings', were, he wrote, "totally lacking in conviction". The film, he wrote, "just shows a lot of people feeling bad".<ref name='Timesreview'>{{cite news | first=Bosley | last=Crowther |author-link= Bosley Crowther | title=THE SCREEN; 'Kings Row,' With Ann Sheridan and Claude Rains, a Heavy, Rambling Film, Has Its First Showing Here at the Astor | date=February 3, 1942 | newspaper=The New York Times | url = https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9903E2DE143BE33BBC4B53DFB4668389659EDE| access-date = March 24, 2009 }}</ref>

The ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' saw Sheridan and Reagan as "real and believable" in their roles and that Cummings did "the best that could be done". Otherwise, the film was described as "a long and dreary melodrama in two parts.., years of misery and maladjustment to young womanhood and young manhood....''Kings Row'' is the story of a town with a 'right' and 'wrong' side of the tracks and the story of the town's inhabitants is a coat of many colors and is outstanding as being a gangrenous yellow."<ref>Tinee, Mae. "King's Row is Long, Dreary Tale of Misery." Chicago Tribune, 8 July 1942, 20.</ref>

The ''[[Brooklyn Eagle]]'' was likewise negative: "''Kings Row'' is packed with the best talent at the Warners command…. David Lewis has given it all an unstinted production and James Wong Howe, one of Hollywood's best shooters, has turned the cameras on it. So full of great promise, ''Kings Row'' came last night to the Astor Theater…. It should have been great but it isn't….''Kings Row'' never comes to life. Its characters are made of clay…. It is hard to feel sorry for them for they are unreal. It is even harder to be happy for them for there's precious little to be happy about. ''Kings Row'', to say the best for it, is a frightening town with a disturbing citizenry…. There might have been a point to all this grimness. It stood up well in the book even amid the grimness of war. But at the Astor, the mood takes precedence over the characters and their drama. ''Kings Row'' is more horrifying than poignant. It seems to be played more for the chills of fright than for the warmth of drama.<ref>Cohn, Herbert. "''Kings Row'' Shown on Astor's Screen". Brooklyn Eagle, 3 February 1942, 4.</ref>

On review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], 100% of 17 critics gave the film a positive review with an average rating of 7.9/10, earning it a ''Fresh'' score.<ref name="Rotten">{{cite web |title=Kings Row |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kings_row/ |access-date=May 15, 2024 |website=Rotten Tomatoes |publisher=[[Fandango Media]]}}</ref>

''Time Out Film Guide'' described the film as "one of the great melodramas" and "as compulsive and perverse as any election, a veritable Mount Rushmore of emotional and physical cripples, including a surgeon with a penchant for unnecessary amputations, a girl who 'made friends on one side of the tracks and made love on the other'."<ref name='Timeout'>{{cite web|url=http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/78756/kings_row.html |title=Kings Row (1942) |access-date=March 24, 2009 |work=Time Out Film Guide |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607094637/http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/78756/kings_row.html |archive-date=June 7, 2011 }}</ref>

''TV Guide'' wrote that ''Kings Row'' was "one of the most memorable melodramas of its day", in that it portrayed "a small town not with the poignancy and little joys of Thornton Wilder's ''Our Town'' but rather in grim, often tragic tones". The magazine described the film as "one of director Wood's finest films" and praised Robinson's screenplay "even if he cut out a death from cancer, deleted a mercy killing, and toned down the narrative's homosexual angle". It described Korngold's score as "haunting" and the sets "quite stunning". James Wong Howe's "gorgeous cinematography, meanwhile, maintains many layers of drama in deep focus, as befits this brooding tapestry".<ref name='TVGuide'>{{cite web|url=http://movies.tvguide.com/kings-row/review/103296 |title=Kings Row: Review |access-date=March 24, 2009 |work=TV Guide }}</ref>

=== Accolades ===
The film was nominated for [[Academy Awards]] for [[Academy Award for Best Cinematography|Best Cinematography, Black-and-White]] ([[James Wong Howe]]), [[Academy Award for Directing|Best Director]] and [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]].

The film is recognized by [[American Film Institute]] in these lists:
* 2005: [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes]]:
** Drake McHugh: "Where's the rest of me?" – Nominated<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/songs400.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees |access-date=2016-08-06}}</ref>
* 2005: [[AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores]] – Nominated<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/scores250.pdf |title= AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees |access-date=2016-08-06}}</ref>