and
I'm
Good evening and welcome to the Golden Years of Hollywood.
Tonight Kings Row which I believe is one of the greatest films ever made in America and
I'm not alone in that opinion.
Kings Row is based on a novel by Henry Belleman.
Henry Belleman was a very cultured man, very skilled in music including musical composition
and in this book he did something that was not all that common when the book was first
published in the early 1940s, around about 1940.
I'm going to quote Wolfgang Reinhardt who was an associate producer on the film of
Kings Row.
The quintessence of the author's ideas is an accusation against the hypocrisy, the
narrow mindedness and the cruelty of the typical midwestern rural town or if you will of American
society as a whole.
In the novel this is done in rather a mellow way without too much bitterness.
In the style of a philosopher who knows too much about the evil of men to get too excited
about it and then he goes on to say, in the picture we would have to hit much harder,
we must let the facts speak for themselves as we cannot rely on a Greek chorus to explain
the meanings of the plot.
Sam Wood directed the film of Kings Row from a screenplay by Casey Robinson, one of Casey
Robinson's greatest works because to get Kings Row on the screen Casey Robinson had
to really adapt so much in the novel that would not have been allowed on the screen
in the early 1940s.
Sam Wood directed Goodbye Mr. Chips.
Now what do you remember Goodbye Mr. Chips for?
Do you remember it for its great camera angles, its virtuoso film making?
Do you remember Goodbye Mr. Chips for the wonderful ambience that came out and really
grabbed you?
No, you remember Goodbye Mr. Chips for Robert Dennett and Greer Garson as Mr. Chipping and
his beloved wife.
It's the actors that make it work so wonderfully well.
Sam Wood was wonderful on actors and he left the rest to other people.
Well he had a good script from Casey Robinson but here are two people who are the unsung
heroes of Kings Row, James Wong Howe the cinematographer and William Cameron Menzies who designed the
production.
Now William Cameron Menzies greatest achievement many people think has to be Gone with the
Wind and this he did fairly soon after Gone with the Wind.
He and James Wong Howe worked to give this film its look, its ambience, its feel and
then add the music of very Wolfgang Korngold more about that later.
That's the key to Kings Row, this great combination of talent.
Sam Wood with his actors, Casey Robinson's words and the collaboration of the cinematographer
and the production designer.
You couldn't fail to be impressed by all these elements in Kings Row and still the characters
mean so much.
They come alive and you will love them.
Let's take a brief look at the players before we begin the film.
Here are the three principals, Anne Sheridan as Randy, Ronald Reagan as Drake McHugh and
Robert Cummings as Paris Mitchell.
You know when they were making this film Anne Sheridan was in the midst of making The Man
Who Came to Dinner as well at Warner Brothers.
So she was in two films at once.
Robert Cummings alternated filming at Universal and it started with Eve with Deanna Durbin
and Charles Lawton with appearing in Kings Row.
He plays a part that originally was intended for Tyrone Power.
As for Ronald Reagan, it's one of his greatest achievements.
May I say right now Ronald Reagan was not a B picture actor, he was not a specialist
in western movies, he was a very competent and very well liked actor in the 1940s and
this was a movie that was one of his greatest triumphs along with a few others including
Voice of the Turtle.
Now let's look at some of the other people in Kings Row.
First of all just focusing for a moment on Anne Sheridan and Ronald Reagan together,
the relationship that they bring to life on the screen, their relationship together and
the relationship of Drake with Paris and Paris with Randy makes this film so special emotionally.
But there's a fourth person listed in the stars and that is Betty Field who plays Cassie,
a role that Ida Lupino is asked to play in Turn Down, just as Ginger Rogers was first
thought of to play the part played by Anne Sheridan.
You won't forget Cassie nor will you forget her father, Dr Tower, played magnificently
by Claude Rains.
If ever an actor deserved the Academy Award it would have had to have been Claude Rains
for his portrayal of Cassandra's father in Kings Row.
Here is Claude Rains, once again it's the relationships that matter and the relationship
created on screen between him and Robert Cummings is very touching.
By contrast another relationship that is quite hideous, the relationship of father and daughter
portrayed here by Charles Coburn and Nancy Coleman, it's a terrifying relationship and
he plays a man who is absolutely revolting.
Let's add another woman to that little family, Judith Anderson, our own Judith Anderson who
plays his wife and the mother of the character played by Nancy Coleman, a woman who wouldn't
deserve to be called mother.
She is not just the wife of this man, she is like an accomplice.
And finally Maria Aspen-Skyer, a lovely elderly actress, a great teacher of actors, she plays
the grandmother, a focal point for the wonderful man that Paris Mitchell is turning out to
be, Kings Row, a remarkable achievement by any criteria, one of my favourite films and
after tonight it may be yours too.
I hope you enjoy Kings Row.
Really is a thrilling experience Kings Row.
You may be pleased to learn, if you didn't know already, that there is a wonderful recording
of the music of Kings Row, a huge symphonic suite conducted by Charles Gerhardt that I
have seen available on CD.
You might be lucky enough to pick one up, most likely perhaps, as is Avery and Susan's
records in Sydney.
Interesting letter here from Jack Warner, the boss of Warner Brothers, apropos of the
casting of Cassie in Kings Row.
I thought you might like to learn this.
They just shot a crucial scene with Nancy Coleman and Charles Coburn which Jack Warner
liked and he said they still had problems, they hadn't cast the role of Cassie yet.
Well, we're not going to have Bette Davis do it, he said, and de Havilland will not
do it, and of course Ida Lupino had turned it down.
So the next three possibilities would be Joan Leslie, I can't see Joan Leslie as Cassie,
Susan Peters, possibly, and Priscilla Lane.
They were the only three.
And then it got to be Bette Field, who of course was lent to the studio by Paramount
Pictures.
And it's quite odd really that two major roles were played by people who weren't normally
Warner Brothers actors, that is Robert Cummings and Bette Field.
Now I also have something very interesting here that might tantalise some of you who
know the music of Kings Row well.
There was an item in the Los Angeles Daily News in October 1941 while the film was in
production.
Here's something unusual the news item rent.
Henry Bellarmine, the author of Kings Row, is heading west to help Eric Wolfgang Korngold
on the scoring of the movie adaptation of the novel at Warner Brothers.
Bellarmine, before he sat down to his typewriter, was on the faculty of the Curtis Institute
of Music in Philadelphia and at Julliard Music Foundation.
Well Eric Korngold was rather concerned at this.
Eric Wolfgang Korngold, one of the greatest of all film music composers, wrote a letter
to the director of studio publicity at Warner Brothers and this is what he said,
I'm enclosing an amusing newspaper clipping.
Isn't it too bad that Shakespeare couldn't do the same as Mr Bellarmine and head west
to help me score A Midsummer Night's Dream?
But seriously, should I really stop working and wait for the arrival of Mr Bellarmine?
Amazing isn't it that he didn't seem to care about the script, the cast, the shooting or
the directing, he's just crazy about the music.
There's just a teeny bit more.
Besides, he was on the faculty of the Curtis Academy of Music and I myself was professor
on the Music Academy in Vienna.
So maybe we'll win the Academy Award for 1941 together.
However, if Mr Bellarmine shouldn't arrive in time to help me, I shall certainly be ready
to head east.
Perhaps I could help him in writing his new book.
Very interesting.
A lot of talented people were involved and gosh I bet some of them were explosive at
times.
King's Row, quite an achievement and I've just realised there's something else I have
to do.
I promised to give away 25 copies of Pretty Woman tonight, didn't I?
Thanks to Rojo Home Video and the generosity of Wendy Calder.
Yes, I will ask you two, three, probably three questions.
Paris Mitchell leaves King's Row to continue his studies in which city, that's your first
question.
I'll give you the address and all those details later.
We shall return to King's Row in just a moment.
Which is such a pity and so many movie makers these days who make abominable pictures haven't
even seen some of these.
I saw a fantasy recently, it's probably going to be very popular, it's a big important picture
and as I watched it I said to my wife who saw it with me, you know you feel that the
people who made this picture have never seen The Wizard of Oz or The Thief of Baghdad because
besides them it's nothing.
King's Row stands out even with the great movies of the 40s.
Now before we forget I'm going to ask you a second question, show you the address.
Remember I want to give away 25 copies of the movie Pretty Woman.
Remember it is not a film for children and it does have elements in it which some people
might find rather strange.
There are a few rude words plus suggestions of sexual funny business and if that worries
you well down into the competition.
But if you get the cassette and find it displeases you no correspondence will be entered into
the matter you have been warned.
You've had question number one, to which city does Paris Mitchell go to continue his studies?
Outside America of course.
The second question is what is the name, the Christian name of the young girl with whom
he falls in love towards the end of the story?
What is her Christian name?
Right, having said that I've said enough now about King's Row tonight.
You're either hooked and gone to it or you're not.
Oh I've got to give you the address, I've got to say the address, I nearly forgot again.
Bill Collins Roadshow, Post Office Box 10, Sydney 2001.
I'll repeat one more time, keep this address, the word roadshow might change for future
competitions but the my name and the Post Office Box 10 Sydney 2001 is constant.
So keep a note of that and all you'll have to remember each time is the special words
so that the envelope will find its way to the right place.
Naturally one, two, three the answers on the back of the envelope.
Right, having said that let's talk about coming attractions.
First of all, Next Saturday Night another great film and one directed by Jean de Gulesco
who made Daddy Long Legs and the film is the great picture based on Fanny Hirst's story
Humoresque.
And that's the music you're hearing right now, humoresque.
With Joan Crawford, John Garfield plus Oscar Levant, tremendous cast, a film of such emotional
power that you'll talk about it for a long time afterwards.
It's Humoresque, Next Saturday Night at 8.30 and to provide a perfect compliment to Humoresque
it will be my great pleasure to present for you as a follow up film the short but very
beautiful romantic drama The Garden of Alar directed by Richard Boleslawski with a memorable
score by Max Steiner featuring Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, C. Aubrey Smith, Basil Rathbone,
Joseph Schulkratz and Tilly Losh.
So there you are, great program for Next Saturday Night's viewing on the golden years of Hollywood.
Next Friday Night our first movie is Black Moon Rising.
Extraordinary scenes in that believe you me with Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Hamilton and Robert
Vaughan and then after that one of the great movies of yesteryear.
A perfect crime thriller called Border Incident directed by Anthony Mann and featuring Ricardo
Motelban and George Murphy.
It's a great picture Border Incident, see it.
No circumstances.
Miss it, it's so good.
Well I've said enough for now, all I want to say now is I hope you'll stay with us when
I present in a few moments time a very interesting film Warner Brothers first full technicolour
feature Gods Country and the Woman.