Kings Row
Director: Sam Wood
Year Released: 1942
Rating: 3.5
Early but successful and enthralling portrayal of small town life and all its hidden dreams and problems - no real "plot" per se, just a look into the lives of a young doctor, a feisty womanizer (Ronald Reagan!) and the neglected daughter of the town doctor (Claude Rains, who was in a lot of movies and always a favorite). Comes together in the most intriguing way: young doctor is needed to sort out trouble back home when a friend goes "insane" and psychologically consult another compatriot who gets seriously injured and is bedridden. The ending could be considered contrived - how many people move to this tiny town from Vienna? - and the problems resolved too quickly, but I got caught up in the characters and overlooked most flaws; its discussion of psychoanalysis is jargon-laden but brief.
