King's Row was based on the 1940 novel of the same name, written by Harry Bellamann. The film itself was filmed in 1942 and focuses on the lives of five young children who became adults: Parris, Drake, Cassie, Randy and Louise, from King's Row, a small Midwestern town. As a melodrama, music plays an important role in understanding the director's intentions and is one of the main ways in which the creators hoped to appeal to the viewers' emotions. Since King's Row was derived from a novel, it quickly generated a fan base confirming its popularity with viewers upon its first theatrical release; however, it received many negative reviews due to its difference from Bellamann's version. The novel was very graphic in terms of sexuality, including homosexual references and multiple instances of incest, thus exploring the emotional effects on the victims and their peers. Many critics noted that this film suffered as a direct result of the production law due to the censorship imposed. Director Sam Wood was forced to eliminate, minimize, or completely change certain parts of the film, regardless of their importance to the overall plot. Theatrical posters and trailers helped generate anticipation and excitement for the film leading up to its release as the trailer opened with a big, bold scroll "The Exceptional Book of the "year becomes the most talked about movie in the country" where major words that might help fill the mood are italicized, while dramatic scenes, like Cassie running toward Parris or just watching Cassie behave frantically at home. “Secrets” is a concept that has been exploited on Kings Row posters; this represents how essential they were to the plot... middle of paper ......cago Tribune wrote an article about the film in July 1942 and quickly agreed with Crowther of the Times in regarding the film. . She refers to Kings Row as an "uninteresting [and] dreary two-part melodrama" that evokes dissatisfaction and continues, like Crowther, to criticize the acting. Kings Row was filled with successful actors and actresses, but critics thought they weren't even able to elevate the film due to how much was changed due to the production code. Regarding the film in particular, Woods and Casey Robinson, the screenwriter, were forced to eliminate allusions to homosexuality, references to incest and physical abuse. These forms of domestic trauma were all key elements that helped lay the foundation for the novel, and their absence arguably changed the entire plot of the film. However, all these omissions were the result of