Hello Dr. Esolen. Thanks for writing about one of my favorite movies and truly Ronald Reagan’s best role. He went in the Army after making this movie, and his career was never really the same after the war. I think his best post-war role was Yank in the Hasty Heart, which also starred Richard Todd and Patricia Neal. However, his wife Jane Wyman’s career took off with great films such as Johnny Belinda, for which she won an Academy Award in 1948. They divorced soon after, but neither Ronald nor Jane ever said a bad word about the other. In fact, when Reagan died in 2004, Jane gave a moving tribute and said that of course she had voted for him for president. May I offer one small correction? Reagan’s character in Kings Row is Drake McHugh while Ann Sheridan’s character is Randy Monaghan. By the way, I love the score for Kings Row which was composed by the great Erich Wolfgang Korngold. George Paxton
Hello Margaret. I appreciate your comments about my post. Yes, you’re right that he didn’t want the divorce, and and that their daughter’s death negatively affected their marriage. In fact, I had forgotten about the baby’s death. I think another problem was his increasing involvement as a leader of the Screen Actors Guild and Jane’s work on Johnny Belinda. I read somewhere that Reagan jokingly said that he would name Johnny Belinda as the “co-respondent” in the divorce case. Great to hear from a fellow Anthony Esolen fan. I love his old movie choices. All the best George
I’ve read that he did not at all want the divorce and that he attributed her behavior to the death of their infant daughter, Christine, in 1947. He thought she was not in her right mind because of grief. In the 1950s she converted to Catholicism and was a third order Dominican. She was buried in a Dominican habit.
John, I tested the link and it worked for me. If you hover over the picture and right click you should see a box that will allow you to copy the link so that you can go to the film on Internet Archive directly. I can't get to my computer now but I will try to look up the link when I can. Sorry for the tech difficulty.
My reaction: you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you FREE!!
Hello Dr. Esolen. Thanks for writing about one of my favorite movies and truly Ronald Reagan’s best role. He went in the Army after making this movie, and his career was never really the same after the war. I think his best post-war role was Yank in the Hasty Heart, which also starred Richard Todd and Patricia Neal. However, his wife Jane Wyman’s career took off with great films such as Johnny Belinda, for which she won an Academy Award in 1948. They divorced soon after, but neither Ronald nor Jane ever said a bad word about the other. In fact, when Reagan died in 2004, Jane gave a moving tribute and said that of course she had voted for him for president. May I offer one small correction? Reagan’s character in Kings Row is Drake McHugh while Ann Sheridan’s character is Randy Monaghan. By the way, I love the score for Kings Row which was composed by the great Erich Wolfgang Korngold. George Paxton
Hello Margaret. I appreciate your comments about my post. Yes, you’re right that he didn’t want the divorce, and and that their daughter’s death negatively affected their marriage. In fact, I had forgotten about the baby’s death. I think another problem was his increasing involvement as a leader of the Screen Actors Guild and Jane’s work on Johnny Belinda. I read somewhere that Reagan jokingly said that he would name Johnny Belinda as the “co-respondent” in the divorce case. Great to hear from a fellow Anthony Esolen fan. I love his old movie choices. All the best George
I’ve read that he did not at all want the divorce and that he attributed her behavior to the death of their infant daughter, Christine, in 1947. He thought she was not in her right mind because of grief. In the 1950s she converted to Catholicism and was a third order Dominican. She was buried in a Dominican habit.
not getting the link to work?
John, I tested the link and it worked for me. If you hover over the picture and right click you should see a box that will allow you to copy the link so that you can go to the film on Internet Archive directly. I can't get to my computer now but I will try to look up the link when I can. Sorry for the tech difficulty.
now getting "temporarily offline"
I looked just now and found a link to a colorized version. Try this one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK4kzELX4Ow