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Mar 30, 2019DUVIDL rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Rumor has it, after the publishing of KING'S ROW, Bellamann couldn't set foot in Fulton, Missouri for over ten years for fear of tar-and-feathering. Read the original book and see why. I suspect it wasn't the 'sadist egotist who played surgical God (punishing the 'wicked' and rewarding the 'good') that caused the brouha. It was the revelation of the arrogantly incestuous sociopath who murdered his helpless wife while the whole town looked the other way that 'done the trick'! Charles Coburn, who usually played lovable 'feisty uncle/grandfather' figures, is blood-chilling as the 'righteously moral' doctor (for another chiller, see him in IN THIS OUR LIVES, where he and Bette Davis's scenes will give you the willies.) And the opening scene, where the three little boys stand frozen, listening to the screams of the alcoholic father being operated on without anesthesia: the uncredited actor who did that mindless animal howl should have gotten some kind of award.