Although King's Row is lately remembered for Ronald Reagan's reclaiming of the line, "Where is the rest of me?", it is a classic film, disturbing enough to be lacking in camp value, and unforgettable in its depiction of mad cruelty in small-town, turn-of-the-century America. Sadistic doctors performing unnecessary amputations, venal businessmen, and murderously incestuous parents represent the adult world which a bright young generation will inherit. As Michael Rogin writes, "King's Row is a classic in the American gothic form...an art of dualism, of haunted characters, violence and horror. Though it claims to stand for good, it is fascinated by evil." In this context the film is also a classic in the use of disablement as metaphor. Reagan's young Drake McHugh, who loses his legs following a train accident, becomes a pariah, but only unto himself: a self-described "old cripple" for whom a wheelchair is the ultimate anathema. The film credits the new science of psychiatry with Drake's emotional healing, but other elements are at play, including a support group that serves as the nondisabled catalyst. Yet, with almost Sirkian irony, in the end it is the discovery of the cruel truth about his amputations that frees Drake to take his place in society-the society we have described above.