"The New York Times" film critic Bosley Crowther panned "Kings Row", which he described as being as "gloomy and ponderous" as the novel upon which it was based. "Just why the Warners attempted a picture of this sort in these times, and just why the corps of high-priced artists which they employed for it did such a bungling job," Crowther wrote "are questions which they are probably mulling more anxiously than any one else." Crowther wrote that the film "turgidly unfolds on the screen," and is "one of the bulkiest blunders to come out of Hollywood in some time." The performances, particularly Cummings', were, he wrote, "totally lacking in conviction." The film, he wrote, "just shows a lot of people feeling bad."