The King and I

Screening: 12 December 2005
The Members' Choice

USA 1956
Directed by Walter Lang
Leading players ~ Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Rita Moreno, Martin Benson.
133 minutes

Synopsis

This naive motive, to impress without actually wanting to modernise, produces a clash of cultures. The story remains faithful to Anna's detailed diary of the whole affair. It was first made into a film starring Rex Harrison, which was rather more historically accurate than this musical version.

Whilst the history may not be totally accurate, this remains an outlandishly good musical. A good story and strong musical score and numbers, the film could not fail. Add to this the quality of the cast and the King and I becomes a musical that should be viewed at least once.

Yul Brynner, who had been a relatively unknown bit-part actor, shaved his head and gave a towering performance for the part of the King. Deborah Kerr, who had given so many exquisite performances in so many films, also rose to the occasion in this one. Rita Moreno, who was a pin-up girl as well as one of the world's greatest actresses, is beautiful as the runaway slave.

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In Thailand (previously called Siam) the royal family is held in very high esteem. This film is banned in Thailand due to its real historical inaccuracies and the perceived disrespect to the monarchy. The real Prince Chulalongkorn grew up to be an especially good king and led the way for modernization, improved relations with the west, and instituted many important cultural and social reforms in Thailand.

Rita Moreno said that the heavy Siamese headdresses she and the ballet dancers wore in "The Small House of Uncle Thomas" ballet sequence gave all of them headaches, which lasted for days.

The cost of the film was ten times more than that of the original lavish Broadway production.

The short scene in which Anna is taken through the streets of Bangkok to the King's palace by the royal entourage required 25 sets on a three-acre area on the Fox backlot, not counting the stables for the elephants used in the sequence.

The play was written for a dying Gertrude Lawrence - it was her swan song and she played the role of Anna Leonowens.

Despite Marni Nixon's having been hired to provide Deborah Kerr's singing voice, Kerr had taken singing lessons for the role, and Nixon's voice is heard on the soundtrack only during the high notes Kerr could not reach adequately; Nixon also performed all of the song "Hello Young Lovers".

In real life, the King died of malaria, not a broken spirit.

This film was selected as the members' choice, who were asked to vote last season for their favourite film from 50 years ago.