The King and I (film)

• Release Date: 1956
• Director(s): Walter Lang
• Writer(s): Ernest Lehman
• Principal Actors and Roles: Yul Brynner (King Mongkut of Siam); Deborah Kerr (Anna Leonowens); Martin Benson (Kralahome); Rita Moreno (Tuptim); Carlos Rivas (Lun Tha); Terry Saunders (Lady Siang); Rex Thompson (Louis Leonowens)

The 1956 musical film The King and I was based on the hugely successful 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical of the same name, which itself was based on a bestselling book called Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. Landon’s novel in turn was derived from the book The English Governess at the Siamese Court by Anna Leonowens. This is an autobiographical tale of Leonowens’ work as a teacher to the children of King Mongkut of Siam (now Thailand) in the 1860s.

The Broadway musical was a smash hit, and so was the movie version. However, the accuracy of Leonowens’ story has come under fire, and the musical’s depiction of King Mongkut has become controversial enough that the film is banned in Thailand. Regardless, in 1956 The King and I was hugely popular. The subject clearly had a great deal of appeal, because in 1946 a nonmusical version of Leonowens’ story called Anna and the King of Siam starred Rex Harrison as the king and Irene Dunne as Anna. This was remade in 1999 as Anna and the King, with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat in the starring roles.

Thus, however true or false her story may be, Anna Leonowens has been portrayed by at least four outstanding actresses, including Gertrude Lawrence from the original Broadway run. They faced off against three outstanding actors (Yul Brynner played the king in both the Broadway and film versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical).

Plot

The basic story of The King and I is simple: Widow Anna Leonowens travels from Wales with her young son to Siam in the early 1860s. The King of Siam, King Mongkut, has offered her a teaching job. The king is defying his advisors by hiring Anna to teach him and his children the ways of the West. Anna is strong-willed and progressive in her thinking; the king is proud, haughty, chauvinistic, and unaccustomed to having any of his behavior or dicta challenged.

Thus an underlying conflict is immediately established, particularly as Anna begins to teach his many children. King Mongkut will not tolerate contradiction or anything else that might make him lose face. He says to Anna, "You are a very difficult woman." His character has a pair of catch-phrases that are used throughout the musical: "Hah!" and "Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera." Both are used to comic effect and to underscore his imperious demeanor.

A subplot revolves around a slave named Tuptim and her love for a man named Lun Tha. Tuptim writes a ballet based on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which becomes a play within the play.

Throughout, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s songs punctuate the action and themes. When Anna and her son Louis first meet one of the king’s advisors, the man frightens Louis. This leads Anna to sing the famed "I Whistle a Happy Tune," with Marni Nixon’s voice dubbed in for Deborah Kerr. As Anna meets the king’s children she will be tutoring, the equally well known "Getting to Know You" carries the scene forward.

However, the assembled children refuse to believe that there is such a thing as snow, and the lesson descends into chaos. The king arrives and orders his children to believe Anna. He then notices Tuptim’s copy of Stowe’s book and engages Anna in a discussion about slavery, which is a normal state of affairs in his world.

The recurrent theme of slavery runs through the story line of the musical. When the new British envoy arrives in Bangkok, on Anna’s advice the king hosts a European-style banquet. Part of the evening’s entertainment is Tuptim’s version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which is danced as a traditional Siamese ballet. During the ballet, Tuptim leaves to meet Lun Tha.

After the guests are gone, the king reveals to Anna that Tuptim is missing and he is displeased. This leads to a discussion of relations between men and women and to what is probably the movie’s best-known scene, a high-energy dance in which Anna teaches King Mongkut the polka. The joyful action accompanies the show-stopping song "Shall We Dance?" The music and the dance underscore the mutual respect and admiration that has developed between the king and Anna.

The scene breaks when the king’s adviser rushes in to announce the capture of the missing Tuptim. When King Mongkut says he will whip the errant woman, Anna suggests that he is the barbarian the English believe him to be. She prepares to leave Siam forever. The king puts his hand over his heart and retreats.

As Anna is about to leave, the king’s principal wife, Lady Thiang, stops her. King Monghut is dying. He has refused to eat or sleep since the night of the banquet. Lady Thiang gives Anna an unfinished letter from the king in which he expresses his respect and gratitude for her, their differences notwithstanding. She goes to his bedside. He gives her his ring and asks her to wear it always because she has always told him the truth. This persuades her to remain in Siam as a teacher and advisor for King Monghut’s heir, Prince Chulalongkom. The prince abolishes slavery as his first official act, and the king dies quietly.

Significance

The King and I was an instant financial success, earning three times its production costs in the first year. It also was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won five. The parts of King Mongkut and Anna became signature roles for Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, for which he received both an Oscar and a Tony. In addition it won Oscars for best color art direction/set design, best color costume design, best musical score, and best sound and received nominations for best picture, best director, best actress, and best color cinematography. Deborah Kerr won a Golden Globe as best actress. The movie won best musical or comedy at the Golden Globes as well.

The American Film Institute placed it thirty-first on the AFI list of "100 Years . . . 100 Passions," and the song "Shall We Dance" is ranked fifty-fourth on the AFI’s list of the 100 best movie songs. On the organization’s list of the 100 best musicals The King and I is ranked eleventh.

It was also one of only two movies shot in a new CinemaScope 55 format that was supposed to include six-channel stereo sound. However, it was released only in CinemaScope 35 with four-channel sound. CinemaScope 55 disappeared after The King and I.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1956) Best Actor: Yul Brynner
• Academy Award (1956) Best Costume Design (Color): Irene Sharaff
• Academy Award (1956) Best Score
• Academy Award (1956) Best Sound Recording
• Academy Award (1956) Best Art Direction-Set Direction (Color)
• Golden Globe (1957) Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
• Golden Globe (1956) Best Motion Picture Actress (Musical or Comedy): Deborah Kerr

Nominated

• Academy Award (1956) Best Picture
• Academy Award (1956) Best Director: Walter Lang
• Academy Award (1956) Best Actress: Deborah Kerr
• Academy Award (1956) Best Cinematography (Color): Leon Shamroy
• Golden Globe (1956) Best Motion Picture Actor (Musical or Comedy): Yul Brynner
• Golden Globe (1956) Best Film Promoting International Understanding

Bibliography

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Bloom, Ken. Hollywood Musicals: The 101 Greatest Song and Dance Movies of All Time. New York: Black Dog, 2010. Print.

Capua, Michelangelo. Yul Brynner: A Biography. Jefferson: McFarland, 2006. Electronic, print.

Kniffel, Leonard. Musicals on the Silver Screen: A Guide to the Must-See Movie Musicals. Chicago: Huron Street, 2013. Electronic, print.

Nixon, Marni and Stephen Cole. I Could Have Sung All Night. New York: Billboard, 2006. Print.

Nolan, Frederick, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein. The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Montclair: Applause, 2002. Electronic, print.