Great classic musical!

To be honest, I had absolutely no idea of what to expect with this one because I had not seen the animated version as a child and I had not seen the play or read the book. The film is based on the book version called "Anna and the King of Siam" by Margaret Langdon. This musical is a beautiful film that I would call a family film more than 50s musicals like Singin' In The Rain and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. What I love about musicals is that in almost every song, I am gripped to them and don't want them to end. I love some of the songs that involve dancing. My favourite song from the film is called "Getting To Know You".


Mrs. Anna Leonowens is a widow from Wales who arrives in Bangkok with her young son, Louis, to teach English to the children of the royal household of King Monghut. She is greeted into the palace but is told to live there, although the king promised her a house. The real Anna Leonowens was born on 26th November 1831 and died on 19th January 1915 at 83 years of age. Deborah Kerr strongly deserved her Oscar nomination for her performance in this film and she should've won it! Yul Brynner delivers an almost perfect performance as King Monghut of Siam. Brynner had that bitter and quite strict taste about him which is what I really liked about the character. King Monghut was born on 18th October 1804 and died on 1st October 1868. He reigned for precisely 17 years and 183 days until his death in 1868. He had 15 children living his palace with him and 67 other children who lived elsewhere. The chemistry between Monghut and Anna reminded me a lot of the relationship between Maria and Captain Von Trapp from The Sound Of Music especially of how they each treat the king's children.


Walter Lang directed this one really well! I hadn't heard of him or any of his work until now. I am glad that a director like Stanley Donen wasn't chosen to direct this film because he would have made it too bright like Singin' In The Rain and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won 5 of those nominations. It won Best Actor (Yul Brynner), Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design (Color), Best Music, Scoring Of A Musical Picture and Best Sound Recording. It was nominated for Best Picture 1956, Best Actress (Deborah Kerr), Best Director (Walter Long) and Best Cinematography (Color).


Overall, The King And I is a classic musical that isn't quite as awesome as I was expecting it to be but it was still very enjoyable.

8/10