Synopsis
Widowed Welsh mother Anna Loenowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna and the King have a clash of personalities as she works to teach the royal family about the English language, customs and etiquette, and rushes to prepare a party for a group of European diplomats who must change their opinions about the King.
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Cast
- Deborah KerrAnna Leonowens
- Yul BrynnerKing Mongkut of Siam
- Rita MorenoTuptim
- Martin BensonKralahome
- Terry SaundersLady Thiang
- Rex ThompsonLouis Leonowens
- Patrick AdiartePrince Chulalongkorn
- Alan MowbraySir John Hay
- Carlos RivasLun Tha
- Geoffrey TooneSir Edward Ramsay
Recommendations
- 100
The New York Times
Every bit of the humor and vibrant humanity that flowed through the tender story of the English school-teacher and the quizzical king is richly preserved in the screen play that Ernest Lehman has prepared. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Even without the music, this well-written story would be a splendid entertainment. But it's the music, that wonderful score written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, that makes this movie as beloved as it is. - 100
Variety
All the ingredients that made Rodgers & Hammerstein's [1951] The King and I a memorable stage experience have been faithfully transferred to the screen. The result is a pictorially exquisite, musically exciting, and dramatically satisfying motion picture. - 80
Washington Post
Director Walter Lang does almost nothing to cinematize the show, but that's all right; King and I works fine as an act of theatrical preservation, and at some strange level the story, even with its abrupt ending, still has power. [27 Feb 1992, p.D7] - 50
Chicago Reader
A typically overproduced 1956 Fox film of the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit, with Yul Brynner as the king and Deborah Kerr as the British schoolteacher who comes to Siam to educate Brynner's army of children. Too long at 133 minutes, but the score is swell. - 50
Time Out
Poor songs (Hello Young Lovers, Getting to Know You), fair choreography, poor script, nice photography.
