Underplayed Gems

The King and I (1956)

The King and I poster
Directed by
Walter Lang
Genre
drama film, musical film, romance film
Country
United States
Runtime
2h 13m
Rated
G
Rating
7.1 of 10 from 408 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

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How it feels

An English schoolteacher arrives in Siam in the 1860s to teach the king's children. She clashes with the king's traditional ways but earns his respect and affection.

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What happens

The King and I is a 1956 American musical film made by 20th Century-Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, which is itself based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. That novel in turn was based on memoirs written by Anna Leonowens, who became school teacher to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. Leonowens' stories were autobiographical, although various elements of them have been called into question. The film stars Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. The film was a critical and commercial success and was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won five, including Best Actor for Brynner. An animated film adaptation of the same musical was released in 1999. On February 12, 2021, Paramount Pictures and Temple Hill Entertainment announced that another live-action film version was in development. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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