The King and I (1956)
Directed by Walter Lang
Widowed Welsh mother Anna Leonowens 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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What critics compared The King and I to
Mary Ann's approach to child-rearing combines a militarism, adherence to protocol and self-satisfaction not seen since "The King and I," and while Sarah tries to conform to the strict rules of snack times and play-dates, she can't manage to subsume herself to the degree required by her cohorts.
These veteran actors brighten up the screen momentarily and made me wonder what they wouldve been like co-starring in The King and I instead of Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr --- or perhaps even now in a senior version of Dirty Dancing.
The animation in The Iron Giant won't soon erase memories of the intricate camera moves featured in Disney's Tarzan , but it is a huge step up from Warner Bros.'s recent animated embarrassments, Quest for Camelot and the awful The King and I .
For me, at least, WB's losing streak continues, even if it is worlds above the dreadful "The King and I."
Disney has the traditional animation market locked up, but other studios seem willing to throw money at Disney musical look-alikes (like "The King and I") even though they might have a better chance moving in the opposite direction--toward real stories told straight.
Inevitably, you wonder what the likes of My Fair Lady, West Side Story, and The King and I would have sounded like if they'd been made this way, and without the reassuring soprano of Marni Nixon emanating from their leading ladies.
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There is a good villain entry with "Mother Knows Best," sung by two-time Tony Award-winning Donna Murphy ("The King and I" and "Passion").
The closest analogues in the United States to Woo's Hong Kong output, in fact, are films like Oklahoma , The King and I , and West Side Story --films that trade in base emotionality and archetypal images to, basically, set up the extended set-piece money shots.
The sentiment has the audacity to compare writer/director Chazelle's millenial charmer LA LA LAND to actually amazing musicals, presumably in the realm of West Side Story, The King and I, Grease, and even Chicago.
"Coming to America" has a far gentler spirit than the "Beverly Hills Cop" films, and Murphy, who seems to have based his performance on Yul Brynner's in "The King and I," at least tries to sustain his character throughout.
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That it is sentimental can hardly be disputed, and the songs are undoubtedly a bit sweet and gooey, but whatever, it works as cinema: much, much better than the stiff and soulless like of My Fair Lady , and considerably better than any of the other films based on Rodgers & Hammerstein's earlier (and mostly superior) shows, ranging from the grimly average ( Carousel ) to the grotesquely unacceptable ( South Pacific ) - I understand that there are those who admire the 1956 movie of The King and I , and good for them.
With the help of Ernest Lehman (the pen behind such classic film stories as The King and I, the aforementioned West Side Story, Hello, Dolly!, Sabrina, North by Northwest and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), Wise crafts a joyous celebration of life.
The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, who already had experience adapting musicals with The King and I (1956) and West Side Story (1961), the latter of which had also been directed by Robert Wise.
The next year Ms. Andrews was making "Mary Poppins," and when director Robert Wise ("The Day the Earth Stood Still," "West Side Story") and screenwriter Ernest Lehman ("The King and I," "West Side Story") saw her in the rushes, they knew they had their lead actress for "The Sound of Music."
Lehman had already written a romance where a girl of low station falls in love with a man higher up on the social ladder ("Sabrina," 1954), and he had two musicals under his belt: "The King and I" (1956) and "West Side Story" (1961).