THE KING AND I
(20th Century-Fox) G Cert. { ORE than two hours of The King and I comes close to fulfilling the claim of its Wellington exhibitor that the wonders of CinemaScope 55 are never-ending, so it’s all the more pleasant to be able to say that this spectacular musical is continuously interesting and entertaining. Even more surprising in a show so big and splendid, it has a great deal of charm, to which the King’s numerous delightful children notably contribute. The King and I, which comes to the screen from Margaret Landon’s novel, Anna and the King of Siam, by way of a Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, is set nearly 100 years ago at the Siamese court, which a young English widow has just joined as a teacher of English. Walter Lang, who directed it, has made something of his opportunities to provide rich spectacle and colour, but his real concern is with the relations between Anna and the King -with the effect, that is, of a beautiful, strong-willed emancipated but goodhumoured Englishwoman on a strongwilled but also good-humoured Oriental despot. In the end the conflict between the two worlds is so great that in a more than merely romantic sense it break’s the King’s heart. Deborah Kerr gives a fine performance as Anna, but the acting triumph of the film is Yul Brynner’s King. Especially attractive is his humour-his delight, for instance, at getting his own way when he insists that, since he is King, Anna’s head must never be higher than his; and there is high drama also, in the climactic scene between these two when their dance is interrupted. so that he can cruelly punish one of his wives caught running away. The dialogue, no doubt from the original play, is often witty ("Love," says the polygamous King, "is a silly complication of a pleasant simplicity"), and the musical numbers generally more tuneful and the lyrics better than in Carousel. The King and I has also a secondary love story; and it presents as an incidental pleasure
an Oriental version of Uncle Tom's Cabin that’s quite breathtaking in its beauty and invention.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19561109.2.52.1.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 901, 9 November 1956, Page 26
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357THE KING AND I New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 901, 9 November 1956, Page 26
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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