Thursday, September 4, 2008

The King and I

Dir: Walter Lang, 1956 (8.1*)
Yul Brynner
was born to play this part, and got his only Oscar. Deborah Kerr as schoolteacher Anna Leonowens would have been perfect except she couldn’t sing, so they dubbed Marni Nixon over her (she also did My Fair Lady and West Side Story). Otherwise this musical based on a true story of a British teacher hired to educate the offspring of the King of Siam – hence the remake with Jody Foster and Chow Yun-Fat called Anna and the King. One of the better "stagey" musicals (all shot on a sound stage), because of the performances and Rodgers & Hammerstein songs like "The Flower Drum Song" and "Getting to Know You". The King’s arrogant front is slowly worn down by Kerr’s gentility and common humanity, not a bad story. 9 Oscar noms, 5 Oscars
Quote: Is a puzzlement! (Brynner)

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These are the individual film reviews of what I'm considering the best 1000 dvds available, whether they are films, miniseries, or live concerts. Rather than rush out all 1000 at once, I'm doing them over time to allow inclusion of new releases - in fact, 2008 has the most of any year so far, 30 titles in all; that was a very good year for films, one of the best ever.



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