Anna and the King of Siam Fox Studio Classics Anna and the King of Siam Fox 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 128 min. / Street Date May 24, 2005 / 14.98 Starring Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Lee J. Cobb, Gale Sondergaard Cinematography Arthur Miller Production Designer Art Direction William Darling, Lyle Wheeler Film Editor Harmon Jones Original Music Bernard Herrmann Written by Sally Benson, Talbot Jennings from the book by Margaret Landon Produced by Louis D. Lighton Directed by John Cromwell
	Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Lovers of My Fair Lady tend to be knocked over when discovering the wonderful the original version Pygmalion with Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard. Now fans of The King and I have a chance to experience the same kind of uplift - after this 1946 retelling of the Anna Leonowens story, one only misses the Rodgers and Hammerstein music, a little. Rex Harrison and especially Irene Dunne are magnificent in the first screen adaptation (romanticization?) of a true story. Synopsis: Anna Owens (Irene Dunne) arrives with her small son Louis in Bangkok to become the new teacher for the royal children, and initially has problems with both the vain and forbidding King Mongkut (Rex Harrison) and his Prime Minister Kralahome (Lee J. Cobb). She eventually wins the King's respect and is sought for his advice on ways to convince the colonial powers that he is modern and not a 'barbarian.' But when his number one concubine Tuptim (Linda Darnell) defies him, Mongkut doesn't listen to Anna's pleas for mercy. A lot of the dialogue is the same as the popular musical version, but Anna and the King of Siam takes in a wider range of themes and incidents. If one can do without the heavy-breathing implied near-affair between the Siamese monarch and the teacher of his dozens of children, there's a lot more of value in this version. Instead of a musical comedy with a couple of side tragedies, Anna and the King of Siam is a more rounded telling of the Anna Leonowens tale. Anna's holding out for her promised house is much more complicated, as is her relationship with both the King and his prime minister. The subplot of the unhappy concubine Tuptim is far richer - she's at first extremely jealous of Anna, and when she's caught running away with her childhood sweetheart, a monk, the issue is a lot more complex than Innocent Victim of ancient tradition. Rex Harrison's King Mongkut is less of an amusing autocrat and more of a petulant, eager man somewhat confused by his own role within a country that must change or be seized by European powers. Why he thinks becoming more modern will keep the Colonials at bay isn't exactly clear. His absolute power isolates him from reason and rationality, and Anna's haughty resistance to the King's constant demands gives him an inkling of more democratic ideas, such as the concept that other beings besides himself have a right to basic dignity. The script makes him endearingly juvenile when he desperately wants to impress a group of visiting foreign dignitaries. He splashes rose water in their faces as a greeting and then personally throws some late-arriving napkins in their laps. If they're impressed by Mongkut's civility, it's because he doesn't sacrifice anybody for their suppertime entertainment. Harrison's achievement is all the more impressive considering the almost ridiculous costumes he's made to wear - oddball uniforms and strange hats. But he makes much more sense than Yul Brynner's bare-chested macho-man; the dinner party in the musical version cannot help but end on a romantic meeting between the King and his English advisor on European manners. When Harrison's Mongkut asks about President Lincoln or peruses Anna's quotes about honor and human rights, he seems honestly interested in expanding his consciousness, democracy-wise. Anna and the King of Siam counters this sensitivity by giving Harrison a 'yellow-peril' response when she protests her torture of Tuptim and her lover: "Do you want to see what I will do to them?" he chortles in his best Fu-Manchu tones. The film carries through with his barbaric death sentence. That's what probably infuriated Europeans intent on bringing enlightenment to those Third-world barbarians - they may like the governmental reforms, but they'll never give up their customs that oppress women. Primitive pride is indistinguishable from sexual repression, I suppose. Anna must overlook the roasting of Tuptim and make do with the King's softening and ever-more reasonable response to her teachings. Anna and the King of Siam stresses the female role of teacher and civilizer. (spoiler) Deprived of her own son, she almost begs to stay on as the royal teacher, and transfers her motherly affection to the heir apparent (Mickey Roth and Tito Renaldo), desperately in need of a mentor but also a shoulder to cry on, something that custom forbids him to do with his real mother, Lady Thiang (Gale Sondergaard). As being a woman already assigns Anna a negative social status, her education and assertiveness are her only weapons for keeping her self-dignity. Of all the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age, Irene Dunne comes across as the most deserving of higher honors. I've yet to see a movie that wasn't made better by her presence, and her vehicles tend to be unusually intelligent. Hers are the best Screwball comedies (well, maybe a tie with Carole Lombard) and her singing in the Universal James Whale Showboat is more impressive than the MGM remake.  1 With Irene Dunne, one feels like one is getting a whole woman instead of one divided up into pieces; she's the object lesson as to why a sex-object female is such a sad thing. By comparison, Marilyn Monroe seems like an emotional cripple. Anna and the King of Siam is a studio picture clearly given a lot of attention in the design and art direction departments. It has that interior stage artificiality but most of it works. We even get used to seeing Lee J. Cobb looking like he's been boiled in a lobster pot; his character grows on us and earns our respect. Linda Darnell and Gale Sondergaard's characters surpass their oriental makeup and just have to be taken as part of the Hollywood soup. It would be interesting to see an Asian film with an Asian cast about the same sort of subject. Would Americans even be able to follow it without a lot of guiding explanations? Fox's Studio Classics DVD of Anna and the King of Siam looks radiant in a glowing B&W transfer, with a clear soundtrack bringing out the dynamism and detail of Bernard Herrmann's eccentric music score. He seems to know that the story is sufficiently exotic and violent to not need his strongest efforts; it's an atypical score for him and a refreshing change from bombast and menace. The disc comes with the expected newsreels and trailer, a textless remnant which strives for sensational effect. The highlight is a Biography episode, Anna and the King - The Real Story of Anna Leonowens. It very neatly charts the truth behind the story, separating the facts from pieces of Ms. Leonowen's other fictional novels that were folded into the tale when it was re-written by Margaret Landon almost fifty years later. Probably produced in conjuction with a dreary P.C. remake in 1999 starring Jodie Foster, the show recounts stage productions, the much more famous musical and even a pitiful 70s TV show with Samantha Eggar and a laugh track. Interestingly, much of the same dialogue from this first movie seems to have survived all the incarnations. The real Anna Leonowens' life may not have been the romantic idyll of the movies, but it's fascinating to watch anyway. The cover portraits of Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne make both actors look very weird and unreal ... it's the airbrushing, perhaps. Dunne looked great but was in her forties when the film was made. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Anna and the King of Siam rates: Movie: Excellent Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) Supplements: Biography: Anna and the King - The Real Story of Anna Leonowens; Fox Movietone News: Gala Hollywood Premiere; trailer Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: May 26, 2005 Footnote: 1. I strongly recommend a second-rate Warners Kern-Hammerstein musical called Sweet Adeline; the story mostly stinks but Dunne's songs are hauntingly rapturous: Why Was I Born?, Lonely Feet. Return [Savant Main Page] [Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Advertise With Us Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum Copyright © DVDTalk.com All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use