Anna and the King of Siam (1946)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

John Cromwell

Writers:

Talbot Jennings (screenplay) and
Sally Benson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 June 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Plot:

In 1862, a young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.

Plot Keywords:

King | Siam | Bangkok | Widow | 1860s

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Irene Dunne	...	Anna Owens
Rex Harrison	...	King Mongkut
Linda Darnell	...	Tuptim
Lee J. Cobb	...	Kralahome
Gale Sondergaard	...	Lady Thiang
Mikhail Rasumny	...	Alak
Dennis Hoey	...	Sir Edward
Tito Renaldo	...	Prince (older)
Richard Lyon	...	Louis Owens

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:12 (re-rating) (2006) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:12 (re-rating) (2006) (cut) | UK:A (1946) (cut) | Netherlands:12 | Canada:G (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #11572, General Audience)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - 301 N. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Filming was delayed two months because Irene Dunne's husband was recovering from a heart attack. Twentieth Century Fox almost considered replacing her with Myrna Loy or Jean Arthur.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In order to remind the King about his promise to give Anna a house of her own (to which the King continually refuses to honour) she leaves many reminders about his broken promise around the palace, in particular an English china cottage which has "made in England" on the underside and the inscription over the door of the cottage "Honor Thy Promise". In 1868 England (as today), 'honour' was not spelt "honor". Minor error, but a spelling mistake non-the-less.

Quotes:

Kralahome: [the Kralahome has just arrived to tell King Mongkut of the loss of Cambodia. Anna, meanwhile, continues to press the King about the issue of a private residence, to the point where even the King's staff members are singing "Home, Sweet Home"] Your Majesty! It has begun, Toongramon. We've lost Cambodia. Our governor of Cambodia has made a treaty with the French government. They have recognized Cambodia as independent of Siam, placed it under their "protection," and this governor of ours still protests his loyalty to Your Majesty.
King Mongkut: So, a camel's nose is in the tent. The partition of Siam, it has begun.
Kralahome: For a long time, we've said this hour must come. Now it is no longer talk. It is upon us. What do we do?
King Mongkut: Nothing. We shall do nothing whatever in this matter... because there is nothing we can do.
Kralahome: Your father took such a man once and burned out both his eyes, hung him in the sun in a cage over cool running water, until he went mad.
King Mongkut: [Heartbroken, yes resigned] We have not the right to waste ourselves on something which cannnot be changed. We shall save what strength and cunning we may have to hold together what is left of Siam. And if we cannot save all that is left, we shall save what we can.
Kralahome: [after a long pause] Tell me something Toongramon. A long time ago, I came to you and asked you to leave a life of peace, and to be King. If I could ask you now to make that choice, what would your answer be? Think well before you answer that. Think what this can mean to you.
King Mongkut: You feel great responsibility for me, don't you, Chow Koon?
Kralahome: You might still be living peacefully at the monastery if I had not persuaded you. Perhaps it is not too late to return. Think well on that. The monastery instead of this place, where you have only enemies and danger. Well, you know this is not the end. The ships of Europe will crowd thicker on our seas, greedy for conquest. They have the power... and the cunning. They know how to set your nobles against you, how to buy and threaten them. How can you hope to hold Siam together against enemies without and within? All that it can mean to you is that, in the end, you will die in a lost cause.
[pause]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Anna and the King: The Real Story of Anna Leonowens" (1999)

Sturdy adapatation of a popular book

Interesting, surprisingly lavish black-and-white filming of the same story which later became of the basis for the musical "The King and I".

Irene Dunne is, as always, warm and intelligent, and she looks charming in ruffled hoopskirts. Rex Harrison was an off-beat choice for the King, but with his lean, upright bearing, he perhaps more strongly suggests an Asian monarch than does Yul Brenner's swaggering, bare-chested bully in "The King and I". The secondary casting is strong, also, with Gale Sonnergard particularly touching in the reserved role of the King's neglected # 1 wife. And lavishly costumed Linda Darnell gets most of the plot's histrionics to play out. (She also has to tangle with a scene-stealing monkey.)

This is the rare film that actually looks better "live" than it does in still photographs, in which things appear rather stilted. The developing interplay between Dunne and Harrison is intriguing, with its hint of romantic tension, but the film really does not hang together as a drama very well, and toward the end it falls into the conventions of the "school-teacher-struggles-through-the-years" genre which Golden Age Hollywood often tackled (eg., "Cheers for Miss Bishop", "Good Morning Miss Dove", et al).

It will be interesting to compare this version with Jodie Foster's upcoming remake. Recent scholarship has revealed the real-life Anna to have been something of an adventuress who fudged her credentials and overstated her impact on the King. (The best selling book upon which this film is based reads like juvenile fiction, by the way.) Likewise, the real-life Thai Monarch was a much more refined, intelligent and forward-thinking leader than either of the film versions thus far would lead a viewer to believe.