Did You Know?

At one point, Fox executives suggested that the story be changed so that the King would be gored by a white elephant, rather than become ill because of a personal humiliation. Understandably, this made Yul Brynner furious, and he insisted that the story stick to the stage version.

Deborah Kerr's uncredited voice double Marni Nixon said that she realized the keys of Anna's songs were very low for her - "very contralto keys" - and that she was really too young (just 21) to be able to sound "adult" and "womanly". Hence, a modifier was placed in Nixon's microphone, to make her voice sound deeper and more mature. "I have a very light, bright ring to my voice, and I tried to take that out" she said. "But they were able to use this modifier to emphasize the lower partials of my voice. I also remember having a terrible cold at the time, not being able to breathe in those recording sessions. But that probably helped in matching Deborah's voice, deepening it."

The cost of the film was ten times more than that of the original lavish Broadway production.

Marlon Brando was briefly considered for the role of the King of Siam.

Baking under the hot lights on-set, Deborah Kerr lost over 12 pounds, and would often refer to herself as "The melting Miss Kerr".

Darryl F. Zanuck first cast Maureen O'Hara as Anna because she was not only gorgeous but had a fine soprano voice and would not have to be dubbed. When Zanuck told her the news, she immediately sent sample recordings of her voice. Richard Rodgers agreed that O'Hara had a great voice but reportedly said, "No pirate queen is going to play my Anna!"

It was announced, early on, that Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II would write a set of new songs for this film adaptation of their 1951 hit Broadway musical, but of course, this didn't come to pass.

Dinah Shore, who was a singer as well as an actress, was initially considered for the role of Anna Leonowens.

The play was written for Gertrude Lawrence and her appearance in the film version was contractually guaranteed. However, shortly after the show opened she was diagnosed with cancer, and she died while still playing the role on Broadway.

Marni Nixon dubbed Deborah Kerr's singing in the film.

Art directors John DeCuir and Lyle R. Wheeler spent $750,000 designing the 40 sets required for the film.

Dorothy Dandridge was the original choice for the role of Tuptim. It has been reported that Miss Dandridge, who had just made history as the first African American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in Carmen Jones, was strongly advised to refuse the role because Tuptim was a slave. The role went to Rita Moreno, who was of Puerto Rican descent.

Rita Moreno said that the heavy Siamese headdresses she and the ballet dancers wore in "The Small House of Uncle Thomas" ballet sequence gave all of them headaches, which lasted for days.

Maureen O'Hara was originally meant to play the lead role in the movie version of "The King and I", but Yul Brynner specifically asked for Deborah Kerr.

The "Small House of Uncle Thomas" segment in this film is the only American theatrical version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to be made in the sound era. It was filmed in 1965 as a German theatrical movie, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and in America, for TV in 1987 (Uncle Tom's Cabin), but not as a film per se. (The very obscure Uncle Tom's Cabin does not count, as it's an exploitation movie centered on torture and with little more than the title to do with Harriet Beecher Stowe's story.)

Yul Brynner won the 1952 Tony Award (New York City) for Supporting or Features Actor in a Musical for "The King and I" as the King of Siam and recreated his role in the movie version.

Though Richard Rodgers rejected Maureen O'Hara for the title role of Anna, she had previously starred in the 1941 Rodgers and Hart musical "They Met in Argentina."

The real-life Anna Leonowens was the maternal aunt of Boris Karloff.