The King and I (1956)

The King and I is a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein based on the book Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. The plot comes from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became school teacher to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. Starring Yul Brynner, Rita Moreno and Deborah Kerr.

Mrs. Anna Leonowens (Deborah Kerr), a widow from Wales, arrives in Bangkok with her young son, Louis, to teach English to the children of the royal household of King Mongkut (Yul Brynner). She is escorted to the palace by the King's sinister right-hand man, the Kralahome, of whom she is very apprehensive - she and her son must disguise their fear ("Whistle A Happy Tune"). She is greeted, but told she will stay in the palace, although the king promised her she would have a house. She demands to see the King and does see him. The King is pleased with her, and takes her to meet his wives and his fifteen children that live in the palace (he has sixty-seven more). She is charmed by the children, and agrees to stay and teach them. Here she meets a new, young wife - a Burmese girl named Tuptim, who arrived shortly before Anna did. She is unhappy living at the castle, because she is in love with Lun Tha, the man who had brought her to Siam from Burma.

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Part One

 

Part Two

The King's wives come to help Anna settle in to her new home, and discover a photo of her husband. Anna reminisces about her days with Tom, and gives her blessing to other young lovers, who are like they used to be, ("Hello Young Lovers").

The King is troubled - he craves truth, but how can he learn the truth when different cultures say different things? ("Is A Puzzlement")

As Anna teaches her lesson to the children, she explains that getting to know people is her favorite thing to "teach" ("Getting to Know You"). The lesson goes on and the children start to not believe in the things she is teaching them, such as snow and Siam's small size. The King intervenes and scolds his children for not believing her.

Late one night, the King summons Anna to talk to her about the Bible, and how Moses says the world was created in six days. The King of Siam thinks Moses is a fool - he thinks that the world took many centuries to create. They have a small argument about the Bible in which Anna stands above the King. Due to the Siamese custom that no one's head should be higher than the King's, Anna is forced to sit on the floor as the King has her write a letter to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, telling him he will send male elephants to America to help with the Civil War. Anna tries to tell him that the elephants will not last long if only male elephants are sent, but the King loses interest and tells her to finish the letter herself. Before this, Anna has to have her head lowered than the king, which she first refuses, until the king loses his temper, forcing her to kneel and lie on the floor. Anna goes outside, where she meets Lun Tha and learns that he and Tuptim have been meeting in secret. He asks Anna to fetch Tuptim. Anna refuses at first, afraid of the consequences if the lovers are caught, but, remembering her own happy days with her husband, Tom, she relents. The lovers meet ("We Kiss In A Shadow"), and Lun Tha promises that when he comes again, he and Tuptim will escape from Siam.

Later, the King is told that England thinks him a barbaric leader, so he and Anna plan an English style feast for many European officials. Anna helps to make some of the ladies' European dresses, and also orders food and teaches the orchestra European music. She is appalled to find that she only has one week to do this in, but the King reminds her that according to Moses, the whole world was created in one week.

Anna dresses the ladies up in English clothes, but forgets to give them undergarments. She is horrified on discovering her mistake, and entreats the ladies to keep their backs to the wall when presented to the Ambassador. But at the sight of the Ambassador's spyglass, the ladies flee in panic, exclaiming that he has the head of a goat. The Ambassador arrives, along with his aide Sir Edward Ramsey, with whom Anna was in love before she met Tom - in fact, Edward did once ask for her hand in marriage. He waylays Anna as she goes to help the King with the seating, and they reminisce and dance together, which the King walks in on and is highly jealous. The King offers his arm to her and leads her to dinner, where the guest are entertained by the King's intellectual observations, and Tuptim's theatrical version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which she narrates. When the play is over, however, she escapes with her lover. Anna and the King talk after the feast, and he gives her one of his rings as a present. Anna is quite taken by this gesture. It is here that the movie seems to show that they have fallen in love with each other, even though the King rejects the idea. The king recites a poem, known as the "Song of the King" where he states that women are "blossoms" and that men are "like Honeybees", and declares that "honey bees must be free" to "Fly from Blossom to Blossom", however, "blossoms must not ever fly from bee,to bee to bee". Anna laughs at the poem, however, She then teaches him how to dance the polka ("Shall We Dance"). However, they are interrupted by the Kralahome, who explains that Tuptim has been found and the King is told of her lover. He decides to whip her, but Anna calls him a barbarian, and says that he has no heart. He is unable to beat Tuptim and runs off in humiliation, and Anna gives back the ring and decides to leave Siam. Tuptim is led off in tears after an official announces that the corpse of Lun Tha has been discovered in the river. She is not seen again in the film.

Anna, thinking that she can no longer be of any use, is just about to leave Siam when she is told that the King is dying. His health has steadily declined ever since Anna called him a barbarian, and he has refused any help. She goes to his bedside and he gives her back the ring, pleading with her to wear it and saying that she has always spoken the truth to him. She decides to stay in order to help his young son, the Crown Prince Chulalongkorn, rule the people. As the prince is making his first statements as King, declaring the end of slavery in Siam, and stating that the King's subjects will no longer bow down to him but rather stand at attention, the King dies, only Anna and the Kralahome noticing. The film ends with Anna laying her head on his hand.

 

The film makes Tuptim's ultimate fate more ambiguous. In the stage version, when she hears of Lun Tha's death, she exclaims "Then I shall join him soon", implying that the King's soldiers will execute her (which is what happens to her in the film Anna and the King of Siam and the 1999 Anna and the King). In the 1956 film version of The King and I, Tuptim, when hearing of Lun Tha's fate, exclaims "Dead! Oh, no!", and begins weeping uncontrollably as the soldiers drag her off.

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