Anna and the King of Siam (1946)

Anna and the King of Siam
Directed by John Cromwell
Written by Talbot Jennings and Sally Benson from the biography by Margaret Landon
1946/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Kralahome: Mem, I cannot promise that it will ever be easy for you. We have proverb here: “Go up by land, and you meet tiger. Go down by water, and you meet crocodile.” But for you, it will be place to put your life.[/box]

I can’t imagine the filmmakers realized just what an effective critique of colonialism they were making. Nonetheless, this is a solid, entertaining telling of Anna Leonowen’s fictionalization of her own life.

The setting is 1862 Bangkok. Anna Owens (Irene Dunne) has been hired to teach English to the many children of King Mongut (Rex Harrison).  On arrival, she asks to be taken to the house the King promised her but  Prime Minister (Lee J. Cobb) informs her she is to live within the palace.  This turns out to be private quarters in the harem. Anna is unable to meet with the King or start teaching for several weeks.  The King continues to refuse her the house.

When Anna finally does begin teaching, she wages all out war via songs and sayings taught to her pupils (“There’s No Place Like Home”, etc.) until she gets her way.  This is not successful until she also begins assisting the King with his correspondence with Westerners.  Having proved her point, she prepares to leave but the Prime Minister persuades her that the King, who is struggling to preserve Siam’s independence, needs her counsel.

Anna becomes the beloved teacher of not only the King’s children but his wives.  She becomes friendly with first wife Lady Tiang (Gale Sondergaard), the mother of Crown Prince Chulalongkorn.  She spars with the feisty Tuptim (Linda Darnell), current favorite of the King’s many wives.  Anna is unaware that Tuptim was ripped from her beloved fiancee as a gift by her father to the King and is miserable.

The highlight of Anna’s career in Siam is her whirlwind success in Europeanizing the court in time for a visit by the British Counsel General from Singapore.  Siam recently lost Cambodia to the French and the King fears losing is whole kingdom to the British unless he can establish he is not a “barbarian”.  She dresses all the wives in the latest fashions, teaches the King to eat with a knife and fork, and convinces him to widen the gathering to include representatives of other European nations.   The event is a smashing success.

But, when Tuptim escapes the harem to join her lover in a monastery, the King meets out the traditional punishment and only a personal tragedy can prevent Anna from fleeing in horror.

In the wake of the devastation following WWII,  Americans were questioning the whole idea of Empire.  The film reflects this in Anna’s many speeches about individual freedom, rule of law, and national independence.  At the same time, however, the story contains all the worst aspects of colonialism.  Anna has picked up the White Man’s Burden of civilizing the ignorant and showing them the light.    She makes little to no effort to understand the Thais ancient culture or beliefs.

That said, I liked the film.  I was a bit worried about Rex Harrison but I needn’t have been.  In a part that so easily could have been a caricature, he never once steps over the line. He and Dunne have excellent chemistry and their scenes sparkle.  Lee J. Cobb is the least likely looking Asian since Walter Connelly in The Good Earth.  Poor Linda Darnell. She was Zanuck’s favorite beauty and kept being cast as ingenues or in sex pot roles that simply do not suit her, ignoring her true flair for comedy and cynical bad girls.

The DVD I rented contained an excellent biographical documentary on Anna Leonowens, a woman who continually reinvented herself to get her gig in Siam and later to sell books.  She was a young widow without family in a man’s world.  You can’t help admiring her pluck, really.

Anna and the King of Siam won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Arthur C. Miller) and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White.  It was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Sondergaard); Best Writing, Screenplay; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Bernard Hermann – beautiful evocative score).

Clip