Review of Anna and the King of Siam

Solid drama that was the genesis for The King and I is much darker in tone than the later musical. Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne do well by their characters and Lee J. Cobb is appropriately brusk as the king's right hand man. Gale Sondergaad is compassionate and regal as the number one wife. Linda Darnell perfectly haughty and full of youthful pride as the tragic Tuptim. Her fate is quite different than the one meet by Rita Moreno in the musical. This is the picture during which she was slightly burned during filming leading to her lifelong fear of fire, a sad irony since that was to be her end. A very good film but if you enter into viewing it expecting a similar experience to the Yul Brynner/Deborah Kerr picture you're in for quite a shock.