"The King and I" is probably Rodger's and Hammerstein's best musical after "Carousel". The brilliance of the piece is that it is a love story that is not romantic, but still a love story. Walter Lang translated the piece beautifully to the screen, remaining mostly faithful to the stage version, dropping some songs and adding some scenes of dialog, but keeping the brilliance of the piece, possibly improving it. original stage Anna Gertrude Lawrence died shortly after she ended her run on Broadway, making reprising her apparently dazzling performance on screen an impossibility. But Deborah Kerr is excellent in the role, even if her singing is dubbed (Marni Nixon is excellent on the vocals). And then of course there's Yul Brynner. Brynner is one of those performer's who has truly made the role his own, and he is in even better form in the film than he was in the original stage version, ( he was a little to young when he opened on Broadway). The journey he undergoes through his relationship with Anna is truly magnificent. After "The Sound of Music", this is probably the next best film version of an R&H show.
Review of The King and I
