Anna and the King of Siam

Anna and the King of Siam (1946) starring Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Lee J. Cobb. Dunne stars as Anna, an English woman who in the 1860s journeyed to Siam (today's Thailand) to tutor the king's (Harrison) 67 children in English. After she arrives, everything boils down to a struggle of wills between her and the king. Neither can be said to have won, but she gains the king's respect because she speaks the truth to him -- something that his Siamese subjects are too frightened to do. My main quibble with this film is that Harrison is miscast as an Asian king -- he's an Englishman, and he scarcely even loses his accent. He doesn't even look vaguely Siamese. Cobb, as his majordomo, looks equally Caucasian. That problem aside, this is a pretty good movie. I was very moved when the king died. (The disc includes subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired, and they are quite legible.) Grade: B