Word: yul
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...lies in the fact that two most effective scenes are the two simplest. No line of Goldwyn girls endlessly kicking as they fade toward infinity nor any impeccably starched and waltzing Corps Diplomatique nor all the magnolia-scented balls that Darryl Zanuck ever threw had half the grace of Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr romping alone to "Shall We Dance...
...Yul Brynner's king is a properly engaging mixture of arrogance and naivete, while a flock of correctly slant-eyed wives and children lends charm and authenticity. Miss Kerr presides over the whole menage with all the grace and, unfortunately, all the passion of an English noblewoman showing off her prize roses...
...dependable plot has no surprises. Deborah Kerr, who gets some dubbed-in help on the vocals from Marni Nixon, is both starchy and strong-minded as the British widow brought to Bangkok in the 1860s to teach English and the scientific method to the king's innumerable children. Yul Brynner, in a bare skull and bare feet, plays the Oriental potentate with the same mannered ferocity that he displayed on Broadway during the 1,246 performances of the play's run. About all that Hollywood has added are the production values of CinemaScope 55 and De Luxe color...
...Siamese version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, and enchantingly danced by Yuriko and Marion Jim. The King and I moves along satisfactorily from spectacle to spectacle until the conclusion, when its message (democracy is good; slavery is bad) gets a truly pedestrian delivery at Yul Brynner's deathbed. But the jokes are pleasant, the children cute, and the songs, though familiar, have the springtime bounciness that mark Rodgers and Hammerstein's work...
DeMille likes to do things with an even more lavish hand. The Ten Commandments, with Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, some 20,000 extras and a 300,000-gallon tank filled with water to play the Red Sea, is budgeted at $8,000,000. But the film version of the story of Moses from the time he is taken from the bulrushes until, a bearded old man, he climbs Mount Nebo, is expected, almost literally, to run forever in movie houses throughout the world. The picture will take at least 3½ hours to play...