Baking under the hot lights on-set, Deborah Kerr lost over 12 pounds, and would often refer to herself as "The melting Miss Kerr".
Both Yul Brynner and writer Ernest Lehman were determined to include the song "Is a Puzzlement" in the film, but this idea was refused by hands-on producer and 20th Century Fox head, Darryl F. Zanuck. He did relent on this to the extent that if he deemed that the film needed it
upon completion, then he would allow for re-shoots. This is exactly what happened. "Is a Puzzlement" was shot, as indeed was an opening sequence showing Anna and her son arriving in Bangkok, all to the tune of an additional $400,000.
In real life, the King died of malaria, not a broken spirit.
In Thailand (previously called Siam) the royal family is held in very high esteem. This film is banned in Thailand due to its real historical inaccuracies and the perceived disrespect to the monarchy. The real Prince Chulalongkorn grew up to be an especially good King Chulalongkorn and led the way for modernization, improved relations with the West, and instituted many important cultural and social reforms in Thailand.
It was Yul Brynner who pushed for Deborah Kerr to be cast as Anna. He had seen some of her stage work, was highly impressed with her and was convinced that she was the one for the role.
It was announced, early on, that Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II would write a set of new songs for this film adaptation of their 1951 hit Broadway musical, but of course, this didn't come to pass.
One of the background voices in the "Small House of Uncle Thomas" sequence is that of a young Marilyn Horne.
The "Small House of Uncle Thomas" segment in this film is the only American theatrical version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to be made in the sound era. It was filmed in 1965 as a German theatrical movie, Onkel Toms Hütte, and in America, for TV in 1987 (Uncle Tom's Cabin), but not as a film per se. (The very obscure Uncle Tom's Cabin does not count, as it's an exploitation movie centered on torture and with little more than the title to do with Harriet Beecher Stowe's story.)
The cost of the film was ten times more than that of the original lavish Broadway production.
The original Broadway production of "The King and I" opened at the St. James Theater on March 29, 1951, ran for 1246 performances and won the 1952 Tony Award (New York City) for the Best Musical.
The play was written for Gertrude Lawrence and her appearance in the film version was contractually guaranteed. However, shortly after the show opened she was diagnosed with cancer, and she died while still playing the role on Broadway.
The reality of the "Shall We Dance" sequence was that Deborah Kerr suffered continual bruising from the hoops in her skirt, and Yul Brynner - a chain smoker who had already lost a lung to his habit - had to take oxygen in between takes.
The short scene in which Anna is taken through the streets of Bangkok to the King's palace by the royal entourage required 25 sets on a three-acre area on the Fox backlot, not counting the stables for the elephants used in the sequence.
The subplot involving Tuptim, although heavily altered by Oscar Hammerstein II in the play to make it more of a definite romance between Tuptim and Lun Tha, was once thought to have a basis in reality, but it has turned out to be completely fictional, part of the embellishments that Anna Leonowens added to her autobiography during her years as governess and schoolteacher to the King's children.
Though Richard Rodgers rejected Maureen O'Hara for the title role of Anna, she had previously starred in the 1941 Rodgers and Hart musical "They Met in Argentina."
Three musical numbers and two fragments were recorded, and allegedly shot, but subsequently deleted. They were:
- "My Lord and Master" (a ballad sung by Tuptim shortly after her arrival in the palace)
- "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" (a soliloquy for Anna, in which she comically expresses her anger towards the King)
- "I Have Dreamed" (another duet for Tuptim and Lun Tha)
- It was felt that "My Lord and Master" and "I Have Dreamed" didn't do much to advance the plot, and that "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" would make Anna sound too whiny and nagging.
- An extra opening verse of "Song of the King"
- A choral reprisal of "Whistle a Happy Tune."