The King and I (1956 film) The King and I (1956 film) The King and I is a 1956 American musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical "The King and I", based in turn on the novel "Anna and the King of Siam" by Margaret Landon. That novel in turn was based on memoirs written by Anna Leonowens, who became school teacher to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s. Leonowens' stories were
Hayley Mills popular success and Mills would be voted the fifth biggest star in the country for the next two years. In 1963 Disney announced plans to film "I Capture the Castle", from the novel by Dodie Smith, with Hayley Mills in the role of Cassandra. However, Disney never produced the film. Her fourth movie for Disney did less well though was still successful, "Summer Magic" (1963), a musical adaptation of the novel "Mother Carey's Chickens". Ross Hunter hired her for a British-American production, "The Chalk Garden" (1964), playing a girl who torments governess Deborah Kerr. Back at Disney she was in